the day: to advance, to halt, to hold, to withdraw , and to leave the woods as quickly as possible. Finally, at 6:30 PM, they were definately ordered to advance. They advanced three kilometres and met exactly the same conditions as before, heavy artillery fire on all sides. The Company Commanders were unable to hold all their men and the Colonel ordered the Major to withdraw his battalion from the line. Utter confusion resulted. There were many casualties and many were gased. Major Norris withdrew, leaving a platoon under lieutenant Dent on the line ignorant of the command to withdraw. They escaped, finally, unaided during the night.
The Chief of Staff said in his letter to Senator McKellar:"One of our majors commanding a battalion said:'The men are rank cowards, there is no other words for it.'"
A colored officer wrote:"I was the only Black American person present when this was uttered: It was on the 27th of last September in the second line trenches of Vienne Le Chateau in our attack in the Argonne and was uttered by Major B.F. Norris, commanding the 3rd Battalion. Major Norris, himself, was probable the biggest coward because he left his Battalion out in the front lines and came back to the Colonel's dugout a nervous wreck. I was there in a bunk alongside of the wall and this major came and laid down beside me and he moaned and groaned so terribly all night that I couldn't hardly close my eyes. The Major jumped and twisted worse than anything I have ever seen in my life. He was a rank coward himself and left his unit on some trifling pretest and remained back all night"
From September 26-29, the First Battalion of the 368th Infantry, under Major J.N. Merrill, was in the front-line French trenches. On the night of September 28, it prepared to advance, but after the First was kept standing under shell-fire for two hours, it was ordered back to the trenches.
A patrol was sent out to locate the Third Battalion. The patrol was a long time on the quest before it returned. The reason for the long time in completing the search was because the Regiment had been refused maps by Colonel Greer.
The First Battalion, under Major Merril, was ordered to advance on the morning of September 29. By 1:00 Pm, they had advnaced one mile before they were halted and ordered to find Major Merrill. . Finally, Major Merrill was located after two hours' search.
J.Linzy-31
