Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-17
MIMIC WAR is ENDED
Exercises Closed With an At.
tack by Fleet in Force.
HEAVY CANNONADING
UMPIRES AND OBSERVERS TO
CONFER THIS AFTERNOON.
Navy Entirely Put Out Of Business
Twice Within the Past
Twelve Hours.
sp. cial From a Stan Correspondent

| Sps cial From a STAFF Correspondent
FORT MONROE Va, June 1.-THE
Amy and navy have settled their con-
| structive differences and the period of the
| oretical war is at an end. All the theory of
| offense and defense that has been tested
| during the past week will be thrashed out
and concrete facts will be evolved that will
| aid materially in the future development of
| the coast defense system. The last twen-
! ty-four hours of the maneuvers were the
| busiest hours of the week. The navy gave
| the army rest and the army repeated
its almost daily performance of consigning
the navy to the lowest and most secret
| depths of the mystic locker of one Mr..
| David Jones.
The navy has been entirely put out of
! business twice within the past twelve hours
and came in for another beating just before
| the hour Of noon, when the exercises ended.
| Battles were fought at about 10 O'Clock last
| night and O'Clock this morning So far
| there have been but three casualties.
! The Terror Disabled.
| The navy has actually lost a ship and
| one man and the army has an officer laid
| up. The disabled vessel is the Terror.
| which put in here late yesterday afternoon
| under flag of truce and asked leave to go
| to Norfolk to repair damaged steering gear.
The man lost by the navy was one removed
to the Norfolk hospital for a surgical opera
ton. and the officer of the army who was
partly disabled contracted a bad attack OF
| rheumatism and was under treatment
eral days, although he able to go about
| his duties as an observer.
Last Nights Battle.
! The battle last night was as great a spec
| tacle the of Thursday night. This
ships came in with the destroyers leading.
| the monitors coming next and the larger
| ships following. with. the gunboats in the
| rear. The ships began firing when about
| five miles off shore. engaging the batteries
| This was done apparently 10 form a screen
of smoke TO cover an attack on the search-
light stations with the small boats.
/ -Four launches heavily manned and carry,
| ing one-pounder guns made dash at ths
| central searchlight station through thu
dense cloud of smoke. Before they could
get within three miles of the shore. howe
| eyer. they We're picked up by the search-
! lights and theoretically blown into match
| sticks. They kept coming, however. in
| order to give the men the practice. and a
| lively engagement ensued between the gum
| ners at the fort and the seamen in thu
launches with small arms and the one
FOUNDER guns.
| The larger vessels were put out of action
before they could infiict any damage on
| the fort, as usual
Attempt to Disable Mines.
1
| run by the batteries and disable the mines
| by the small vessels OF the fleet. the four
| destroyers and the two gunboats partici-
| pating. The first gun was fired just at
| sunrise and the attacking vessels came in
| at full speed. They had the sun behind
| them and reckoned they would have some
| advantage from this, but they were dis
4 abled before they could reach the forts with
their guns. The firing was terrific while
it lasted. the shots coming faster and in
greater volume. The attack continued
about half an hour, at the end OF which
| the vessels put to sea again.
Attack in Force.
| The last engagement of the maneuvers
| began at IL 80 o'clock this morning and
| continued until the noon signal was flash
| ed from the ramparts of Fort Monroe.
| The attack was made by the feet in force
the Texas leading. The forts sighted the
ships at least half hour before the YES
| sells opened fire. Several salvos from the
| mortar batteries were directed against
| the oncoming vessels, but on the part Of
| the navy fighting did not begin until the
| ships opened on the forts with their big
| guns. Then a terrific cannonading was
| started that continued until the hour of
the close of the exercises. Every ship in
| the fleet in the fight this time. and
every one of them took occasion to use
| up what ammunition there left in
the magazines. The Texas was followed
| by the three single-turreted monitors Ar
|
ers Newark and Atlanta were next in line,
followed by the Hartford and the Puri-
| tan. The torpedo boats and the gunboats
| brought up the rear.
| They did not get into the harbor until
after the war was declared off. According
| to present adviees the navy was again
| defeated the vessels being sunk before
| they fired shot.
The umpires and observers of the forts
and ships will hold conference here this
| afternoon and come to some conclusion as
| IN 70
| the time for their presentation to the
! board of review. They will all be guests
| of the hotel at dance to be given here
| tonight
Joint Exercises Closed.
Todays exercises brought the joint exera
cises of the army and navy to a close, an&
| the corps of umpires behalf of both the
| army and navy will proceed to prepare
| their reports. These reports will be SUBJ
| mitted to a board OF officers that will in
/ clude representatives of both branches OF
the service, and who will carefully go over
| the results and prepare report that will
| cover the entire series of tests. 1t is highly
| improbable that this report will ever be
made public. because its principal feature
/ will be discussion of the made cuacies OF
| the coast defense system and suggestions
| for correcting the deficiency. and such mat
| ters are hardly information which ii Is
either desirable proper to make public
| The officers who will be selected to COM
| pose the final board will be of the high
est character and professional attachments.
/ and 1t is probable their work will take
| many weeks No matter in what terms the
! report is couched, whether 1T finds the de-
| fenses in the best condition or the reverse,
| il will be highly interesting document to
/ those concerned with the matter of coast
] defense because every who has oppor-
! tunity to observe these maneuYers Is salts
| fed that they have been the most highly
| valuable exercises the army has ever had
| in this section of the country, and that the
| lessons learned are lessons that TO other
condition than that of actual could
produce except under the conditions that
! have governed the army and navy this
| week. Planned as simple series of tests,
| the work has developed into sonnet hing OF
| much greater scope and of a surprisingly
| high value.
| 1t was the desire of those charged with
| drawing up the plans for the joint exercises
to avoid all question as to which side won