VERDUN 



VERGIL 



north of the town. The new offensive resulted 

 in the recapture of Douaumont village and fort, 

 Thiaumont Farm, Redoubt, Fort de Vaux, 

 Damloup village and Vaux village. In Decem- 

 ber a second offensive was launched and sev- 

 eral other strategic positions along the east 

 bank of the Meuse were recaptured. Through- 

 out 1917 there were intervals of violent fight- 

 ing in the region of the Meuse, and late in the 

 year the French reached the position which 

 had marked their second line in February, 1915. 

 See MEUSE, and map on page 3762; also, WAR 

 OF THE NATIONS. B.M.W. 



VERDUN, a residential suburb of Montreal, 

 in Jacques Cartier County, Quebec. It is on 

 the Saint Lawrence River and has connection 

 by ferry with Montreal. The Grand Trunk 

 and Canadian Pacific railways can be reached 

 at Saint Paul, a mile from Verdun. Although 

 primarily a suburban residence town, Verdun 

 has a number of large industrial establishments. 

 The largest of these is a munitions factory, 

 established soon after the outbreak of the War 

 of the Nations. The city owns and operates its 

 waterworks and electric lighting plant. All 

 water for the use of the public is filtered 

 through mechanical filters. Verdun was 

 founded in 1875, and was named for the historic 

 Verdun in France. It was incorporated as a 

 city in 1912. Population in 1911, 11,629; in 

 1916, estimated, 18,000. 



VERDUN, TREATY OF, a treaty concluded in 

 843 by the three grandsons of Charlemagne 

 Louis, Charles and Lothair. It is celebrated 

 as the first great treaty between European 

 states. The great empire of Charlemagne had 

 fallen to the emperor's weak son, Louis the 

 Pious, and when he died, in 840, a bitter strug- 

 gle ensued among his three sons. The war was 

 concluded by an agreement which gave to 

 Louis the region east of the Rhine, to Charles 

 the lands west of the Rhone and the Meuse, 

 and to Lothair the territory between these two 

 sections, extending from the North Sea to the 

 Mediterranean. In other words, the three 

 rulers received the territory out of which de- 

 veloped modern Germany, modern France and 

 modern Italy. Over a thousand years later the 

 vicinity in which the treaty was signed was the 

 scene of one of the most desperate battles in 

 history (see VERDUN). 



VERESTCHAGIN, vyehrehshchah'gin, VA- 

 SILJ (1842-1904), a Russian painter of war 

 scenes, who depicted not the great moments 

 of fighting glorified by sentiment, but the hor- 

 rors of the battle field, the suffering and the 



hardships. He worked from the viewpoint of 

 one who was a warrior himself. Verestchagin 

 was born at Novgorod, Russia. He received his 

 early art training at the Academy of Design 

 at Petrograd and later studied in France and 

 Germany. In 1867 he joined the expedition 

 against the Central Asian provinces, in which 

 his valor won 

 him the Saint 

 George's Cross, 

 and he produced 

 a notable series 

 of paintings illus- 

 trative of episodes 

 of this expedition. 

 At the sugges- 

 tion of President 

 Roosevelt, on 

 one of his visits 

 to America he 

 went to Cuba to 

 paint sketches of 

 the Santiago bat- 

 tie ground; the 



VERESTCHAGIN 



result of this it was his intention to im- 

 journey is the mortalize on canvas - 

 large painting of Roosevelt at the Head oj t In- 

 Rough Riders. Among others of his notable 

 works are The Forefront of the Attack, The 

 Letter Home and The Departure of Napoleon 

 from Burning Moscow. 



Verestchagin was the historiographer of his 

 times, but his fame rests not so much upon his 

 technique as upon his choice of subjects. He 

 died in the Russo-Japanese War, going down 

 with a battleship which was sunk by the Japa- 

 nese. 



VERGIL, vur'jil (Publius Vergilius Maro), 

 also spelled VIR- 

 GIL (70-19 B.C.), 

 the name of a 

 great Roman 

 poet, who was 

 born in Cisalpine 

 Gaul, near Man- 

 tua, on the bank 

 of the Mincio. 

 His father, like 

 the father of 

 Horace, was of 

 the poorer class, 

 but like Horace's 

 father, had by his 

 industry acquired a small estate and sufficient 

 means to give his son the best education which 

 the Roman world afforded. After studying at 



