All hurried away from the place. A plowed field at the rear of the house was crossed, their steps being directed to the stumps of trees at the other side of the field. In crossing this short stretch of field more than fifty dead were found, all in such positions as to indicate that there must have been a panic in their ranks. An infantry officer in the party, who had been with the reserve the previous day, remarked: "More than three hundred prisoners were taken along the edge of this field where these trees stood. In taking them back into our lines I had a conversation with one of the officers. He said: "'I cannot begin to describe the effect of the fire when your shots reached the timber. We had our traverses alongside these rows of trees, and it seemed as though a hurricane was going through and breaking off the limbs, leaves and branches, and flinging them down on the men. But that was not the worst of it. As long as we were in the traverses we could get some shelter from the bursting shells; but it was impossible to get away from the falling branches. The ditches didn't help us then, and the men, despite all our efforts, rushed out, preferring the bursting shells to the new terror.'" "Did you ever see such kindling wood?" remarked Ralph, as they picked their way through the debris. "But did you ever see such a fine collection of metal?" replied Alfred, as he pointed at the pieces of shells which were scattered on all sides, and in every conceivable place. One trench after the other was crossed. Without exception all contained bodies of men, who were stricken before they could get out, for the men delegated had not yet been able to give the dead proper burial. Various parties were at work, performing the last rites to those who had fallen, and they stopped before one party thus at work. Several dozen men were engaged in carrying the bodies to the trenches where they were laid side by side close together. Not all were Germans, for many Frenchmen lost their lives on that day. When a sufficient number were gathered the officer in charge of the party directed the assistant to examine the remains of each. The first quest was to determine the number tag, usually attached to each soldier, and after this had been entered in a book, a search was made to discover letters, photos, money and souvenirs which the pockets might contain. A note was made of all these things, and, finally, the exact location of the interment was added to the transcript, thus giving a reasonable assurance that the friends or relatives might know with some degree of certainty the burial place and also in time receive the effects taken from the bodies of the fallen soldiers.