United States or Kiribati ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But all the civilian population which could be found, without regard to age, rank, or sex, was forced by our advancing cavalry to clear it all away. One can imagine the joy of the Belgians in performing this task!" This writer, too, chronicles many instances of kindness. "I was billeted in a peasant's house at the western exit of the village.
There was a whole brigade in Maroilles, which was therefore cut off from the rest of the division, and from its natural line of retreat. That, however, did not greatly upset the rank and file, and billets were at last achieved. The Subaltern found that he was billeted in the same house as the Headquarters of the Battalion Colonel, Second in Command, Adjutant, etc.
But Colonel McClure was not without plain-spoken remonstrance against his contemplated act of inhumanity. In the prosecution of his spiritual functions Neville Trueman had free access to the people of the town of Niagara, many of whom were members, of his church or congregation. Among these a large number of American soldiers were billeted, and very burdensome and unwelcome guests they were.
Almost every house had soldiers billeted on it, as it was considered necessary to keep a large force there in order to overawe the south of Brittany and, if necessary, to send supports to the generals operating in the west of La Vendee.
One has seen dreary flat lands of mud and leafless trees become fair with the spring, the growing harvest reaped, and the leaves begin to fall. Always the factory of war was in the same place; the soldiers billeted in the same towns; the puffs of shrapnel smoke over the same belt of landscape; the ruins of the same villages being pounded by high explosives.
As to his soldiers, they were billeted on the inhabitants, and received each as daily rations a pound of meat, a quart of wine, and two and a half pounds of bread. The same day a convocation was held on the site of the old meeting-house which had been destroyed by the Catholics.
José and I were billeted in a house near the colonel's quarters, and the people gave us a warm welcome. They spread a good meal, to which we did ample justice, and then, although barely noon, we went straight to bed. "I hope," exclaimed José as he lay down, "that we shan't be disturbed for a month. I can easily do with a month's sleep."
The battery officers are billeted some way back, usually in a kind of farmhouse, whose chief decorative feature is a midden-heap; in England it would promptly be the subject of a closing order by any Public Health authority. There is nothing more admirable than a field-gun.
That night we arrived at a farm-house near the river, where we found Major Parker, commanding the battalion, with a small detachment billeted upon the family. The farmer was a gray-haired old loyalist, whom I shall always remember, leaning on his staff in the middle of the kitchen, barred out from his place in the chimney-corner by the noisy circle of his unbidden guests.
At Lyons, whilst the regular troops are lodged in barracks, the revolutionary army is billeted on the householders, two thousand vile, sanguinary blackguards from Paris, and whom their general, Ronsin himself, calls "scoundrels and brigands," alleging, in excuse for this, that "honest folks cannot be found for such business."
Word Of The Day