Montpelier Examiner

SNEER OF PRUSSIAN SILENCED IN DEATH
AMERICAN SOLDIERS REPLY TO HUN CHARGE THAT TROOPS WERE INFERIOR.

Men from Every Section of the United States in Battle Line That Punished the Huns Until They Turned Back and Fled.

Washington.—In the fighting of the past few days following the launching of the latest German drive, America has made reply to the German charge that the fighting spirit of the men of the United States had been dissolved in sordid lust and mercenary greed. When the marines swept the picked Bavarians from the woods near Chateau Thierry, when the militia from Connecticut took Seicheprey and gallant New Yorkers overran Cantigny, the German propagandists took up the cry that America had used picked troops and that for the most part the men sent across the seas from the North American republic were unfit and untrained to match bayonets with the Prussian legions.

In reply, no word came from the leaders of the American forces. Daily reports from the correspondents told in cryptic sentences how the wounded Yanks, lying on beds of pain in the American base hospitals, smiled in remembrance of tasks well done and prayed for quick recovery, "so that we can go back" and take another crack at those birds.

But after the fighting of July 15 and 16, no man can reason that America's army is not of the breed worthy to fight in the high cause to which their country called them. The halting of the Germans came when the first army corps of the American expeditionary force barred the way—the first army corps being a fighting machine welded from the men of every state and of every infantry organization; a body where race, color or creed stands for naught.

Six Divisions Fight.

Six divisions share the glory of silencing for all time the charges of incompetence which the Germans have hurled. The divisions, with their commanders, are:

First division, regulars, Major General Robert L. Bullard.

Second division, regulars, Major General Omar Bundy.

Twenty-sixth division, New England national guard, Major General Clarence R. Edwards.

Forty-second division (rainbow), Major General Charles T. Menckes.

Forty-first division, national guard, Pacific coast, Major General Hunter Liggett.

Thirty-second division, national guard, Michigan and Wisconsin, Major General W. G. Haan.

Marines Share Glory.

If it be that there are American forces which can be termed "picked men," credit must be given to the officers who have trained into the heart and soul of every man of the marine corps that they are of a legion famed throughout American history for steadfast courage under every fire and in every clime. It is true that some marine units are operating with the first army corps. It is also true that the two divisions of regulars led by such dauntless men as Omar Bundy and Robert L. Bullard may well be said to represent the best that military training has produced.