Troops Prepare For Battle Of New York.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 5, 1912:
Final Orders for Red and Blue Armies Given by Gen. Bliss, Who Commands.
NIGHTLY DRILLS HERE NOW
Men March to Positions Middle of the Week and Begin Ten Days' Campaign Saturday.
    The Connecticut manoeuvres, the climax of which will be the "Battle of Kev York," in which engagement more than 20,000 regular and National Guard troops will take part, will begin next Saturday and will last ten days. By the middle of this week the National Guard organizations of New York City, New Jersey, and the New England States will be mobilized, and on Thursday and Friday the 15,000 troops from these States will be on the way to their positions along the Housatonic River in Eastern Connecticut.
    Brig. Gen. Tasker H. Bliss, commanding on Governors Island, who will be in command of the manoeuvres, in the general order made public on Governors Island yesterday announced that his headquarters would be established in the vicinity of Bridegport, Conn., and that the combined exercises would be officially known as "The Connecticut Manoeuvre Campaign."
    The movements will be divided into two periods, the first to be known as the instructional and the second as the final period. It will be during the final period that the problem involving the attack and defense of New York will be submitted to the commanding Generals of the two armies for solution. In the working out of this problem all of the troops will be involved, and the battle that will follow will last about three days.
    It was at first intended that Brig. Gen. Edward A. McClernand would be in command of the Red, or attacking, army, but this has been changed, and Brig. Gen. Albert L. Mills, former Superintendent at West Point, will be in command of the "enemy," while Brig. Gen. Frederick A. Smith, the commanding officer of the Department of the Missouri, will come East to defend New York.
    The fronts of tho two armies will make a battle line about twenty-five miles long, and aeroplanes, operated by regular army officers, will be used in locating the positions of the contending forces. The aeroplanes will be shipped to Bridgeport from Washington to-day, and with them will come Capt. Charles De F. Chandler, commanding the regular aero squad; Capt. Beck, and Lieuts. Milling, Kirtland, and Arnold, four of the most skilled aviators in the army.
    The following instructions for the aviation feature of the manoeuvres have been issued from the division headquarters on Governors Island:

    The aviation section, which will have immediate charge of aerial scouting and reconnaissance, will be attached to the headquarters of the chief umpire during the instructional period, and to the headquarters of the Blue forces during the final period.
    During the instructional period specific scouting problems will be assigned to the pilots each day, requiring reports and maps of their reconnaissance. During the final period the commanding General of the Blue division will require the pilots to word on specific problems of information, requiring them in each case to make reports and submit maps of their field of observation.
    In order that the conditions of real war may be simulated, the pilot will rise to an elevation not less than 2,000 feet above the ground before he begins his scouting and reconnaisance, and he will continue at that elevation until it is necessary to make a landing. To make sure that no information is obtained at a less elevation, the flight to rise to this elevation should be made, where practicable,
away from the ground in which information indicates that the enemy is operating.
    In order that the pilot may have information as to his elevation, each aeroplane will be supplied with a recording barograph with a six-hour clock movement, and at the beginning of the reconnaissance the time of lowering the pen on the paper will be recorded on the sheet. An aneroid barometer at the headquaters of the chief umpire will be read at fifteen-minute intervals during the flight of the pilots, and on the pilot's return his barograph record will be checked up and the altitude determined by using Table No. 20, of the Smithsonian Meteorological Tables, 1907. As a further check, each umpire should note the time that an aeroplane is in his vicinity and estimate the altitude above the troops. It will be assumed whenever an aeroplane flies over troops or in their immediate vicinity that it is under rifle fire.

    In addition to the aeroplane work, the Signal Corps will also operate field wireless and wire telegraph lines. Major Samuel Reber, Signal Corps, U.S.A., will be in command of all the signal forces during the manoeuvres. Col. William M. Black, Chief Engineer of the Eastern Division of the Army, will have command of the engineer troops from Washington, while the Provost Marshal will be Col. John A. Hull, the Judge Advocate General on Governors Island.
    Many of the troops that are to take part in the campaign are now on the march, among the field artillerymen from Fort Myer, Va.; the gun platoon of the Fifth Infantry from Plattsburg, N. Y., and the Tenth United States Cavalry from Fort Ethan Allen, Vt. The cavalry troops from New York and Brooklyn will also march to Connecticut and will leave New York next Thursday afternoon, and expect to arrive at their posts early next Saturday morning.
    In Manhattan the regiments that are to take part in the battle for the possession of New York are assembling nightly in their armories for instruction. All of these regiments will depart for Bridgeport or Danbury by rail next Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning.