The Forest of Argonne ( French pronunciation: [aʁɡɔn] ) is a long strip of mountainous and wild woodland in northeastern France , approximately 200 km (120 mi) east of Paris . The forest measures roughly 65 km (40 mi) long and 15 km (9 mi) wide filled with many small hills and deep valleys formed by water run-off from the Aire and Aisne rivers rarely exceeding more than 200 m (650 ft) in elevation. Following the First World War , the landscape of the forest was forever changed as trench warfare led to parts of the forest being riddled with deep human-made trenches along with craters from explosives. The forest is bordered by the Meuse River on the west and rolling farmland and creeks to the east. The forest is largely oak , chestnut , and pine trees, and ferns cover much of the forest floor . Common animal life consists of wild boar , red deer , roe deer , hares , rabbits , foxes , and wildcat .
9-634: Varennes-en-Argonne ( French pronunciation: [vaʁɛn ɑ̃.n‿aʁɡɔn] , literally Varennes in Argonne ) or simply Varennes (German: Wöringen ) is a commune in the Meuse department in the Grand Est region in Northeastern France . In 2019, it had a population of 639. Varennes-en-Argonne lies on the river Aire to the northeast of Sainte-Menehould , near Verdun . Varennes
18-692: Is described by P. J. E. Wilson as " that most conscientious of pedants". In his anonymous The Strait Gate (1881), Wood says of himself that he should not be classed with the High churchmen , the Evangelicals , or the Broad churchmen . He had "no faith whatsoever" in the first group, "no true conception" of the second, and "a measure of sympathy" with the third, but added "…yet there are drawbacks which make it impossible for me to hail their movement with any warmth." In 1867, Wood's Stories from Greek Mythology
27-527: Is most notable as it was the ending point of the Flight to Varennes . In June 1791, Louis XVI and his immediate family made a dash for the nearest friendly border, that of the Austrian Netherlands in modern Belgium (Queen Marie Antoinette being a sister to Leopold II , Archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor ). In Varennes, Louis and his family were arrested by Jean-Baptiste Drouet ,
36-745: The Zone rouge , Varennes was completely destroyed during the First World War but was reconstructed afterwards. The Pennsylvania Memorial , a monument for volunteers from 28th Division Pennsylvania in the First World War, was erected in Varennes during the Interwar period . This Meuse geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Forest of Argonne In 1792, Charles François Dumouriez outmaneuvered
45-789: The " Lost Battalion ". The World War I Montfaucon American Monument consists of a large granite Doric column surmounted by a statue symbolic of Liberty . The monument is located 32 km (20 mi) northwest of Verdun , not far from the Meuse–Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial . [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Wood, James , ed. (1907). " Argonne`, Forest of ". The Nuttall Encyclopædia . London and New York: Frederick Warne. 49°09′N 4°58′E / 49.150°N 4.967°E / 49.150; 4.967 James Wood (encyclopaedist) James Wood (12 October 1820 – 17 March 1901)
54-824: The invading forces of the Duke of Brunswick in the forest before the Battle of Valmy . During World War I , the forest again became the site of intense military action. Bitter fighting between German and Allied units took place here in fall and winter 1914, summer 1915, and fall 1918. During the Meuse–Argonne offensive (1918), several United States Army soldiers earned the Medal of Honor there, including Colonel Nelson Miles Holderman , Major Charles White Whittlesey , Sergeant Alvin C. York , Corporal Harold W. Roberts and William Henry Johnson (a.k.a. "Black Death"), most of them part of
63-609: The local postmaster, who had been alerted by a message received from nearby Sainte-Menehould . It is said that at Sainte-Menehould, where the escaping party had spent the previous night, a merchant alerted the town authorities of their presence after recognizing the King's face on an Assignat as Louis tried to buy something from a shop. The royal family was returned to the Tuileries in humiliating captivity, and Louis and Marie-Antoinette were subsequently guillotined in 1793. Located in
72-742: Was a Scottish writer, editor, and Free Church minister. Born in Leith , Wood studied at the University of Edinburgh and was ordained as a minister of the Free Church of Scotland , following the Disruption of 1843 . His admiration for Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin may have contributed to his failure to secure the ministry of a congregation. Instead, he earned a living as a writer and editor and spent most of his life in Edinburgh. Wood
81-535: Was published in London. Wood edited Nuttall 's Standard Dictionary and The Nuttall Encyclopaedia . In 1881, he published anonymously The Strait Gate and Other Discourses, with a Lecture on Thomas Carlyle, by a Scotch Preacher , and in 1882 made the authorized translation of Auguste Barth 's Religions of India . In 1893, after working on it for three years, he published his Dictionary of Quotations , later renamed as Nuttall's Dictionary of Quotations . He
#390609