Evening star., 1909-08-19
Hardships Are All Over;
Time to Go Back Home

Special Dispatch to The Star.
HEADQUARTERS, ARMIES OF THE
RED AND BLUE, Rryantseville. August
19--It Is all over in the war game OF cap
turing Boston-all over but the shouting
and the transport journey home for
the men, who have gone through
as severe q campaign as any mod
ern war expedition could produce. In
the deepest Of sand they marched. through
densest Of underbrush they made their
way on skirmish lines, and in the heaviest
of rainfalls they lay down at night. soaked
through to the skin to shiver in wet blan-
kets until morning.
When Gen. Tasker H. Bliss reused his
fighting column shortly before 5 o'clock
this morning 1t was not quite all over.
There was q single battle left to fight, but
it was battle that would take the place
after the weaker fighter came from his
corner. seeing from neither eye and stag
gering about the ring. Gen. Pew was
beaten from the minute he sent his 1st
Brigade to head Bliss off at Taunton.
When he did that he made his entire
ing troops in hand with which to deal
with his opponents when his spine was
hit finally. Wednesdays dghting all
but used up Gen. Pew's elongated lire.
there was only one blow left to strike.
the troops would have been through with
the war last night. AS 1t was the knock
out was saved until this morning, and
Gen. Bliss delivered it when he sent a
brigade to the rear to handle Pew and
his decimated remnants. while with his
other two brigades he demonstrated that
he was able to march with no one to
say him nay, directly on toward the
Boston common.
Pew Misjudged His Force.
!. ."Pew's movements, said one of the
Red field officers as he stood in the Red
camp at dawn, looking over the tents of
the lost. strayed or cornored 9th Massa-
chusetts. would have been practicable
only in case he had 100000 men to make
his translate barrier a reality. AS 1t
was, his line of defense was merely a
paper one. Gen. Bliss passed through
it without so much as getting into ac-
tion on more than half a regiment of
men. While there are no rules that gov
ern military situations In any hard and
fast manner. no commander should let
his forces scatter until he is mighty
sure he has his enemy thoroughly in
hand. Gen. Pew was fighting to concen-
trate for battle all the time he should
have been driving Bliss back on New
Bedford
For the trained soldier the maneuver
has been splendid vindication. Down a
little hedge -bordered lane in South Hall
fax rode solitary 10th Cavalryman. AS
he approached a cross-road he headed his
horse into the thicket and peered through
His hand went straight up in the air and
he hugged the thicket closer. Two more
men galloped up behind. They. too. sig
nailed. and suddenly far down the road a
group of cavairymen appeared and dis
appeared Ten minutes passed. In which
the three troopers in the thicket merely
hugsed II CLOSET 49,.
One who watched at a crossroads saw
a bivouac of Blue infantrymen fifty yards
away. They had five Red prisoners OF the
LIST Battery. New York Field Artillery
An umpire who had just awarded them
their capture had advised them to make
a hurried getaway while they could, but
they tarried to breakfast.
All at once rifles loosened their fire from
the hedge where the three dark troopers
hid. Every Blue man grabbed his rifle
and worked his way to the crossroads
corner. They saw a solid file OF cavalry
men charging toward them and with a
yell. they hred back. The nle was three
FIRE of every man Of the sixty In the Blue
company, and just as each man was
glorying in his "kilI'' volley rang out
only twenty yards away.
Colored Troopers Appear.
1t was from the left rear. and behind the
line of carbine muzzles were the grinning
faces of thirty colored troopers. who had
spent just that much time In getting into
position on the Blues.
Say, captain. said the colored sergeant
in charge of the detachment to his prin-
cipal prisoner. I've got to trouble you
for he certificate YOU got that you done
had them battery boys captured, ah.
: At Growers Corner Halifax, the massed
It'd cavalry. approaching the Blue army's
second brigade. could see lines of skirm-
ishers on aaforward hill. A wagon train
could be SEEM disappearing In the dis
tance. AS tha-froopets dlsmoguted in the
nndeTbrush and depjeyed sto.tke right and
feft an observer wens forward to- the line
of Blues and TODD with their commander
He knew a Red force was working It's
way up the hill Yetshe could see no one
and no single shot made known the pres
ence OF an enemy.
Three men of the Blue skirmish line
thought they saw soldiers and fired. Their
all at once from the extreme right to the
extreme left a ripple Of rifle fire set the
battle in motion and the defenders of the
hill had the privilege or bringing troops
from the rear to the outer lines with Tho
enemy's full, lighting line only 800 yards