Evening star., 1915-05-16

They have machine guns no artiller,
Am sending field guns forward. Shs
have passage clear in an hour"
Use ample force. answered ths
commander. These Americans" IA"
said to his aid They aren't TO h-
underestimated. A little more prepa
And We wouldn't be here laughed
the aid.
Thirty minutes afterward. from
points wholly invisible to the Ameri
cans. there burst the shattering thun
der Of field artillery. Explosive shells
flew over and into the trenches
ShrapneI screamed at them. and huis'
like sentient things right IN thcl'
faces. TO drive rsttlinG bullets IN All
directions
Their machine guns were useless
There was nothing in sight at which
to hre. The men lay face down. clutch
ing dirt. choking with fumes and
smoke, stunned by the blasting things
that burrowed into their earthworLS
and blew them apart and tore livinS
bodies TO pieces.
At Rocky Hill a militia company OF
artillery tried TO move its gun into
better shelter. The plow horses that
had been seized to drag it. wild with
terror. became entang!ed in the traces
and fell. Cutting them away, the men
wheeled the cannon into position b.
hand. But their armory never had been
fitted for subcaliber practice, as it
never had been atted for mounted ia
struction. None of the men had been
as second class gunners. and their
shots went wild. serving only
to betray their situation to the
to o1s place themselves s for rT protection - from
indirect fire. So they died.a'
A troop of militia cavalry, trying TO
move forward near Hartford. was cut
off by an advance patrol of enemy cav
ha had he m
flank the defenders from the north. The
Americans charged. But they were
mounted on horses never used before
for cavalry work. The enemy riders
were mon trained to swordsmanship.
The American troop had averaged only
thirteen men in mounted drill in
whole year, because they had posses
sed neither horses nor armory."
X
The green brutes reared at the sight
of weapons. They pitched into one an
other as the enemy cavalry dashed at
them, and added their iron hoofs to Ine
melee For one brief moment eyes
stared into eyes. and il was hack and
thrust. Then the enemy riders were
through them. and whirled like a gale
and swept through them again, and
killed and killed
"Annihilated." reported the scout
cavalry a little later. when its squad
rons came up. Our loss one dead.
three slightly wounded
Annihilated, Yes, gentlemen of Con-
gress. sitting in Washington at that
moment and passing resolutions and
appropriations. and uttering fne senti-
ments about millions for defense and
not one cent for tribute! There were
ugly things there on the Connecticut
river shore that answered you more
loudly in their eternal silence than II
they had spoken with thousand angry
tongues.
That days battle that filied the
fields of Connecticut with dead mems
bones to be plowed up in many year
afterward. went down in American
history as the massacre of the Connec
ticut river. A massacre IT was-an
American massacre. carefully prepared
by elaborate carelessness through
many year before
Less than. thousand men. II was
said afterward, escaped from the mas
sacre. They crawled away down gul
lies or SWAN down the river. and hid
under weeds and painted. and tied up
their wounds with rags from their
ragged garments. They were never
able to tell what had occurred. They
knew only that they had thought there
was victory-and then. in front of
them, and on their tanks. and behind
them, there had come flames as IL hot
line of blast furnaces had opened to
blow in their very faces. wherever they
turned. -,
I'VE have taught them their lesson.
said the hostile commander. We shall
have no more trouble.
1t was true. Western Connecticut was
broken under the invaders rod as
eastern Massachusetts, had been broken
That night the army occupied Hartford.
Meriden, New Britain and New Haven.
though not before the arms factories
had been blown up. to welcome the
soldiers with flaming ruins.
The next morning cavalry detach-
ments began cautiously to scout into
the Berkshire hills, to feel for the
American outposts.
The way to the city of New York lay
open.
as Range Of four miIes.
s1 Page 231. report on military held artillery
Gen. Mills. U. S. A. 1914. -
as Table q. militia cavalry statistics Di-
vision of Militia Anairs, L. s. A., Annual Re-
port, 1914.
Copyright, 1915. by J. ". Muller. All rights
reseved.D
Next Sundays installment Of ''The
Invasion Of America" will tell OF the
capture Of New York city.