The silver blade. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1895-1903, 1902-09-05
ARMY AGAINST THE NAVY
THE MIMIC WAR STARTED.
The Fleet Under Admiral HtgginsOn
Made Sudden Attack and Captured
Island and ALI Telegraph Lines
Army Was Routed-The Olympia
I'm the Action.

Rock Island, Sept. 1.-The Beacon Hill
signal and wireless telegraph station. es-
tablished by the army in connection with
the extensive war maneuvers. was cap
tured by the fleet representing the enemy
under command Of Rear Admiral Hig-
gibson just after 8 o'clock Monday MORN
Ing The station was abandoned after
ter by the battleships. and the guard es-
capped before q superior force Of marines,
which had landed under cover of the mr.
ing vessels at Great Salt Pond harbor.
Eight hundred marines are now holding
the station and guarding the approaches.
while the feet Is anchored on shore.
1t was scarcely midnight when the pa
troll of the Block Island life saving sta
ton discovered the fleet Off the eastern
side of the island. The signal station
was at once warned and the men consid-
cred an attack imminent. They had four
hours Ieeway. At AIS the battleships
ran in and opened IRE on the island. The
range raked the great salt pond and the
Beacon Hill station. The reverberations
shook the island to its base. Tho firing
was continued until $780, when collier
and dispatch boat entered the harbor and
landed force of men. Before the at
tack Of this detachment, having been re-
duced by the previous bombardment, the
men at the station made their escape.
The landing force of 800 was divided and
squads were stationed on each side of
the breakwater and at other points along
the shore, While an ample force was sent
to occupy the Beacon Iiill station. As
the fleet lay off shore II vessels could be
counted, including the Golfers.
Surprised by the Olympia.
Woods Hole. Mass, Sept 2.-The Unit
ed States cruiser Olympia dashed into
this port Monday forenoon, landed q
force and seized all telegraph. telephone
and cable stations. thereby cutting ofl
all. communication with Marthas Vine
yard and Elizabeth island.
| or course the seizure and the destruc-
ton of Geographic and cable facilities
were figurative. and 1t required the de-
| cision of an umpire to make plain wheth-
er or not the point attempted by Admira
Higginson had been won. AS the land
ing was made the telegraph and tele'
phone offices were entered by sumcien
| force to have destroyed the property, Of
at least the Instruments. at the SAM
time boats crew had located the cabl'
with graphing hooks and held 1t a sui
fcient period to have allowed for thu
cutting Of them, there seemed to hav'
been no question but that the move hae
been entirely successful. The Olympus
appeared off this port suddenly Mon
day morning and Immediately two boat
put off toward Shore One was a launch
and the other a whaleboat and in then
was a detachment under Lieutenant L
M. Everhardt. The launch landed her,
wnile the whaleboat lay OF shore and a
once began graphing for the cable. Th'
men under Lieutenant Everhardt rushe'
| to the Office of the Marthas Vineyard
Telegraph company and then to the tele
phone station and carried out their. or
| ders to make the seizure. Having &C
complished this work, they returned +
| their launches, Joined the whaleboat an,
returned to their ship. This move Gu
of the only communication with the Isl
ands of Nantucket and Marthas Vine
yard, which are very important observa
ton stations