_St. Mihiel is entered via the Faubourg de Nancy, in which are the_ burnt ruins of the Sénarmont Barracks. _Follow the Rue Porte-à-Nancy, then the Rue Grande, as far as the Rue de l’Eglise, into which turn to the left to reach the Church of St. Etienne._ St. Mihiel during the War On September 24, 1914, St. Mihiel was taken by the Germans, who held it until September 12, 1918. Up to the latter date only one attempt was made to retake the town—the attack of November 17–20, 1914, during which a French unit succeeded in occupying the suburb of Chauvoncourt, but was forced to retire as the Germans had mined this section. The Franco-American offensive of September, 1918, finally cleared St. Mihiel. [Illustration: PANORAMIC SKETCH OF THE ST. MIHIEL REGION, SHOWING THE FRONT LINE UNTIL SEPT. 12, 1918] General Pershing, in the disposition of his forces, generously arranged that a French regiment, the 25th Colonial, should have the honour of being the first to enter St. Mihiel. The Prime Minister’s son, Captain Michel Clémenceau, was among those who marched into the town. On the whole the town had suffered little. The bridges had been blown up, trenches cut up the streets, and a German narrow-gauge railway ran through the town. The monument of 1870, “_Aux Morts pour la Patrie_,” was damaged. As everywhere else, all copper had been removed, the machinery had disappeared or had been broken, while the optical-glass factory and the copper foundry had ceased to exist. On Friday, September 13, General Pershing, accompanied by General Pétain and Mr. Baker, American Secretary of State for War, visited St. Mihiel. The next day President Poincaré, in his turn, paid homage to the valiant city. Little by little, when the first excitement was over, the inhabitants told the story of the occupation; of the war levies imposed by the Germans, as in every town which they had occupied; first a million francs in 1914, when the commandeering without payment or vouchers; the fines (20 francs for omitting to salute an officer); children forced to work in the trenches; people sent to prison, and even to the convict prison on the slightest pretext; an abbé deported as a hostage because he had said in a sermon, “_After the thorns will come the roses_;” a whole family placed in solitary confinement for forty days because they were suspected of having telephoned to the French, etc., not to mention the systematic looting and removal of objects of art, pictures and silver. [Illustration: ST. MIHIEL DELIVERED _Group of children in French Officers’ Car on Sept. 13, 1918._] On Tuesday, the 10th, the Germans, knowing the attack was imminent, made their final preparations for departure. On the 11th they ordered the inhabitants, on pain of death, to remain indoors until noon on the following day. During the night of the 11th they blew up the bridges and removed their guns. On the morning of the 12th the French entered the town.