The Conquest of America Part 18

He turned to the guard of soldiers. "_Gehen!_"

"_Fertig! Hup!_" cried a stocky little Bavarian sergeant, and the grim procession started.

At the four corners of the public green were companies of German soldiers with machine-guns trained upon dense crowds of citizens who had gathered for this gruesome ceremony, high-spirited New Englanders whose faith and courage were now to be crushed out of them, according to von Kluck, by this stern example.

Down Chapel Street with m.u.f.fled drums came the unflinching group of American patriots, marching between double lines of cavalry and led by a military band. At Osborn Hall they turned to the right and moved slowly along College Street to the Battell Chapel, where they turned again and advanced diagonally across the green, the band playing Beethoven's funeral march.

In the centre of the dense throng, at a point between Trinity Church and the old Centre Church, a firing squad of bearded Westphalians was making ready for the last swift act of vengeance, when, suddenly, in the direction of Elm Street near the Graduates' Club, there came a tumult of shouts and voices with a violent pus.h.i.+ng and struggling in the crowd. A messenger on a motorcycle was trying to force his way to the commanding officer.

"Stop! Stop!" he shouted. "I've got a telegram for the general. Let me through! I _will_ get through!"

And at last, torn and breathless, the lad did get through and delivered his message. It was a telegram from Field Marshal von Kluck, which read:

"Have just received a despatch from General Leonard Wood, stating that his Imperial Highness the Crown Prince and Field Marshal von Hindenburg, with their military staffs, have been made prisoners by an American army north of the Susquehanna, and giving warning that if retaliatory measures are taken against American citizens, his Imperial Highness will, within twenty-four hours, be stood up before the statue of his Imperial ancestor Frederick the Great, in the War College at Was.h.i.+ngton, and shot to death by a firing squad from the Pennsylvania National Guard. In consequence of this I hereby countermand all previous orders for the execution of American hostages. (Signed) VON KLUCK."

Like lightning this wonderful news spread through the crowd, and in the delirious joy that followed there was much disorder which the Germans scarcely tried to suppress. They were stunned by the catastrophe. The Crown Prince a prisoner! Von Hindenburg a prisoner! By what miracle of strategy had General Wood achieved this brilliant coup?

Here were the facts, as I subsequently learned. So confident of complete success was the American commander, that by twelve o'clock on the day of battle he had diverted half of his forces, about 30,000 men, in a rapid movement to the north, his purpose being to cross the Susquehanna higher up and envelop the rear guard of the enemy, with their artillery and commanding generals, in an overwhelming night attack. Hour after hour through the night of October 14th a flotilla of ferry-boats, cargo-boats, tugs, lighters, river craft of all sorts, a.s.sembled days before, had ferried the American army across the Susquehanna as George Was.h.i.+ngton ferried his army across the Delaware a hundred and fifty years before.

All night the Americans pressed forward in a forced march, and by daybreak the Crown Prince and his 3,000 men were caught beyond hope of rescue, hemmed in between the Susquehanna River and the projecting arms of Chesapeake Bay. The surprise was complete, the disaster irretrievable, and at seven o'clock on the morning of October 15th the heir to the German throne and six of his generals, including Field Marshal von Hindenburg, surrendered to the Americans the last of their forces with all their flags and artillery and an immense quant.i.ty of supplies and ammunition.

By General Wood's orders the ma.s.s of German prisoners were moved to concentration camps at Gettysburg, but the Crown Prince was taken to Was.h.i.+ngton, where he and his staff were confined with suitable honours in the Hotel Bellevue, taken over by the government for this purpose. Here, during the subsequent fortnight, I had the honour of seeing the ill.u.s.trious prisoner on several occasions. It seems that he remembered me pleasantly from the New England campaign and was glad to call upon my knowledge of American men and affairs for his own information.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "YOU KNOW, MARK TWAIN WAS A GREAT FRIEND OF MY FATHER'S,"

SAID THE CROWN PRINCE, "I REMEMBER HOW MY FATHER LAUGHED, ONE EVENING AT THE PALACE IN BERLIN, WHEN MARK TWAIN TOLD US THE STORY OF 'THE JUMPING FROG.'"]

As to von Hindenburg's defeat (leaving aside the question of military ethics which he denounced scathingly) the Crown Prince said this had been accomplished by a mere accident that could never occur again and that could not interfere with Germany's ultimate conquest of America.

"This will be a short-lived triumph," declared His Imperial Highness, when he received me in his quarters at the Bellevue, "and the American people will pay dearly for it. The world stands aghast at the horror of this barbarous act."

"America is fighting for her existence," said I.

"Let her fight with the methods of civilised warfare. Germany would scorn to gain an advantage at the expense of her national honour."

"If Your Imperial Highness will allow me to speak of Belgium in 1914--" I began, but he cut me short with an impatient gesture.

"Our course in Belgium was justified by special reasons--that is the calm verdict of history."

