Friends of France : $b The Field Service of the American Ambulance described by its membersVarious
History
Friends of France : $b The Field Service of the American Ambulance described by its members
Various
American Field Service; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, American
In the morning we were very anxious for a while about Ogilvie. He had,
unknown to the rest of us, gone to sleep at Schroder's and Buswell's
room, and in the night two more shells struck his house, one of them
penetrating right through to the cellar, making complete wreckage
there. Some of us spent a little time looking in the _débris_ for his
body.
You would have been very moved if you could have been present at poor
Mignot's funeral. We did what we could for him to show our respect, and
I concluded I was only carrying out what would be the wishes of the
American Ambulance by authorizing the expense of a better coffin and
cross than he was entitled to in his grade in the army.
At eight in the evening as many men as were off duty went to
Pont-à-Mousson to attend the funeral. A short service was read in the
chapel of the Nativité. There were four coffins: Mignot's, covered with
a flag and with many flowers, and those of three civilians, killed
on the same evening. It was a simple and impressive ceremony: the
dimly lighted chapel, the dark forms of some twenty or thirty people
of Pont-à-Mousson, our men together on one side, the sonorous voice
of the priest, made a scene which none of us can forget. Colonel de
Nansouty, Commandant d'Armes de Pont-à-Mousson, and Lieutenant Bayet
were present; and when the little procession was formed and we followed
the dead through the darkened streets and across the Place Duroc, they
walked bareheaded with us. At the bridge the procession halted, and
all but Lieutenant Bayet, Coiquaud, Schroder, and the writer turned
back, it being desired by the authorities that only a few should go to
the cemetery. We crossed the river and mounted the lower slope of the
Mousson hill. Under the trees in the cemetery we saw as we passed the
shattered tombs and broken graves left from the bombardments, which
even here have made their terrible marks. In a far corner, well up on
the hillside, the coffin of Mignot was laid down, to be interred in the
early morning. We walked quietly back in company with Lieutenant Bayet,
and were at last free to rest, after so many hours of unbroken strain.
J. H. G.
[Illustration]
_Incidents of a Driver's Life_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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