Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1894 — How He Would Defend It. [ARTICLE]

How He Would Defend It.

Captain Derby, better known to fame by his literary name, “John Phoenix,” perpetrated a joke (retold in Harper's Weekly) which is one of the classics at West Point. The Theoretical Journal of the siege prescribes just what is to be done in investing a fortification, with the invariable result — theoretical, of course —that the works are obliged to surrender within a certain number of days. Professor Mahan called upon Derby to explain how, with a given number of guns and strength of garrison, ho would defend a fort. "I would immediately evacuate the fort, then lay siege to it, and recapture it in forty-one days,” replied Derby.