Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-06
STAFF IS ALSO TRANSFERRED
Merely Routine, Say Authorities.
Revelries Before Annis Killing
Is Considered Reason.

NEW YORK. November 6.-The War
Department. it became known last night.
| has given the military garrison at Fort
Hamilton where the Hans-Annis scan
DIAL and tragedy developed-one of the big
est shake-ups in its history.
The fort is to he stripped not only of
| its staff of commanding officers. headed
by Lieut.. Col. Henry H. Ludlow, but is
| to be deprived even of the post band, one
of the largest and best in the service
| Under the drastic order. which is to go
into effect in about "a week. the staff and
band will be transferred to Fort Han
| cock. at Sandy Hook. Fort Hamilton
will then be left barren of it's great social
| inspiration. music, which has long made
| it one of the gayest centers of army life
| in America.
The official explanation of the change
| is that 1t is mere routine procedure,
due to the request of Col Harris. the
commander of the chain of forts in
Brooklyn. at Sandy Hook and on Staten
| Island. The colonel, it is said, is due
to retire from the service in Il year and
does not care to undergo the trouble of
removing himself and his household, for
such short period. from his present
Hamilton.
ddlnS Letters Blamed.
Such is the official explanation. Ac-
cording to a statement made last night
by one of the officers at Fort Hamilton,
the real reason that turks behind the
wholesale change in the personnel of
the garrison is to be found in the revela-
tons as to the frolcs at the post con-
tanned in the alleged letters of Mrs.
Claudia Hams. wife of Capt. Peter G.
brother Thorn
ton J. Hams. Is under indictment for the
killing of William E. Annis, the publish
er and yachtsman.
According to these letters, the genu-
ineness of which is denied by Mrsh Claudia
Hams, some of the officers and their
wives and friends led a merry life at
Fort Hamilton, which often concentrated
itself in bacchanalian revels. at which
men and women drank themselves under
the table Card playing, gambling and
drinking were wildly portrayed in the
alleged. missives.
If all that was told or limited at in
of the old fort by the Narrows was
delirious whirl. 1t is this suspicion, it is
| now said. that has led the War Depart
| ment to transfer the staff and its alluring
of Sandy Hook. where the band will have
little to do except to listen to the sad sea
waves as they break on the lonely shore.
No Charges Against Officers.
There are no charges. nor even init
nations, against any of the officers
transferred.
Merely a change of air. said one Of
the officers last night with wry crack
| in his face.
Lieut. Col. Ludlow who has been sta
toned at Fort Hamilton for fifteen months
or So will go to the government post at
Cape Fear, N. c. Most of his staff are
under orders to transfer themselves to
Fort Hancock at Sandy Hook.
One of his captains is slated for Fort
Terry, which is on Plumb Island, d speck
in Plum Gut. in Long Island sound, off
New London. One of the captains left
yesterday for Fort Williams, in Maine.
Lieut. Andrews, whose name was the
| first to come out in connection with the
Hams case, has gone to Fort Monroe,
Va. The dispersal is widespread.
Fort Hamilton. it is prophesied, will be-
come minor post.