Evening star., 1939-07-30
Modern Weapons,
Planes 10 Figure in
New Bull Run Battle
q, 900 Troops to Take
Over 70, ,000- Acre Area
For 2-Week Comes
By ROBERT A. ERWIN.

BY ROBERT A. ERWIN.
Airplanes and long-range artil-
lery, modern weapons of which their
Civil War forefathers never dreamed,
will be used by National Guard and
Regular Army soldiers to fight the
third battle" of Bull Run.
Twenty-three thousand troops will
move into the 70O00-acre area be-
tween Manassas and Gainesville,
Va, next Saturday for two weeks of
summer war games. They will
march and maneuver over the same
rolling farm lands, forests, brooks
and creeks where the North and
South fought the first and second
battles of Bull Run Cor Manassas
in 1861 and 1862.
The fire of their guns and the
drone of bombers overhead will
break the peaceful atmosphere of
the nearby Virginia countryside. In
1861, farmers left their fields to
join the Union or the Confederate
forces. This year they will be in
nocent and interested bystanders.
Landlords will rent their untitled
fields to the Government for the
duration of maneuvers, August 5-19.
While infantry and other units
will be fighting their simulated war
fare on the ground, airplanes will
come from various points to take
part. The 103d Observation Squad
ron, Pennsylvania National Guard,
will operate from Boiling Field, D.
c.; the 104th Observation Squadron,
Maryland National Guard, from
Frederick, Md, and the Sd Observa-
ton Squadron from Langley Field,
Va, with its advance base at Fred
ericksburg. The National Guard
aviators will operate under Sd Corps
Area command.
Battle Site Being Readied.
Advance details of Sd Corps
troops already are preparing the
battle-ground where $4,000 National
Guard troops of the 28th and 29th
Divisions will be pitted against the
streamlined Provisional Division of
the Regular Army.
The District National Guard, as
part of the 29th, which made name
for itself during the World War, will
oppose the Regular Army defenders
of the Nations Capital, the Pro-
visional Brigade, which will be part
of the Provisional Division.
Mai. Gen. James X. Parsons,
commander of the Sd Corps Area,
United States Army, composed of the
28th and 29th Divisions, will be su-
preme commander of the maneuver-
ing forces. Brig. Gen. Maxwell
Murray, chief of the Provisional
Brigade, will direct the Regulars.
Maj. Gen. Milton A. Reckord, adju-
tant general of the Maryland Ma
tional Guard, will command his own
29th Division, National Guard, troops
of the District, Maryland, Virginia
and part of Pennsylvania.
Brig. Gen. S. Gardner Waller, ad-
tutant general of the Virginia Ma
tional Guard, announced yesterday
that Gov. Price of Virginia, Gov.
O'Conor of Maryland and Gov.
James of Pennsylvania would review
the two National Guard divisions
at Manassas Saturday, August IL.
This will be. at conclusion of the
week of general military training
and the hardening process for
the Guardsmen, who must sleep on
the ground under pup tent shelter
and stand in line at field kitchens
to get their meals.
Farmer Welcomes Event.
Natives Of the Manassas area, in
cluding farmers and merchants, are
looking forward without trepidation
to the coming of the peacetime
legions by rail and motor caravan.
This is true, at least, as far as 63-
year-old G. H. Ayres is concerned.
Mr.. Ayres is the owner of the Old
Stone House, battlefield hospital for
Northern and Southern troops dur
ing the battles of Bull Run.
Mr.. Ayres, who had just chased
q stray cow back into a pasture
along historic Youngs Branch, took
time out for a bridge-rail interview
recently. He is an admirer and an
old friend Of the Nations armed
forces. He welcomed soldiers in 1904