New Britain herald., 1917-04-16
Co. E GUARDS in
MIDNIGHT BATTLE
Exchange Shots With Unknown
Providers Near Railroad Bridge
BULLETS WITHOUT EFFECT

Two Soldiers Under Arrest at ArmOry
on Serious Charge and May BE
Court Martialled-Co L Man Miss
ing-May Draft Here.
Two guards from Company E of
this city patroliing a railroad bridge
In a lonely section between this city
and the shore, were fired upon by
unknown men last night and a fusilade
OF ten or a dozen shots were ex-
changed. The men who attacked the
guards escaped into the woods and
thorough search of the vicinity by
the reserve guard, which was rushed
to the scene, failed to locate them.
The report was made to Lieutenant
Ashley j. Griffin, commander, at the
state armory at midnight. None of
the guards was injured by the flying
bullets, nor were either of the ma
RAIDERS hit, it is believed
The attack last night was the first
dangerous one in which Company E
men have figured since the breaking
out of hostilities. On one other occa-
sion a guard doing outpost duty was
compelled to fire at an unknown man
seen sneaking through some railroad
yards. but the shot was not returned.
Another member of E company, while
off duty, was made the object Of phys
ical attack by a gang of rowdies, but
until last night nothing approaching
real martial difficulties occurred. The
men, as posted for the night, are doing
their guard duty In pairs and it was
shortly before midnight that the two
sentinels, posted some distance from
the nearest city, observed stealthy OBJ
jects in their vicinity. A challenge to
halt brought a bullet whizzing past
their ears. The guards returned the
fire, aiming at the flash. The unknown
miscreants fired one more shot and
fled into the woods beside the rail-
road tracks. The outposts fired eight
shots in all.
Lieutenant Griffin has no way Of
determining whether the attack last
night was made by some people with
an exaggerated sense of humor, by
people who wanted to start some ex-
element, or whether the assailants
were enemies bent upon destruction
Of railroad communication, and when
foiled tried to finish their nefarious
work by killing the guards. The
theory has also been. advanced that.
possibly the shots and the hasty re-
treat into the woods was but a blind
and an attempt to lure the two guards
into pursuit so that another member of
the gang might remain in hiding and
after the guards had gone, complete
their original plans. The New Brit
ain men were too good soldiers to
fall for any such scheme, however.
iaf
guard was summoned.
Co. E Mems New Assignments.
Headquarters has definitely decided
that Company E, which is to continue
to do guard duty in this vicinity, will
have the New Britain state armory
as headquarters. A. change has been
made in the plans for the distribu-
ton of the company E guards and
the several details were called into
the city today and re-distributed in
an entirely different location, their
previous posts now being guarded by
troops from other places. The new
plan calls for the maintaining of a
! much stronger reserve force at the
barracks on Arch street and the de-
tails sent out will be smaller. Three
details were sent to do outpost duty
in their new locations today. They
were in charge of Sergeants Smith
and Queenin.
Two Soldiers Under Arrest.
While the discipline of the soldiers
is rearded as excellent and the men
are working hard for Lieutenants
Griffin and Harris, the tranquility of
the barracks has been disturbed by
two arrests on serious charges, Pri-
Yates Alfred (Pickles) Swanson and
Albert P. Rouillard are under arrest
and close guard, pending what will
probably be general court martial
on serious charges preferred against
them. 1t is claimed that contrary to
all military law, which is more severe
! in times of war, both these men were
drunk while doing guard duty on
| Friday night. 1t is furthermore
charged that these two guards de-
serted their posts before being re-
! lieved by other guards. They were
arrested in local saloon on Saturday
morning by Sergeant James Kelly
after provost guard had been sent
out to locate and arrest them. Mill
tary men state that the charges
| against Swanson and Rouillard are
| most serious ones.
\ Ma, VN,.nT< IJo,.~, S,~~o,,