iefly with the straight
attacking force. By afternoon we had turned in toward the river and our
cavalry was soon engaged. The country was too broken for the cars to get
in any really effective work. By nightfall we hoped we were approximately
where we should be, and after making our dispositions as well as the
circumstances would permit, we lay down beside the cars and were soon
sound asleep. At midnight we were awakened by the bullets chipping the
rocks and stones among which we were sleeping. A night attack was
evidently under way, and it is always an eerie sensation. We correctly
surmised that the Turks were in retreat from Khan Baghdadi and had run
into our outposts. In a few minutes we were replying in volume, and the
rat-tat-tats of the machine-guns on either side were continuous. The enemy
must have greatly overestimated our numbers, for in a short time small
groups started surrendering, and before things had quieted we had twelve
hundred prisoners. The cavalry formed a rough prison-camp and we turned in
again to wait for daylight.

At dawn we started to reconnoitre our position to find out just how
matters stood. We came upon a body of two thousand of the enemy which had
been held up by us in the night and had retreated a short distance to wait
till it became light before surrendering. Among them were a number of
German officers. They were all of them well equipped with machine-guns and
rifles. Their intrenching tools and medical supplies were of Austrian
manufacture, as were also the rolling kitchens. These last were of an
exceedingly practical design. While we were taking stock of our capture we
got word that Khan Baghdadi had been occupied and a good number of
prisoners taken. We were instructed to press on and take Haditha, thirty
miles above Khan Baghdadi. It was hoped that we might recapture Colonel
Tennant, who was in command of the Royal Flying Corps forces in
Mesopotamia. He had been shot down at Khan Baghdadi the day before the
attack. We learned from prisoners that he had been sent up-stream
immediately, on his way to Aleppo, but it was thought that he might have
been held over at Haditha or at Ana.

We found that a lot of the enemy had got by between us and the river and
had then swung back into the road. We met with little opposition, save
from occasional bands of stragglers who concealed themselves behind rocks
and sniped at us. Numbers surrendered without resistance as we caught up
with them. We