Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-08-09
PLATTSBURG ARMY
COMPLETES MARCH
Now in Camp After Strenuous
Week on the
Road
BY Special staff Correspondence
In Camp near Cadyville, n. Y,
Sunday Aug g. 1916

Sunday. Aug. 6, 1916.
The Reds and Blues, composing the
Plattsburg citizen army of infantry,
cavalry, artillery and engineers, are
encamped on the Saranac River near
this town over Sunday, after strenu-
Gus week of marching and maneuver-
| ing, camping at new spot each
night. The fights each day have been
waged flercely and in great earnest,
but fortunately there have been but
| few accidents.
An entire regiment of students at
tackled three companies of business
men yesterday morning, but the lat
ter refused to retreat in spite of the
| overwhelming superiority of numbers
on the enemys side. So the students,
about 1900 of them, fixed bayonets
and charged, to the real fright of the
older men, who grabbed their rifles
as clubs and prepared to resist the
| crazy youngsters" The pmpires
| called the engagement off before any
| damage was done.
A large number of the rockies Wis
tied the New York State prison and
! asylum for insane criminals at Danne-
mora to-day. The place is located
ABOUT miles from the camp site and
those who were shown through the
grounds and buildings were much i'm
! pressed with the cleanliness and order
| everywhere displayed. There are $50
men in one section of the grounds who
are insane, and it gave a somewhat
creepy feeling to have several hun
dred eyes fixed unseeingly or craftily
on us as interlopers. The open air
and sunshine = seemed doubly good
when we finally emerged.
Camp, tent and equipment inspec-
ton was the only duty the soldiers had
to meet this morning The rest of
fn nd
vidual to do with as he liked. Two
days more of hiking and the return to
! Plattsburg will be made. Truly one
learns to appreciate the folly of un-
preparedness after spending a month
at a camp of this sort. To learn is
to realize how little good an unframed
| volunteer army could do in case this
country needed a powerful arm to
| regulate and insure the justice and
| equality which is so glibly spoken of
| in abstract terms. Every man who
leaves Plattsburg is a strong advocate
of compulsory military training, which
fact serves to show as nothing else
! can do the wide divergence between
the theoretical and the practical.
Examinations For Officers-to-Be
The other evening a telegram was
read by Captain (now Major) Hal
stead Dorey to the assembled men,
announcing that there are 1900 va
CdIlClSS IN tne army Tor men VINO can
| pass the examinations for I'd Lieuten-
ant, with likelihood of advancement
| in the near future to the rank of 1st
Lieutenant, which is the present status
of men who graduated from West
| Point this year. Later there will be
| opportunities given for those who
wish to take exams. for officers in the
Reserve Corps, to be called out only
in time of war.
In the last few days, older and less
hardy men have been dropping out of
ranks during the march on account of
the intense heat and choking dust, but
a rest over Sunday at this attractive
camping site is putting most of them
back on their feet.
There has been surprisingly little
dihiculty from poor feet in compari-
son to previous camps and the
marches have been equally hard
Seven thousand tanned and healthy
citizen soldiers will return this week to
their respective places in civilian life
and Plattsburg for them will be tenn
porarily laid aside. But the effects
will not stop there. Public opinion is
being moulded to such an extent in
| favor of these camps that it is a safe
prophecy that within a very few years
some similar method of systematic
training will have been adopted in this
country that will make of our young
men more sturdy and dependable citi-
zens, with a strong appreciation of
their country, which Gen. Wood de-
clareS is an essential part of their
right of manhood suffrage.
l.. j. s., Jr.