Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-16
GREAT MILITARY CAMP
$4,000 Men to Maneuver at
Manassas, Va.
WORK
MANY TRAINED MEN PREPARING
THE GROUND.
Each Of Two Divisions to Occupy q
Site, With Corps Headquar-
tiers at Gainesville.
rom a STAFF Correspondent.

officers and others for the military. maneu-
vers are being watched with the keenes,
interest by the residents of Prince William
county. The people have been aroused to
a high pitch of excitement and await with
nervous anticipation the invasion by the
troops. Such thing as camping body
of Is, COO soldiers on the 5000 acres that
have been rented by the government FOR
the maneuver field is no small job and calls
forth the best effort of trained men In
numerous branches Of human endeavor.
That this camp is to be one where hard
work will be expected is slowly dawning
on the people Of Manassas and vicinity
No better Illustration of this fact could be
had than the beginning of the task yesterday
of connecting all the camps by telegraph, a
detachmen Of men from the Signal Corps
doing the line work. For week or more
workmen of the quartermaster's depart
ment have been engaged in the various
tasks this important branch of the service
will have to perform before the troops ar
rive, and for a longer period than that the
agents of the railway company have been
at work preparing sidings for the detraining
of the troops.
S1ha maneuver strip contains approx
a!tcUy 65 OOO acres. for which the govern
ment is paying 30 cents per acre, over and
above any assessment that may be made
for damages after the troops depart. The
strip is oblong in shape, about five miles
broad and fifteen miles long. The eastern
end is at Manassas and the western ex-
tremity is a mile or mile and a half west
of Thoroughfare. The distance between
Manassas and Thoroughfare by railroad is
just thirteen and half miles.
The Division Camps.
The first division camp will be on an i'm
mense tract just west of Manassas, extend
ing back from the railroad mile and a
half or two miles. 1t is expected that
$500 troops will be encamped here. The
second division camp will be at Thorough
fare. where there will be the same number
of troops. These two divisions will form
a provisional army corps, and corps head
quarters will be established at Gainesville,
a station on the railroad nine miles west
of this place. Here. also, will be the press
camp, and arrangements are being made
to accommodate forty newspaper men.
Headquarters camp will be pitched In
large field to the north of the railroad
and about three-quarters of a mile from
the station. The press camp will be estab-
lished in a field on the south side of the
railroad about the same distance from
headquarters as headquarters is from the
station.
here will not show for week or more, al
though the officers and men have been
working like beavers. Capt. Henry S.
Hathaway OF the Signal Corps has perhaps
the largest task cut out for him the next
ten days. He has been here since Thurs
day looking over the ground and making
necessary arrangements. but his actual
operations did not commence until this
morning, when he received detail OF
twenty men from Washington. His work
will include the establishment of commune
cations by telegraph and telephone between
all the camps and the outside world. There
are fifteen miles separating the two d.
vision camps, 1t will be remembered, and
telegraph wires will be strung over the en-
tire length Of this ground. connecting the
two division headquarters with corps head
quarters and connecting each OF the bri-
gades with division headquarters There
to construct and Capt. Hathaway expects
to have his lines all In operation within
ten days. To accomplish the task over
1890 pounds of telegraph wire will be
used, and there will probably be forty or
fifty telegraph instruments.
The Telephone Service.
In addition to the telegraph service a
complete telephone service will be estab-
lished at each division and corps head
quarters, with switchboards in EACH and
at every brigade headquarters. Telephones
will be placed in the tents of the command
ing officers of all brigades. regiments sep
arate battalions and batteries, in addition
to phones at all hospitals and In the staff
officers quarters. Capt. Hathaway and his
men will have all this work to do before the
troops arrive and he expects to get his
wires all up and the service in running or
der in ten days. He started to work yester
day morning from here with one detach
ment and then took another detachment to
Thoroughfare and will start from there
also. working from both ends simultaneous
ly. The establishment of the camp at
Gainesville is under the direction of Capt.
John +. Martin, Artillery Corps, detailed
for duty in the quartermaster's department.
Arrangements are being made by the Post
Office Department to furnish special facili-
ties for securing mail at each of the camps.
Post Office Inspector Masten was here Sat
urday and stated that force of three
clerks will be allowed for each of the
camps. The three special forces will come
from the contiguous post offices.
The postmaster at Manassas will be post
master at the camp here, and the post
masters at Gainesville and Thoroughfare
will have charge of the post offices at those
camps. At Gainesville there will be no
post Office in the field, as the post office is
only a short distance from the camp. The
Gainesville Office will have an additional
force of three clerks, however, and q SINH
lar allowance will be made to the two post
offices in the field at headquarters Of the
divisions.
Major Glennan Chief Surgeon.
Major James d. Glennan of the medical
department of the army was here Saturday.
Major Glennan will be the chief surgeon Of
tho provisional division to camD here and