The record-union., 1898-04-20

oIueI lnaI the services or others may
be availed of in the military field of
operations. In a majority of cases the
names are given with the general idea
that the officials will not be called away
from their present duties for more than
few months.
In the event Of hostilities the regular
| officers of the War Department Will
promptly take steps to form a corps
of officers especially detailed to assist
the army in the field in the engineering
prospects.
The authoritative statement was
made at the War Department to-day
that on the first call for troops only the
National Guard viii be given an op-
portunity to volunteer for service in
war. As far as practicable, the State
! organizations entering the volunteer
service will remain intact, the Gov
ernors of the various States being per
mitted. as they were in 1861, to des-
| ignate regimental officers, which Will
! include those of the grades of Second
Lieutenants to Colonels. The President
will reserve to himself the right to ap-
point the staff and field officers
1t was stated to-day that the first
call for trops would be for $4,000 men,
which, it is believed, win exhaust the
entire available strength of the Ma
tional guard at this time, after deduct
| ing those who are sick and otherwise
! incapacitated for immediate service.
The total strength of the guard as re-
ported to the War Department is ll3,-
! 164 men.
| A great deal of Indignation has been
| 1Jr officers
cold -blooded attempt of persons own
ing vessels, or acting as their agents,
to extort from the Government sums
of money largely in excess of the value
of their craft The same complaint is
also made as to many kinds OF mill
tary and naval supplies.
The Navy Department has arranged
to place some light armor on the four
vessels acquired from the Morgan Line,
the Prairie. Yosemite, Yankee and
Dixie. The Carnegie Company has un-
dertaken to roll Immediately light steel
plate ore and one-half inches thick.
Two layers of this plate will be placed
around the boiler and engine-rooms
of the boats, making about $50 tons
of armor in each case. This will be
sufficient at least to repel the fire of
the machine guns, and perhaps to keep
out the murderous six-pounder shells.
The Navy Department has received
satisfactory information that the coal
loaded at Newport News upon the Brit
ish tramp steamer Hampstead is not,
as was supposed, intended for the Span
ish naval craft at the Cape Verde ISL
ands, but is for line of merchant
steamers, so that apprehension from
that score has been removed.
The department is still reaching out
for vessels suitable for colliers, and
several cable messages We're sent to-day
to it's agency in Europe, looking TO the
! purchase of some of these vessels.
Applications are pouring into the War
and Navy Departments for the imme-
diate protection of supposedly exposed
points on the Atlantic and Gulf sea-
| boards. Some towns ask for the i'm
mediate construction of batteries, while
others want warships stationed off the
shore. a vast majority of these ap-
! plications are from very small towns.
! The officials say it is manifestly impos-
sible to comply with these requests,
! and have no hesitation in declaring
| that the apprehension among the peo-
| pie of these towns is entirely ground
! less. They say that there would t2
no inducement for a Spanish naval
| force to attack unfortified small coast
! towns. Also it is said that the rules
/ of civilized warfare require that no un-
| fortified town shall be bombarded with
| out at least twenty-four hours notice,
| the object of this delay being to allow
| -cOmbatants to retire to a place of
| safety.
| Rear-Admiral Sicard reported at Tie
| Navy Department this morning, and
was Immediately assigned a place at
| the desk in the office of Secretary Of
! the Navy Long to act as official ad-
wiser to the Secretary.
The Board of Naval Bureau Chiefs is
considering the advisability of utilizing
some of the old converted smooth bore
guns for the auxiliary cruisers. These
guns are not really smooth bores at all,
! but are cast-iron guns lined with a
| steel tube fully rifled. They are not,
however, breech leaders, SO they win be
| necessarily slow in action. Their weight
| is eight tons, and all that would be
necessary TO fit them to vessels of the
! St Paul and New York class would be
the laying of deck track and the fas-
| tening of heavy ring bolts for each gun.
! They fire a solid armor- piercing shot
! weighing $50 pounds, or a bursting
shell with ten pounds of powder weigh
/ ing lJ6 pounds. With an accurate range
of from two and one-half to three miles,
/ they would be effective weapons
| against any unarmored ship. 1t is
! the intention of the Navy Department
| to replace them upon the vessels by
modern weapons just as fast as the new
| guns can be turned out
/ Two assignments to naval commands
were announced in the published orders
| to-day, Commander ]. J. Eaton taking
command Of the Resolute, lately the
yorktown, and Lieutenant-C Commander
r. T. Jasper, now at the Naval Acad-
emy, taking command of the lighthouse
| tender Shawnee in place of Commander
| j. f. Noses who goes to the Albatross
GENERAL MILES.
He VIII Take Command Of the In