this area and the 90th was transferred from army to Third Corps reserve. The first units of the
division to enter the line in the new sector went in on the night of October 21-22, the 179th
Brigade relieving the 10th Brigade of the 5th Division. The 360th, with the 359th, moved up in
support in the Bois de Cuisy from Jouy and Rampont. The object of placing the 179th Brigade
in the line was to develop the Freya Stellung, that well-nigh impregnable line the Huns held, in
order that a good place from which to jump of in the attack of November 1 might be secured.
The preliminary work was to be done by the 179th Brigade and the actual assault was to be the
part of General McAlexander’s 180th Brigade, with the 360th regiment in the fore.
Unlike the positions held prior to the smash at St. Mihiel there was little to recommend
the 360th’s sector in the Bois de Cuisy as a safety zone in those days of late October. While the
individuals of the enemy were active against the 179th Brigade in front his big guns played a
monotonous and continual fire on the 359th and 360th behind the lines. The Germans had been
driven out of these positions but a few days before by the 5th Division and that the fighting had
been of the fiercest character was attested by the scores of unburied dead the Americans had left
in the Woods. The work of burying these corpses fell to details from all companies, and
practically every bit of it was done under shell fire. It was while directing one of these burial
parties that Chaplain Charles D. Priest, that intrepid soldier who ministered to the 358th Infantry,
met his death. He was mortally wounded by a high explosive shell on October 27 and buried
three days later at Rampont. More than one member of this regiment paid his due to the man of
the cloth’s shrine during those days, for it was Chaplain Priest who had so valiantly performed
his mission of mercy on the battlefields of St. Mihiel and behind Companies E and F during the
raid of September 26. The men of the 360th regiment will be gratified to learn that the
Distinguished Service Cross for which this brave soldier was recommended while operating with
this regiment was awarded posthumously.
The process of sounding out the German positions went on with marked success until
October 30th, when the 180th Brigade was ordered into the line to relieve the 179th and to jump
off against the Freya Stellung on the morning of November 1. The relief was made on the night
of the 30th, and all day of the 31st was spent by officers and men of the regiment in
reconnoitering for the next day’s assault. The Regiment was at about 65 per cent strength when
it waited before the enemy on the last day of October.
A word picture of the country which the regiment must traverse in the following day or
two will not be amiss. In front of the brigade sector ran a wooded ridge along the left boundary
between Grand Carre farm and the heights north of Andevanne. A rolling but open slope fell
away to the Meuse from this high ground. This slope was divided by three ridges and two
ravines. Hill 243, the highest point for several kilometers, bristled menacingly just west of
Villers-devant-Dun and beyond the hill patches of open space before coming to the Bois de
Tailly, Bois de Montigny, Bois de Mont and Bois de Sassy had been reported by aeroplane
observers.
The Germans were in the trench systems of the Freya Stellung. These positions were
counted sufficient to hurl back any weight of numbers thrown against them. Their line of
resistance ran between Aincreville and the Grand Carre farm, while their main line took in
Andevanne, Hill 243 and Villers-devant-Dun. Not alone, however, did the high German
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