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Page 37
Unfortunately, owing to bad roads and wrecked bridges, these officers
suffered great delay, and only reached the Trenton monument as the German
host, with rolling drums, was marching into the New Jersey capital along
Pennington Avenue, the triumphant way that Washington had followed after
his great victory.
As the invaders reached the little park where the monument stands, they
saw that a wireless station was in operation there, and demanded its
surrender.
Colonel Reading, wishing to gain time (for every minute counted), opened
a glass door and stepped out on the little balcony at the top of the
monument one hundred and fifty feet above the ground. He tried to speak,
but a German officer cut him short. He must surrender instantly or they
would fire.
"Fire and be damned!" shouted the Colonel, and turned to the white-faced
wireless operator inside. "Have you got Harrisburg yet?" he asked. "For
God's sake, hustle!"
"Just got 'em," answered the operator. "I need five minutes to get this
message through."
Five minutes! The German officer below, red with anger, was calling out
sharp orders. A six-inch gun was set up under the Carolina poplars not a
hundred yards from the monument.
"We'll show them!" roared the Prussian, as the gun crew drove home a
hundred-pound shell. "Ready!"
"Is that message gone?" gasped Reading.
"Half of it. I need two minutes."
Two minutes! The officer was aiming the big gun at the base of the
monument, and was just giving the word to fire when the heavy bronze door
swung open, and between the two bronze soldiers appeared Elias A. Smith,
a white-haired veteran, over ninety years old, with a bronze medal on his
breast and the Stars and Stripes wound around his waist.
"I fought in the Civil War!" he cried, in a shrill voice. "Here's my
medal. Here's my flag. I've been the guardian of the monument for sixteen
years. George Washington's up there on top, and if you're going to shoot
him, you can shoot me, too."
The Germans were so surprised by this venerable apparition that they
stood like stones.
"Hi! Yi!" shouted Colonel Reading. "It's gone!"
"Hurrah!" echoed the old man. "I was with Grant at Appomattox when Lee
surrendered. Why don't you fire?"
Then they did fire, and the proud shaft bearing the statue of George
Washington crumbled to earth; and in the ruin of it four brave Americans
perished.
CHAPTER XII
REAR-ADMIRAL THOMAS Q. ALLYN WEIGHS CHANCES OF THE AMERICAN FLEET IN
IMPENDING NAVAL BATTLE
While the main German army pressed on in pursuit of General Wood's
fleeing forces, a body of ten thousand of the invaders was left behind at
various points in northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania to pacify
this region and organise its industries and activities. The Picatinny
arsenal was now running night and day, under the direction of a force of
chemists brought from Germany, turning out shells and cartridges for the
invading army. The great Roebling plant in Trenton was commandeered for
the production of field telephone and telegraph wire, and the Mercer
automobile factory for military motor-trucks and ambulances.
I was astonished at the rapidity with which German engineers repaired
bridges and railroads that had been wrecked by the retreating Americans,
and was assured that the invaders had brought with them from their own
country a full supply of steel spans, beams, girders, trusses, and other
parts necessary for such repairs, down to the individual bolts and pins
for each separate construction. It was an amazing illustration of their
preparedness, and of their detailed knowledge of conditions in America.
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