Division Units-6th Division Headquarters Troop; 16th Machine Gun Battalion.

36TH DIVISION-Major-General W. R. Smith, commanding; Colonel E. J. Williams, Chief-of-Staff; Major William R. Scott, Adjutant-General. 71st Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General Henry Hutchings; 141st and 142d Regiments; 132d Machine Gun Battalion.

72d Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General John A. Hulen; 143d and 144th Regiments; 133d Machine Gun Battalion.

61st Brigade, Field Artillery-Brigadier-General John A. Stevens; 131st, 132d, and 133d Regiments; 111th Trench Mortar Battery. Engineer Troops-111th Regiment.

Signal Troops-111th Battalion.

Division Units-36th Division Headquarters Troop; 131st Machine Gun Battalion.

76TH DIVISION-Major-General Harry F. Hodges, commanding; (Chief-of-Staff not announced); Major George M. Peek, Adjutant-General.

151st Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General Frank M. Albright; 301st and 302d Regiments; 302d Machine Gun Battalion.

152d Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General F. D. Evans; 303d and 304th Regiments; 303d Machine Gun Battalion.

151st Brigade, Field Artillery-Major-General William S. McNair; 301st, 302d, and 303d Regiments; 301st Trench Mortar Battery. Engineer Troops-301st Regiment.

Signal Troops-301st Battalion.

Division Units-76th Division Headquarters Troop; 301st Machine Gun Battalion.

79TH DIVISION-Major-General Joseph E. Kuhn, commanding; Colonel Tenny Ross, Chief-of-Staff; Major Charles B. Moore, AdjutantGeneral.

157th Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General William L. Nicholson; 313th and 314th Regiments; 311th Machine Gun Battalion.

158th Brigade, Infantry-(Commanding officer not announced); 315th and 316th Regiments; 312th Machine Gun Battalion.

154th Brigade, Field Artillery-Brigadier-General Andrew Hero, Jr.; 310th, 311th, and 312th Regiments; 304th Trench Mortar Battery. Engineer Troops-304th Regiment.

Signal Troops-304th Battalion.

Division Units-79th Division Headquarters Troop; 310th Machine Gun Battalion.

85TH DIVISION-Major-General C. W. Kennedy, commanding; Colonel Edgar T. Collins, Chief-of-Staff; Lieutenant Colonel-Clarence Lininger, Adjutant-General.

169th Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General Thomas B. Dugan; 337th and 338th Regiments; 329th Machine Gun Battalion.

170th Brigade, Infantry (Commanding officer not announced); 339th and 340th Regiments; 330th Machine Gun Battalion.

160th Brigade, Field Artillery-Brigadier-General Guy M. Preston; 328th, 329th, and 330th Regiments; 310th Trench Mortar Battery. Engineer Troops-310th Regiment.

Signal Troops-310th Battalion.

Division Units-85th Division Headquarters Troop; 328th Machine Gun Battalion.

91ST DIVISION-Brigadier-General F. H. Foltz, commanding; Colonel Herbert J. Brees, Chief-of-Staff; Major Frederick W. Manley, AdjutantGeneral.

181st Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General John B. McDonald; 361st and 362d Regiments; 347th Machine Gun Battalion.

182d Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General Frederick S. Foltz; 363d and 364th Regiments; 348th Machine Gun Battalion.

166th Brigade, Field Artillery-Brigadier-General Edward Burr; 346th, 347th, and 348th Regiments; 316th Trench Mortar Battery. Engineer Troops-316th Regiment.

Signal Troops-316th Battalion.

Division Units-91st Division Headquarters Troop; 346th Machine Gun Battalion.

UNASSIGNED TO CORPS

81ST DIVISION-Major-General C. J. Bailey, commanding; Colonel Charles D. Roberts, Chief-of-Staff; Major Arthur E. Ahrends, AdjutantGeneral.

161st Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General George W. McIver; 321st and 322d Regiments; 317th Machine Gun Battalion.

162d Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General Monroe McFarland; 323d and 324th Regiments; 318th Machine Gun Battalion.

156th Brigade, Field Artillery-Brigadier-General Andrew Moses; 316th, 317th, and 318th Regiments; 306th Trench Mortar Battery. Engineer Troops-306th Regiment.

Signal Troops-306th Battalion.

Division Units-81st Division Headquarters Troop; 316th Machine Gun Battalion.

93D DIVISION (Commander not announced); Major Lee S. Tillotson, Adjutant-General.

