Zweibund — the Dual Alliance — Germany and Austria-Hungary united, were the core of the Central Powers, and here join hands. The bars of Germany's flag border the top left, and those of the Habsburg Austrian Empire and ruling house the bottom right.
Schulter an SchulterUntrennbar vereintin Freud und in Leid!'Shoulder to shoulderInseparably united in joy and in sorrow!
"In the evening we went, at eight o'clock, to poor Mignot's funeral. Sad and horribly gruesome it was. Imagine a little chapel with four coffins in front of a small altar — one of them with many flowers, and of oak — Mignot's — the other three just pinewood — the ordinary war coffin. The Governor came, and I shall not forget the dim scene — the priest who intoned the Latin burial service out of tune, and the 'choir' consisting of one man who sang badly and as loud as he could, and a congregation of silent mourners. Every note, every word, as it re-echoed through the chapel, seemed like the cry of despair of France — a small put pitiful note of the anguish of this country. Over at last, the coffins were shuffled out of the little chapel, and we were allowed to follow them to the bridge of St. Martin, where they were buried in a cemetery constantly upheaved by German shells. Horrible! horrible! horrible! — that is all I can write."
Excerpt from a letter dated July 24, 1915, by Leslie Buswell recounting events of the the previous days. A driver with the American Ambulance Field Service, a volunteer organization attached to the French Armies, Buswell was stationed at Pont-à-Mousson, France, north of Nancy. On July 22nd, a dozen shells exploded just after Buswell had finished his lunch, and a dozen more in the evening, seemingly targeting the Ambulance unit. Mignot, an all-purpose aide to the American drivers, was killed in the evening bombardment.
Ambulance No. 10; Personal Letters from the Front by Leslie Buswell, pp. 78, 79, copyright © 1915, and 1915, by Houghton Mifflin Company, publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, publication date: 1916
1915-07-23, 1915, 07, funeral
