Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-29


 Point-Both Men ana Horses Arc
 Numbered and Sent Out In Turn
 With Dispatches-The Service at Night Most Dangerous.
 A correspondent now with the Rus sian army in It's retreat sends the St. Petersburg Zeitung an interesting de- scription of the flying post,' which Is used to keep up constant communica- tion between the leaders and to carry dispatches, the daily orders aAd re- ports, says the London Globe. The flying post is quite a distance from the field postal service. which is man. aged by the field post The headquarters of the three Russian armies are connect ed by a line of posts arranged as fol- lows. The chief of the flying post" at headquarters is staff captain, and with the armies the lines of this post are under lieutenant, who belongs to the staff of his army and who must have his quarters in the post road in the neighborhood of the headquarters. The flying post" of the Third army is under Lieutenant Baron von Tiesen- hausen, and three Chinese farm houses. lying apart from certain village, have been fitted up as it's central point. The choice of such position was very practical, for the place can be seen from afar, and at night time it can be found easily.
 This central point connects, firstly, the army with the headquarters; sec ondly, the army with the other armies or at least with those in the neighbor- hood, and thirdly, the army with the staff of the army corps connected with 1t. For this purpose the commander of the flying post" always has at his dis posal varying horse soldiers, according to the distance separating the lines. In the Third army the connection thus mentioned was kept up by squad ron of dragons and by men belong ing to all kinds of Cossack and mount ed troops, who are told the direction which they are to take and the dis tance of their journey, but who have to choose their own way. Naturally, so far as possible. only smart and handy men are picked out for this work, which becomes more difficult during battle or when there is any activity on the part of the enemy. When there is | lull in the warfare, the posts" are quartered in village, but, in case of sudden attack, the men have to "fall in" with the rest, and once Baron von Tiesenhausen had to lead his men to the attack.
 At the central point of the flying post there are kept about score of horses. but the number varies accord ing to the number of men sent out with dispatches. for the lines of communica- tion extend on three sides. From the single posts only one man Is away at a time as a rule, as the dispatches do not follow one another so quickly. Ac- cording to the regulations, the posts are stationed from five and half miles to eight miles apart on good roads and from three to four miles apart when the roads or weather is bad or when an enemy is at hand. Experience has shown that the distance of four miles is the best. as That space represents the average distance that can be trav- ersed by dragoons horse at full gal lop. The posts under Lieutenant von Tiesenhausen are stationed almost ex- actly at intervals of four miles. At every post are seven horses. and non commissioned officer is in charge of ev cry post.
 The men and their horses are num- bered. and they are sent out in turn with dispatches One horse always stands ready saddled. If horse No. is sent off. then horse No. Is saddled at once. so that no time may be lost. The rate of speed desired Is marked upon the envelope. Thus cross signifies five minutes trot and five minutes walk in turn. while two crosses signify that the message has 10 be carried at full gal lop When a soldier sent off from the central point reaches post No. 1. the nonccmmissioned officer fin charge re- ceives the post bag. takes from 1t the various letters and copies into the Post Journal their titles and numbers-thus. for example. Orders from the com mander in chief. Nos 413 10 41T." Then he gives the bearer of them receipt for their due delivery at that post and hands the dispatches to one of his own men to carry farther. When post bag contains many dispatches this method of acknowledging their arrival at every post leads to a great loss of time. It would be better to inciose the dispatches in one large envelope. on which the arrival at and dispatch from the various posts could be marked by the officer fin charge.
 Both for man and horse this work of the flying post is most exhausting. To carry a dispatch means an out and home ride of eight miles. Sometimes q horse has so make this journey mrice s day fin fact. although there are days on which fewer calls are made upon the post: hut the correspondent saw from the mems time books" that on an average every man makes three journeys a dsy-that Is. twentyfour miles iu the saddle As fl Is advisable so have hcrsemen who know the roads ,nd country. the men told of to the