Argonne Forest offers Richard Ellsworth Savage a fleeting refuge within the war: a front-line landscape where combat has quieted enough for soldiers on opposing sides to play chess, but where even a game remains shadowed by mines and danger. When the ambulance section is disbanded, Savage’s reluctance to leave its autumn woods gives the place the force of a temporary home.

A Quiet Sector of the Front

After the attack on Hill 304, the division rested for a couple of weeks behind Bar-le-Duc, then moved into a quiet part of Argonne Forest known as le Four de Paris. The calm was relative, not absolute. French soldiers and Boches played chess across the front line, and one side would warn the other before setting off a mine beneath a piece of trench. The ritual made room for play within the machinery of war, without making the danger disappear.

Daily Life and a Nearby Town

When the ambulance section was off duty, its members could visit Sainte Ménéhoulde, an inhabited town that had not been destroyed. There they ate fresh pastry, pumpkin soup, and roast chicken. These ordinary comforts set the sector apart from the shelling and devastation associated with the front, giving the men a brief experience of civilian life while they remained close to the fighting.

Departure from the Woods

The section was eventually disbanded, and its members were sent back to Paris. Savage hated leaving the mellow autumn woods of Argonne Forest. The departure also marked a change in the ambulance service: the United States Army was to take over the service attached to the French. Dick Norton delivered the section’s citation and dismissed the men as gentlemen volunteers in a speech made under shellfire, never dropping the monocle from his eye. The ceremony closed the section’s time in the forest even as the guns continued to sound around them.

Narrative Significance

Argonne Forest joins two conditions that the episode refuses to separate: reprieve and exposure. Chess, food, and autumn woods suggest a pocket of ordinary life, but the mine under the trench, the preceding attack on Hill 304, and the shellfire during the farewell keep the violence present. Savage’s regret at leaving makes the landscape more than a quiet posting; it is a temporary home whose end coincides with the end of his section.