The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-07-30

BRINGING DOWN A SPANISH s-HARPsHooTEH-
to bring him down with a bullet at once.
This was done in q majority OF cases.
Some Americans with a moderation that
was not considered p~raiseworthy by most
of the army motioned them to come down
and then took them prisoners. A few
were caught skulking in the underbrush-
Some had hidden their weapons There
was a strong temptation to kill such guer-
rillas, but apparently the inclination to do
so was in every case overcome.
A correspondent of the New York Trib-
une says that the marksmen of the First
Volunteer cavalry had especial success
with the Spaniards in trees. They got
four in one day. One thing that made the
rough riders especially thirsty for the
blood of these bu~shwhackers was the
w~ounding of First Lieutenant Carr. He
was In command of his troop, ID, when
overcome by the heat. Four men went to
the rear with him. Two were walking
with him, the others Just behind, carrying
the four rifles. A shot from a tree a short
distance from the road struck him in the
lower part of the back, the ball coming
out through the groin.
Tho four quickly laid the officer down
by the roadside and started into the forest.
They were woodsmen themselves, keen to
distinguish foreign objects in foliage. In
their terrible earnestness it was no long
job to spy cut the Spaniard. After that
revenge was easy and simple. The Span
lard fell dead. It is now expected that
Lieutenant Carr win get we'll.
The four s~harpshooters who were bagged
in q short time by the First Volunteer
cavalry spent the night in their trees
They signaled to one another with b cry
of the whippoorwill. 1t was an excellent
imitation, but it did not deceive the train
ed ears of the western plainsmen. A little
party started out early in the morning for
some sport. They had it.
A trooper of D got information of tho
exact spot in which one of these S~paniards
was hidden by this same whippoorwin sig
nal. A wounded man was hot in the foot
by him. Then came his cry, apparently
of exultation. The cavalrynan made him
out in q cocoanut palm some 40 feet Above
the ground. Only the mans left shoulder
and a part of his left arm were visible. A
bullet in his shoulder caused him 20 drop
his III and clutch wildly with his right
arm for support. His body, however,
swayed into better view for an instant.
The second shot was just above his heart
and ended him.
Two expert rilemen of the Sixth in
fantry and three of the Sixteenth had a
little hunting party in the woods, in which
four Spaniards were shot from trees. Il
is a strange fact that some Of those knock
ed out of trees were not killed, even by
the fall of 80 or 40 feet from a cocoanut
palm, but were taken prisoners. Some
captured u~nwounded in mango trees de-
clared they were merely there for fruit.
Examined further, they explained that
they merely happened to have their rifles
with them. A few were unRrmed, or at
least their weapons were not found. They
may have been hidden In the dense foliage
of the trees.
Some of the good shots of the United
States army expressed their disgust with
the craftsmanship of these Spaninrds, de-
claring that in the circumstances they
should have killed and wounded far more
than they did. Most of their shots seemed
low, striking the legs or the lower part of
the body when effective. There has been
an idea in the army that the Spanish IRE
was always high. Perhaps the warning
of the officers against this fault has led to
an excessive correcting of it. The tree
fighters usually seemed to fancy a range
OF 300 yar1s as the one which afforded tho
best compromise between good shooting
and safety from detection. The trained
regulars could probably do as well at a
distance of 100 or more yards farther.
They are trained for effective work mp to
600 yards. OF course they shoot at longer
ranges. but at that are fairly certain of
hitting a man
1t would be interesting were it possible
to reckon up how many of the killed and
wounded were laid low by men in trees
and bushes who were back of the Anaeri-
can firing line. The number was certainly
large.