"Colonel Batsicht, the Austrians are a thousand to one, but what does it matter? You are only one, yourself, but you are Colonel Batsicht! Were the Austrians as many as the leaves in the forests and their rush to attack more violent than the flood of the Vardar in the spring time, you would even then be their equal, Colonel Batsicht!"
Where are you going, Great-Heart, With your eager face and your fiery grace?-- Where are you going, Great-Heart?
"To fight a fight with all my might, For Truth and Justice, God and Right, To grace all Life with His fair Light." Then God go with you, Great-Heart!
Where are you going, Great-Heart? "To beard the Devil in his den; To smite him with the strength of ten; To set at large the souls of men." Then God go with you, Great-Heart!
Where are you going, Great-Heart? "To end the rule of knavery; To break the yoke of slavery; To give the world delivery." Then God go with you, Great-Heart!
Where are you going, Great-Heart? "To cleanse the earth of noisome things To draw from life its poison-stings; To give free play to Freedom's wings." Then God go with you, Great-Heart!
Where are you going, Great-Heart? "To lift Today above the Past; To make Tomorrow sure and fast; To nail God's colors to the mast." Then God go with you, Great-Heart!
Where are you going, Great-Heart? "To break down old dividing-lines; To carry out My Lord's designs; To build again His broken shrines." Then God go with you, Great-Heart!
Where are you going, Great-Heart? "To set all burdened peoples free; To win for all God's liberty; To 'stablish His Sweet Sovereignty." God goeth with you, Great-Heart!
"Let it be your pride, therefore, to show all men everywhere, not only what good soldiers you are, but also what good men you are, keeping yourselves fit and straight in everything, and pure and clean through and through. Let us set for ourselves a standard so high that it will be a glory to live up to it and add a new laurel to the crown of America. My affectionate confidence goes with you in every battle and every test. God keep and guide you!"
After the Americans had cleared the Saint Mihiel salient, Marshal Foch gave them a task which was probably the most difficult and dangerous of the whole war. They were to move north and west along the Meuse River through the Argonne forest to Sedan. There they would cut one of the two main communication lines of the Germans, the loss of which would mean to them disaster and rout.