Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-25
RED WAR RACES
ROUND THE FORTS
Big Guns Get Busy Again Early
This Morning.
RED LEGS WORKING HARD
And Puzzling Lot Over This Second
Phase" Thing.
CAPTURED BY LANDING PARTY
Hostilities to Be Resumed This Even
ing With Grand Climax Friday
Night-Field Notes.

Special From a Staff Correspondent.
STAR DISPATCH BOAT, OFF FORT
WASHINGTON. Md, July 25-Red war be-
gan to rage again this morning at quar-
ter to O'Clock at the Potomac forts AL
though hOstlities had ceased against Fort
Washington at only 10 o'clock last night.
AT quarter to 8 O'Clock this morning the
call to arms was sounded at each of the
forts, and in less time than it takes to
tell 1t the regulars and the District militia
were In position, ready for the armed force
reported as coming up the river.
AT a quarter to 9 o'clock the Oneida
Stimulating a battleship, with two small
boats representing the Sunboats, were
picked up by the rangefinders in the fire
command stations on both sides of the river
AT that time the naval reserve boats were
far below Mt. Vernon but both forts opened
fire, huge clouds of white smoke rolling
high in the air as the great guns beloved
blank charges, which in time of real war
would be destructive messengers of steel.
District militamen We're at the guns, as
well as the regulars, and some of the small
er batteries were served entirely by the
guardsmen, who are becoming artil.erymen
as readily as If it were bred in the bone.
Actual War Conditions.
Lieut.. Col Coffin directed the general de-
Tense from the Fort Washington side, while
militia officers We're in fire command sta
lions with the regular officers who were
giving the detailed orders for the defense.
Both defending forces al the forts had
outposts stationed to protect themselves
against attack by land, and the disposition
of the troops was exactly what it would
have been in case of actual attack, although
the numbers were far less.
For less than an hour hostilities ragged,
and then the Oneida recalled small boats
which she had sent out, presumably with
the intention of making a land attack, and
came to anchor abreast of the fish commits
sion. She left eight small boats in Piscat-
away creek.
Col. Coffin then ordered smoke rockets
sent up as signals. These rockets make
heavy, rolling smoke when they burst, and
finally a parachute opens and falls slowly.
Hostilities are expected to reopen late
this afternoon, and again at / or O'Clock
Friday morning, while Friday night will be
the climax of the weeks operations.
After cessation of firing this morning
Col Coffin rushed request over to The
Evening Star reporter at Fort Hunt to be
taken down the river on The Star dispatch
boat and put aboard the Oneida.
Last Nights Land Attack.
Last night the promised land attack on
Fort Washington was made by the men
under Maj. Stephan and Capt. Balentine.
assisted by the company of regulars at
Fort Hunt. Everybody from that side of
the river except the cooks and the men
on the sick list was impressed into the
service. The strength of the defenses of
Fort Washington was demonstrated for the
boats bearing the attacking forces were
detected long before they reached the OBJ
jective landing places. 1t is claimed at
Fort Hunt that they had the attacking
force of the previous night beaten, since
they managed to get the Gushing, bearing
their main attack. farther up the river
before discovery than the Fort Washington
men had done Tuesday night. 1t is also
true that Maj. stephan's whole battalion
landed at Fort Washington on the engi-
neer's dock, and marched up the HILL cap
turing the power plant. the old fort and
the bridge leading to the fort, and finally
gathered in the old fort, where Col. Coffin
visited them and looked over his invaders.
This achievement of the invaders attack
Ing force is explained at Fort Washington
as inevitable, since from the principle of
the fight 1t would not matter how often the
suppostitious enemy were theoretically de-
strOyed the advance was supposed to
continue IN any event. Another phase of
the maneuVerS' is the way this is eX-
pressed. After the approaching boat is
spotted by the searchlg and destroyed,
constructively, by the big guns, 1t keeps on
coming, and is said to ENTER another
phase as If it were just beginning its at
tack.
When the boats landed at Fort Washing
ton dock they We're supposed both to be
non-existent, and to have suddenly sprung
into being, at one and the same time. This
is a curious etaphysical distinction which
seems to make it necessary to grant that a
body can be in two places at the same time
since it is assumed that such body both is
a Oi WON rNlnn
Stephan's men marched up the hill like the
noble king of France. they announced that
they were spirits. AS they We're from the
deep there might have been something in it.
Such Dizzy Problem.
The Fort Washington theory then, is that
the men who started against Fort Washing
ton from down the river never got any
where near the fort, but the same men, in
different phase did the landing. Hence
1t is argued at Fort Washington, the as
sumption of the new phase does not give
the defending force a square deal, since it
has no time to redispose its men in the po-
sitlons where they would be assigned In
case of an attack made under these latter
conditions, when they have once been ar
ranged at distant outpostS to reeel ad-
Nances which are to be made against UNI
known points, thus rendering it necessary
10 defend the whole POSITION besides watch
plcated. b; is even more complicated than
II sounds. to judge by the corrugated brows
that are bent over the problem
Although the action was not to begin
until O'Clock in the evening Mai Stenhan
and Capt. Ballentine got under way in the
Gushing at about o'clock and started
down the river. with four boats and one
gasoline launch, the latter under com
mand of Lieut.. BrSCoe of the Coast Ar
tillery. At twenty minutes past 8 The
Evening Stars dispatch boat hove to along
side the Gushing, about nine miles down
the river from the forts, and found a
changed vessel
While the expedition had been waiting
down stream the men, under the direction
of Capt Walker and Capt. Feland, had
disguised the boat with tarpaulins and
ponchos. The white steamer had become
black, and was swathed like mummy.
In response to the request of the expe-
dltlons commander, The Stars boat took
In tow two of the rowboats. loaded to the
gunWales with soldiers. and was directed
M ot