The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-07-25
CHAPTER XIV
the Metropolis.

CHAPTER XIV
Attacking the Metropolis.
- My the harbor defenses OF Long
Island sound were still speak
ing to each other. From the
forts on Throgs Neck, In West
chester county, and from Fort Totten.
ON Long Island, the commanders ut
Forts Hamilton and Wadsworth in the
Earrows received requests for more
men. Large forces. said the sound de-
lenses, were closing In rapidly to in
vest them on land from the rear. 1t
would be an artillery and infantry
light in which the mammoth coast
guns could take little part If any.
The commanders OF the Narrows
were helpless to give aid The COM
manders of the Sandy Hook defenses
were helpless. All the men, regulars
and militia, OF the coast artillery who
could be obtained were not enough.
Fort Hamilton. being on the Long Is
land shore itself, dared not denude it.
self further than it had done. AT any
moment there might be an attack on II
too.
It was about o'clock in the morn
ing when the people OF northern Eong
Island and the Inhabitants of the Dor
ough OF the Bronx and Westchester
county sprang from their beds in wild
alarm. Without warning, as if a hurrt-
cane had struck with instant .concen-
trated force, all their windows had
crashed. Their walls We're shaking and
pictures and plaster falling. 1t was
like no gunfire that men ever had i'm
agined. It was not series of explo-
slons. It was like one explosion whose
crescent violence would not dwindle.
Men on vantage points along the
sound that night saw the attacking
lines from end to end plainly as If 1t
were day. So continuous was their
FIRE that 1t painted their positions with
broad, unwavering bands OF flame. 1t
needed not the star bombs and rockets
that curved everywhere under the sky
to fall glaring into the defenses. 1t
needed not the magnesium lights that
doated from parachutes dropped by
aeroplanes. On both sides OF the sound
the night was a red sea.
Into the mortar pits and gun en-
placements OF the defenses, like red
surf from that red sea, beat the I'M
ending fire. Shrapnel that walled like
the bride of the storm and dew apart
In the air flung bullets as IL mines
had burst inside of the defense! Eiev-
en- inch shells that hammered into con-
crete facing and split 1t apart with the
Irresistible agony OF their explosion:
Five inch shell and solid projectile!
Bombs from the mir. and every agency
that man had yet devised to wreck ana
destroy!
As suddenly us it had begun the fire
stopped. The night became utterly
still. The rockets ceased curving. But
In all the defenses there shone white
glares, from searchlights and naagne-
SUM flares. Illuminating rushing mass
es of men who clambered ovrr the
ruins of guns and mounds. and took
the works There was none left to OPP
pose them.
When the dawn came the watchers
rubbed their eyes. The great defenses
lay apparently unframed Their
mounds and ernbankments betrayed
nothing OF the ruin that the nights
battle had worked within But against
the Frightening sky there arose visi-
, BILE sign of what had been done. The
Dag OF the coalition fioated over
them and greeted the American sum
rise.
Within a few hours after dawn ar
tillery began to move through Long
Islands boulevards toward Brooklyn.
North of the city the army began
marching through the borough OF the
Bronx toward the Harlem river. Be
fore noon guns were posted along the
Harlem heights, on University heights,
at High Bridge and down past the
mouth of the Harlem river.
Through Hell Gate into the East riv-
er came a motley fieet-sOund and
river steamers captured at New Haven
and Bridgeport. wall sided freighters
and lighters. side wheelers and screw
propellers, and a flotilla OF notorboats,
the pick of the beautiful little navy OF
pleasure that filed all the sound har-
bors.
This feet anchored in long line be-
low Blackwelrs island, close under the
Manhattan shore. All the larger yes
sells had guns on their forward and up
per decks. AS soon DIS the craft had
swung TO the tide the weapons were
pointed at the city.
Then the telephone ben In the city
nal. called che mayer again The CORPS
Commander, speaking from temporary
quarters in the University OF New
YORK buildings, announced that he
wished to send commissioners Into
che city to treat with the authorities
for the terms of eapituiation. He de
sired that the mayor send an escort to
meet them at the Leno& avenue bridge
over the Harlem.
Arrived In the city hall, the com.
missioners presented demand signed
BY the commander for unconditional
surrender Of the city. The mayor and