Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 112, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1904 — MANEUVERS AT BULL RUN. [ARTICLE]

MANEUVERS AT BULL RUN.

Regulars and State Troops-Drill on Historic Battlefield. On a strip of laud eight miles wide and twelve miles long, in Prince William County, West Virginia, watered by the streams of Bull and Broad Run, the largest body of troops ever brought together in the United States in time of peace recently assembled. The soldiers of the regular army and of the State militia were brought together for drill in army maneuvering and to acquire an experience which cannot be gained with a small number of troops. On this historic battle field of Bull Run the soldiers were divided into two large armies and bloodless war was waged. Gen. Grant and Gen. Bell were the commanding officers and fwenty-six thousand men took part in the drills. They were about &nefourth regular and three-fourths militia, and they represented about one-quarter of the State and national forces included in the seacoast territory from Maine to Texas, or the Atlantic division as it is officially designated. Gen. H. O. Corbin was in supreme command. It is expected that the recent maneuvers will be especially beneficial to officers. Many of them are skilled in the manipulation of small bodies of men, and have a good theoretical knowledge of how a campaign on a larger scale should be waged. The necessity of supplementing theory with practice has long been recognized in the War Department and ' the recent drills are the outgrowth. In order to obtain the use of the ground where these maneuvers took place the government leased the land of the farmers owning it and agreed to pay 20 cents an acre for all land used for maneuvering purposes, and 15 cents extra per acre for all land used for camping purposes. The government further bound Itself to pay for all damages to crops, fences and buildings. The maneuvers were participated in by the sons of men who forty years ago put up fights which were anything but shams.