ctive service to his comrades by being at the
front, demanded a transfer from his staff position to duty with a line
company, which transfer was finally reluctantly given--reluctantly
because of the fact that he had virtually been the power behind the
throne, or colonel's chair, of the Vaga River column. A few days later
found him in the thick of the fighting at Maximovskaya, and when a
volunteer was needed for the above mentioned patrol he was the first to
respond. The day in question he set forth in the direction of
Yeveevskaya with a handful of men. The forests were fairly alive with
enemy patrols, but in the face of all these odds he pushed steadily
forward and all but reached the outskirts of the village itself where he
obtained highly valuable information, mapped the road and trails through
the forests, thus enabling the artillery to cover the same during the
violent attacks of these first ten days of March.

By five o'clock of that day the attack was finally repulsed and we still
held our positions at Vistavka and Maximovskaya--but in Vistavka we were
holding a mere shell of what had once been a prosperous and contented
little village. The constant shelling coupled with attacks and counter
attacks for months over the same ground had razed the village to the
ground, leaving nothing but a shell-torn field and a few blackened
ruins. It was useless to hold the place longer and consequently that
night it was decided to abandon the position here and withdraw to a new
line about three versts in advance of Kitsa.

Under cover of darkness on the night of March 9th we abandoned the
position at Vistavka, and as stated in the previous chapter, established
a new line of defense along a trail and in the forests about three
versts in advance of Kitsa. While our position at Vistavka was
practically without protection, this position here was even worse. We
were bivouacked in the open snow and woods where we could only dig down
into the snow and pray that the Bolo artillery observers would be unable
to locate us. Our prayers in this respect were answered, for this
position was not squarely in the open as Vistavka was, and therefore not
under the direct fire of his artillery. The platoons of "F" Company at
Maximovskaya were brought up here to join the balance of their company
in holding this position, "A" Company being relieved by "D" Company and
sent across the river to Ignatovskaya. "F" Company alternated with
platoons of the Ro