_My Dear Williams_: I am glad to know that you are going to write about the war in book form. In doing this you are discharging a plain duty. You have been in the war from the start. You have studied the soldier in the trench, and out. You have witnessed every phase of battle. The war is in your system. You are full of it. Therefore, you can write concerning it with inspiration and fervor. I remember our long marches in and near the trenches in Northern France in April and May, last. I know how deeply you are interested; therefore, I know how well you will write. A thousand historians will write books concerning the present great conflict, but the real historians will be the honest, independent observers such as you have been. Newspaper reports will be the basis of every battle's history. Take the battle of the Marne, for instance. Who knows so well concerning it as men like yourself, who were in Paris or near it during the seven days' conflict? The passing years may bring dignified historians who will compose sentences which shall sound well, but none of them will be so full of real history as your volume if you write your own experiences. I never knew a man freer from prejudice, and at the same time fuller of enthusiasm than yourself. I want you to write your book with the same free hand you write for the _New York Times_. Forget for the time that you are writing a book. I am pleased to know that you have been with the army several times since I parted company with you. This, with your experience as an ambulance driver, when the first hostilities were on, has certainly made you a military writer worth while. I count you to be one of the three best and most truthful American correspondents who have been in the war from the start. I am hoping the time will come when these wars shall end, when bright men like yourself shall return to the work of journalism in America. With greatest affection, I subscribe myself, Lafayette Young. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Introduction by Myron T. Herrick xiii PART ONE THE HECTIC WEEK CHAPTER PAGE I The Day 1 II The Night 9 III Herrick 19 IV Les Américains 31 V War 39 PART TWO THE GREATEST STORY VI The Actuality 49 VII The Field of Glory 55 PART THREE THE ARM OF MILITARY AUTHORITY VIII The Field of Battle 73 (A) Sentries in the Dark (B) The Wounded Who Could Walk (C) A Lull in the Bombardment