Big War Game Ends; New York Is Saved.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 18, 1912:
Defenders Hold Off Assailant After a Day of Hard Fighting in Connecticut.
AIR SCOUT A GREAT HELP
Lieut. Foulois Discloses Lines of the Enemy to His Commander — Results of Manoeuvres Please Gen. Bliss.Special to The New York Times.
    BRIDGEPORT, Conn., Aug:, 17.— The war manoeuvres in Connecticut are over and New York has not been captured. There was enough fighting near Newtown to the north this morning to satisfy the Berserk, but after it was all over the umpires decided the battle was a draw. The climax of the war game came at noon, with the valley of the Housatonic filled with tramping men and the boom of big guns. The Reds and Blues were then firing into each other's faces at a distance of a few hundred yards, and the umpires decided that it was high time to call off the battle. The spectators had had their fill of fighting by this time, and, anyway, it was time for luncheon.
    Driven across country from Bridgeport to Newtown in the north, Gen. Mills faced about with his Blue army and gave battle outside of that little village of great elms and spacious lawns.
    The fighting started on the ridges to the west. At the very crown of these ridges stands the white home of William T. Coles of New York. You can see its red roof beneath Lombard poplars for miles, and it was here that the Blue New York cavalrymen were intrenched early this morning, awaiting the attack from the Reds, whose wagon trains were filing in by way of Bennett's Bridge.

Seventh and Squadron A Engage.
    They did not have to wait long, these men of the old Squadron A. At 8 o'clock there came a popping in the woods at their feet, and soon they found themselves face to face with their old-time rivals, the Seventh Regiment. With the Seventh were the men of the Red Massachusetts and Connecticut militia infantry. The cavalrymen threw up imaginary trenches and waited impatiently in the hot sun for the infantry reserve to come up from Reservoir Hill, in the rear. In the meantime they brought out their machine gun and combed the woods where the Seventh Regiment lay hidden.
    Soon above the sharp bark of the small guns came the deeper thunder of the big guns of the artillery, firing from the ridges to the left of Mr. Coles's house. Their booming brought a ready response from the north, where in the trees the Red artillery was hidden. Then the two batteries went at it hammer and tongs, and the air was filled with an all-pervading noise. The Blue battery was more exposed, and the dust and smoke they kicked up in wheeling their gun carriages brought down on them the fire of all the Red guns. This concentrated cannonade decided the umpires that the Blue battery had been put out of action and the gunners were sent to the rear of the Blue lines back of Reservoir Hill. Then out of the cast came Lieut. Foulois scouting for the Blues in his Wright biplane. He had started off from Gen. Mills's headquarters, to run into a crosswind that swung him around over the State line into Brewster, N. Y. He came down there and found out where he was. He climbed back, saying harsh things, and hovered for a while over the battlefield.
    The left columns of the Red infantry were deploying in the ravines west of Newtown and were attacking the Blues on Reservoir Hill when Foulois was seen overhead. He smelt the powder from the guns of the Blues, firing away from the hill crest, and up Coles Hill saw the gray jackets of the Seventh as they made a charge. Behind the Seventh sprinted the Massachusetts and Connecticut troops, and soon they were swarming all over the hill, sending the Blues helter-skelter back on their rear at Reservoir Hill.

Air Scout Aids the Reds.
    After hearing from Foulois, Gen. Mills directed the movements of all his infantry toward the ridge west of Newtown. The Red cavalry on its advance to Newtown was fired on from Reservoir Hill, and, according to the umpire, 15 per cent. of the riders were killed.
    By 10 o'clock the Reds had deployed all but one regiment of the First Brigade, New York, against the ridges to the west and northwest of Newtown. The Connecticut provisional infantry toiled up the steep sides of Reservoir Hill, raked by a steady fire from the Blues on top. The Red Massachusetts troops were on the left flank of the Red line, and the Fifth Infantry was moving north and west on that same bullet-swept hill.
    A Blue division of the Tenth Cavalry was declared captured. Col. Grierson of the Independent Blue cavalry was caught in a lane by some of his own troopers, fighting to-day with the Reds, and led off a captive.
    The lines were getting so close together now that the men were firing into the faces of those in front of them, and the din was terrific. Gen. Bliss, from his chief umpire's car, decided that it was time to quit. He gave the signal for the recall to be sounded. At the thrill of the bugle the men of both armies jumped up and waved their hats and cheered. The Reds marched back through Newtown, which has never before seen so many persons at once. The soldiers cheered until they were hoarse, and over in the valley the Blues were doing the same thing.
    Gen. Bliss would not make a statement as to the result of the manoeuvres, but it is known that he was pleased with the work accomplished. There was not as much fighting as at some other war games, but the first four days of instruction in the camps helped the militiamen to learn a lot of things they needed to know, and this was one of the main purposes of the manoeuvres. The work of the aeroplane squad has been hampered by accidents to the machines and the illness of one of the fliers, young Beckwith Havens, who was sent to the hospital with a fever. But Lieut. Foulois has shown the great value of the biplane for scouting purposes.
    To-night the 20,000 men who fought in the manoeuvres entrained for the trip heme to the six States from which they came.