I refrained from arguing this point and was patient while the prince turned the conversation on his favourite theme, the inferiority of a democratic to an autocratic form of government.

"I have been studying the lives of your presidents," he said, "and--really, how can one expect them to get good results with no training for their work and only a few years in office? Take men like Johnson, Tyler, Polk, Hayes, Buchanan, Pierce, Filmore, Harrison, McKinley. Mediocre figures, are they not? What do they stand for?"

"What does the average king or emperor stand for?" I ventured, whereupon His Imperial Highness pointed proudly to the line of Hohenzollern rulers, and I had to admit that these were exceptional men.

"The big men of America go into commercial and industrial pursuits rather than into politics," I explained.

"Exactly," agreed the prince, "and the republic loses their services."

"No, the republic benefits by the general prosperity which they build up," I insisted.

With this the Imperial prisoner discussed the American Committee of Twenty-one and I was astonished to find what full knowledge he had touching their individual lives and achievements. He even knew the details of Asa G. Candler's soda water activities. And he told me several amusing stories of Edison's boyhood.

"By the way," he said abruptly, "I suppose you know that Thomas A. Edison is a prisoner in our hands?"

"So we concluded," said I. "Also Lemuel A. Widding."

"Also Lemuel A. Widding," the prince admitted. "You know why we took them prisoners? It was on account of Widding's invention. He thinks he has found a way to destroy our fleet and we do not want our fleet destroyed."

"Naturally not."

"You had a talk with Edison on the train last week. He knows all the details of Widding's invention?"

"Yes."

"And he believes it will do what the inventor claims? He believes it will destroy our fleet? Did he tell you that?"

"He certainly did. He said he wouldn't give five cents for the German fleet after Widding's plan is put into operation."

"Ah!" reflected the Crown Prince.

"Would Your Imperial Highness allow me to ask a question?" I ventured.

His eyes met mine frankly. "Why, yes--certainly."

"I have no authority to ask this, but I suppose there might be an exchange of prisoners. Edison and Widding are important to America and--".

"You mean they might be exchanged for me?" his face grew stern. "I would not hear of it. Those two Americans alone have the secret of this Widding invention, I am sure of that, and it is better for the Fatherland to get along without a Crown Prince than without a fleet. No. We shall keep Mr.

Edison and Mr. Widding prisoners."

He said this with all the dignity of his Hohenzollern ancestry; then he rose to end the interview.

CHAPTER XX

THIRD BATTLE OF BULL RUN WITH AEROPLANES CARRYING LIQUID CHLORINE

I now come to those memorable weeks of November, 1921, which rank among the most important in American history. There was first the battle that had been preparing south of the Potomac between von Mackensen's advancing battalions and General Wood's valiant little army. This might be called the third battle of Bull Run, since it was fought near Mana.s.sas where Beauregard and Lee won their famous victories.

Although General Wood's forces numbered only 60,000 men, more than half of them militia, and although they were matched against an army of 150,000 Germans, the American commander had two points of advantage, his ten miles of entrenchments stretching from Remington to Warrenton along the steep slopes of the Blue Ridge mountains, and his untried but formidable preparations for dropping liquid chlorine from a fleet of aeroplanes upon an attacking army.

In order to reach Was.h.i.+ngton the Germans must traverse the neck of land that lies between the mountains and the Potomac's broad arms. Here clouds of greenish death from heaven might or might not overwhelm them. That was the question to be settled. It was a new experiment in warfare.

I should explain that during previous months, thanks to the efficiency of the Committee of Twenty-one, great quant.i.ties of liquid chlorine had been manufactured at Niagara Falls, where the Niagara Alkali Company, the National Electrolytic Company, the Oldburg Electro-Chemical Company, the Castner Electrolytic Alkali Company, the Hooker Electro-Chemical Company and several others, working night and day and using 60,000 horsepower from the Niagara power plants and immense quant.i.ties of salt from the salt-beds in Western New York, had been able to produce 30,000 tons of liquid chlorine. And the Lackawanna Steel Company at Buffalo, in its immense tube plant, finished in 1920, had turned out half a million thin steel containers, torpedo-shaped, each holding 150 pounds of the deadly liquid. This was done under the supervision of a committee of leading chemists, including: Milton C. Whitaker, Arthur D. Little, Dr. L. H.

Baekeland, Charles F. McKenna, John E. Temple and Dr. Henry Was.h.i.+ngton.

And a fleet of military aeroplanes had been made ready at the immense Wright and Curtiss factories on Grand Island in the Niagara River and at the Packard, Sturtevant, Thomas and Gallaudet factories, where a force of 20,000 men had been working night and day for weeks under government supervision. There were a hundred huge tractors with double fuselage and a wing spread of 200 feet, driven by four 500 horse-power motors. Each one of these, besides its crew, could carry three tons of chlorine from Grand Island to Was.h.i.+ngton (their normal rate of flying was 120 miles an hour) in three hours against a moderate wind.