185th Brigade, Infantry-(Commanding officer not announced); 369th and 370th Regiments; 333d Machine Gun Battalion.

186th Brigade, Infantry-Brigadier-General George H. Harries; 371st and 372d Regiments; 334th Machine Gun Battalion.

168th Brigade, Field Artillery-(Commanding officer not announced); 332d, 333d, and 334th Regiments; 318th Trench Mortar Battery. Engineer Troops-318th Regiment.

Signal Troops-318th Battalion.

Division Units-332d Machine Gun Battalion,

CHAPTER XV

THE BATTLE OF ST. MIHIEL

MERICA was thrilled from ocean to ocean on the

A morning of September 12, 1918, when the news was Am

flashed across the continent that Germany's "Dagger aimed at the heart of France," the St. Mihiel salient, had been attacked and wiped out by the 1st American Army under the direct command of General John J. Pershing.

The news electrified England, France and Italy as well as the United States. American efficiency had accomplished within a comparatively few hours what had been deemed impossible. By a coincidence, the salient was wiped out exactly four years to the day after it had been established by the German Army. The destruction of the German menace to Verdun and to the allied system of transportation was a triumph of American genius.

Under the direction of General Pershing the most furious and concentrated artillery fire in the history of the world rained death and destruction upon the German positions. More than 1,000,000 shells fell upon these positions in four hours, the greatest concentration of artillery fire in all history. Only Americans were employed in the attack. These numbered 550,000 men. Casualties, less than a total of 7,000 killed and wounded, were so small as to excite the wonder and applause of all the allied powers. More than 16,000 prisoners were captured and 443 guns.

At Cantigny, Château-Thierry, Bouresches, Belleau Wood and Vaux, the American troops engaged were acting in support of allied divisions and under the command of the generals of the Allies. St. Mihiel was the first distinctly American offensive, carried out for the most part by American troops and wholly under the orders of the American commanderin-chief; and it was one of the most significant successes of the war.

The great German drives in the spring of 1918 forced back the French and British and they stood, as Haig expressed it, “With their backs to the wall." Help was urgently needed and General Pershing was compelled to temporarily abandon his original plan of developing a purely American Army or armies.

The American troops as fast as they were trained were sent into the battle line to fight side by side with the French and the British. But by the middle of August the situation

had changed. The German drives had failed, and American troops trained by actual warfare in great numbers were scattered over France. At the Battle of Cantigny the 1st, 2d, 26th and 42d divisions were the only American divisions of any experience. Now they had become veterans and the 24th, 28th, 32d and 77th divisions had all taken part in the war. General Pershing, therefore, with characteristic tenacity reverted to his original purpose, and during the month of August organized the 1st American Army, collecting the scattered divisions from their positions among the French

and British and establishing the American line as he originally planned along the bounds of the St. Mihiel salient.

Up to this time American troops had fought under the direction of French and English commanders. It is true that on the 4th of July there had been organized the 1st American Corps under General Hunter Liggett, but this corps had been a part of the 6th French Army, and most of the time it directed only one American division. With the exception of this corps all higher staffs had been French.

The creation of efficient corps and army staffs is a very difficult undertaking. To create good soldiers in a year's training was difficult enough,-the Germans had believed it impossible, but that working staff organizations should be created in the short time since the Americans had entered into the war was many times more difficult.

Most of the ranking American officers when the war broke out had been majors, colonels and lieutenant-colonels of regiments consisting at that time of 800 men. To be promoted in a few months to the command of divisions of 28,000 men and then to become corps commanders, responsible for 81,000 men, and then to command an army consisting of from 180,000 to 250,000 was a big increase in responsibility. The peaceful policies of the American Government had not trained the army officers for such a war as this. Yet it was necessary to organize American staffs, the soldiers wished it. They would fight better under American leadership, and it was ridiculous and would have been humiliating to put two million men in the fighting line under foreign generals.

On the 10th of August the 1st American Army was formed under the command of General Pershing himself. This army acted under the direction of himself, as commanderin-chief, and of the General Staff of the American Expeditionary Force. It was determined that the first operation of this new American Army should be the capture of the St. Mihiel salient. The St. Mihiel salient was a difficult position to capture. Its position was almost entirely on high ground. A report of the Intelligence Section of the first corps created reads: "The strength of the enemy position had for four years seemed impregnable, and had withstood in 1914-15