Evening star., 1914-07-26
FIFTY YEARS AGO
In THE STAR

IN THE STAR
The I'd District Regiment attracted at
tentton to itself during the fighting
around Washington, of
Second u. c. which the climax vas
R.r;men+ the battle of Fort Ste
Ae6AnAea'' vens. In The Star of July
IS. 1864. is the following paragraph ex-
pressing the public appreciation of this
regiments services:
This gallant regiment. of which the
District of Columbia may well feel proud.
took an active Part during the invasion
of Maryland When on Monday the
rebels made their appearance on the
hills opposite Fort Stevens and extended
their lines nearly as far as Fort Slocum.
detachment of this regiment. under
command of Lieuts. Taylor and Pearson.
was deployed as skirmishers on the
right from the turnpike road to Fort
Slocum, and in a mastery manner kept
at bay the advance of the rebels under
heavy fire. all the afternoon until sun
down. when they were relieved by part
the credit of dislodging the rebel sharp
shooters from and burning all those
houses outside the forts. The most con-
spfcuous in the ranks was Capt. Thomp
son of Company IL. with a musket in
his hand. doing duty as a private. Capt.
Dubant. formerly captain of Company
r.. was also there as citizen soldier
doing duty in the ranks. Col Alex
ander deserves great credit for his cool
ness of manner during the whole time"
On the 18th of July 1864, President
Lincoln issued call for 100000 men, to
be supplied by draft
Call Tor Halt if not enlisted volun-
M;11;. NJ tarily. within fifty
iiiioh "AeA' days The Star of
July 10. 1864, said:
''The call by the President for 50,Ooo
draft until the 9Th of September. WILL
by accelerating enlistments. undoubtedly
serve to put a large additional force at
the command of our military author
tiles almost Immediately. a wall of de-
spafr comes UP from Richmond that At
lanta must fall because of the want of
men to defend that city and Richmond
dt tle Same tl1le. rms shows now low
the Confederate resources In the way of
fighting material have been drained. An
addition to our force of 5OO.WN men. or
half of that number will enable us to
finish the war this summer and crush
out the last vestige of the rebellion. BY
the provisions of the call those local
tiles where an excess of troops has been
furnished under previous calls will be
credited with that excess on this. Until
the 9TH of September is allowed for fill
Inc
of service to be at the option of volun-
teerS for one. two or three years. At
the end of fifty days a draft will take
place for men to serve for one year. to
supply any deficiency in the quota
"ashington was proud of its electric
nre alarm and police telegraph at this
time fifty years ago. and in
Fire Alarm an article of The Star of
e. July ~, 1864. is descrip-
oJ''en' ton of the apparatus. To-
Gated on the fourth floor of the police
headquarters building on 10th street near
D. The fire alarm system consisted
of series of dials at headquarters. and
forty-six signal boxes placed at various
points in the city. The keys of the boxes
were given to the patrolmen of the
various beats and reliable citizens living
near the boxes. The Star describes the
system as follows:
For illustration. a fire breaks out near
Willard's Hotel; the patrolman goes to
box Al, nearby. and turns the crank the
register at the central Office records II:
the operator there Immediately strikes
four taps In quick succession, then a
short pause. followed by one tap. indi-
eating forty-one. on all the gongs and
the three alarm bells simultaneously The
firemen look at their chart. and, seeing
the locality, have no difficulty in finding
the spot Immediately. The machinery for
striking the large bells is ingenious. and
will strike as readily with the hammer
of x-thousand-pound bell as one of
600 pounds. The bells selected by Mayor
Wallach are those of the Columbia COM
pany, on Capitol Hill; the German Catho-
lie Church (St. Mary's,. 9Th street west,
and the Thirteenth Street Baptist Church,
all of which are struck simultaneously
by the operator at the central office by
means of electricity.
X
The District was, of course. keenly in
terested in the possibility of another draft
resulting from the new call
Districts for volunteers. and in The
nA Star of July 81, 1864, is the
following on the subject:
Under the call of February 1. 1864,
for 100000 men, the quota of the District
Of Columbia was fixed at 1856. BY cred
its under former calls. by volunteering
and by drafts, this call was filled. but re-
cruiting was continued energetically, and
the result is that we have an excess of
45O over all former calls to begin with
under the late call for JOO.GO men. We
understand also that recruits are coming
in to the average number of fifteen per
day. BY the subjoined communication,
received by Mayor Wallach from Provost
Marshal Fry. it will be seen that our
quota under the new call has 5een fixed
at 2910. The apparent discrep-
ancy of numbers under the first call for
5OO.0oo and under the present call is ac
counted for by the fact that the quota is
now made up in proportion to the number
of bona fide citizens of the District tac-
cording to the census of 1900 amenable
to military duty, many clerks and others
subject to enrolment elsewhere having
heretofore been enrolled here.
X
During the invasion of Maryland by
southern troops. the railroad between
here and Baltimore was
Rail Service broken and service was in
p.,+orad terrupted. as well as the
service to the west. In I he
Star of July %. 1864. is the following
paragraph relative to the restoration of