Trench Ballads, and Other Verses

5–12 September 1914

First Battle of the Marne

PART I. TRENCH BALLADS.

LITTLE GOLD CHEVRONS ON MY CUFFS.

Little gold chevrons on my cuffs,
    What do you mean to me?
“We to the left mean hike and drill,
Trenches and mud and heat and chill—
And I to the right for the blood ye spill
    Where the Marne runs to the sea.”

Little gold chevrons on my cuffs,
    What is the tale ye tell?
“We to the left, of the long months spent
Where the somber seasons slowly blent—
And I to the right, of the ragged rent
    That took so long to get well.”

PART I. TRENCH BALLADS.

And there are men with helpless legs,
    And torn chest and back;
And men with arms in sling and splint,
And one poor eye that bears no glint,
And muscles limp or turned to flint—
    And souls upon the rack.

They came from Chateau Thierry—
    From Fere-en-Tardenois—
From Soissons, Oulchy-le-Chateau,
From Rheims and Fismes, where blow by blow,
’Cross Marne and Oureq and Vesle aflow
    They hammered them afar.

And now upon the screen is thrown
    An old familiar form:
’Tis Charlie of the strong appeal,
At skating-rink or riot meal,
And every mirth-producing reel
    Awakes the farthest dorm.

PART III. OTHER VERSES.

Lauds Americans in Battle.
General Mangin Thanks Pershing’s Men for Brilliant
Part in Drive.
(By Associated Press.)

With the French. Army in France, Aug. 7.—General Mangin, who was in
direct command of the Allied forces in the drive against the German
right flank south of Soissons, has issued the following order of the
day thanking the American troops for their brilliant participation
in the battle which caused the German retreat between the Marne and
the Aisne:

"Officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Third
American Army Corps:

PART III. OTHER VERSES.

Division Insignia: Crimson figure “1” on khaki background, chosen
because the numeral “1” represents the number of the division and
many of its subsidiary organizations. Also, as proudly claimed,
because it was the “First Division in France; first in sector; first
to fire a shot at the Germans; first to attack; first to conduct a
raid; first to be raided; first to capture prisoners; first to
inflict casualties; first to suffer casualties; first to be cited
singly in General Orders; first in the number of Division, Corps and
Army Commanders and General Staff Officers produced from its
personnel.”

To this might have been added that the First Division, which was a
Regular Army division, and originally comprised about twenty or
thirty per cent “old soldiers,” and the rest of us “war volunteers,”
but proud of being “Regulars,” the First Division, which consisted
of the 16th, 18th, 26th and 28th Infantry Regiments, the 5th, 6th
and 7th Field Artillery Regiments, the 1st Engineer Regiment, and a
complement of Cavalry, etc., was the division that General Pershing,
the commander-in-chief, picked out to fill the most vital positions
on important occasions, as, for example, when, from the whole army,
he chose the First Division to go into the front line just west of
Montdidier, at the Battle of Picardy, to help hold the very apex of
the huge German bulge that had swept southwestward from St. Quentin
to Montdidier, in the great series of Hun drives which started on
March 21st. 1918. Again, it was the First Division that Pershing
placed at Soissons at virtually the hinge of the great door movement
in the turning point of the whole war, the Second Battle of the
Marne, as heretofore described; and it was the First Division to
which Pershing again gave the post of honor when the St. Mihiel
salient was closed, as it was this Division that was placed on the
inside position of the great southern jaw, just east of Xivray and
dangerous Mont Sec.

Casualties and kilometers make very interesting reading, but when a
Commander-in-chief consistently and persistently picks out one
certain division for the most difficult and all-important positions,
there is not much room for argumentation.