From Verdun the Meuse River runs north and west to Sedan and to the railroad which extended from the German lines through Luxemburg to Germany. Marshal Foch honored General Pershing and the American troops by assigning to them the difficult task of advancing from Verdun through the valley of the Meuse to Sedan. The story of the fighting of the Americans in this advance is a story glowing with deeds of heroism and of reckless daring, a story of the overcoming of almost impossible difficulties and of final victory. At Sedan in 1870, the Germans humbled the French and decided the Franco-Prussian War. It is a strange turn of history that, with the capture of Sedan from the Germans in 1918, the World War was practically decided and ended. The Allied army from Salonica, with the help of the Serbians, had conquered Bulgaria late in September, and she had surrendered unconditionally, thus cutting off Germany and Austria from communication with their ally, Turkey. General Allenby's conquest of Palestine and occupation of Aleppo brought Turkey to realize that she was helpless. She surrendered the last of October. Then the strengthened and refreshed Italian army attacked the Austrians on the Piave in Italy and won perhaps the most complete victory of the war on the western front, capturing over five hundred thousand prisoners and completely breaking Austria's power for further resistance. Austria surrendered on November 4. Thus Germany was left alone, open to attack on her southern and eastern fronts, while being hopelessly beaten in the west. She asked President Wilson to secure an armistice from the Allied nations. The President had declared earlier in the war that we would never deal with the Kaiser and the autocratic rulers of Germany who had repeatedly broken their word to us and to other nations. The German people, aware of this fact, were taking things into their own hands, and the German Revolution had really begun. The German Chancellor informed President Wilson that Germany had changed its form of government and was now being ruled by those responsible to the German people, and that the German government was willing to make peace on the basis of President Wilson's Fourteen Points, as stated on January 8, 1918, and of his later declarations, particularly that of September 27, 1918.