The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-10-26
MAN1LA'S
CAPTURE,
Sergeant Major Pogues
Letter Proves of Great
Interest.

gether refer to the battle it1relates inc
donts that are no less Interesting,
Thousands Of SDaninr1s wero watchin
us In actual amazement Dozens of rapi
ana quick fire cannon were lookin
straight down on us. We turned an
marched down the broad avenue parable
ed with tho wall and as we were about
squares down. suddenly volley cam
from the part Of the town we came frol
ard they struck up among the Spanish
and to our horror and square under fla
of truce those Spaniards opened up on us
There wo were, between two fires. Tn
California regiment scattered, the U. S
Regulars dropped down fiat. My moi
went down SO quick. mono of us knew how
It was done. l was SO mad could cry, t
think after all our fighting and then to bt
shot down in the street like yellow dog
We could SEQ Spanish officers rushing
among their men and could SEQ thny were
trying to stop tho firing. Then the Span
ish regiments began to come in from the
other'part OF the battlefield. We had 3 nleu
shot in this little scrap, Ny bunk mate
Macdonald, who told tyou about in NY
other letter. wns strlcl, on tho top OF the
right hand and lay there and swore at the
Spanish who fired on him. A California
boy lay between us. a Muuser bullet crash
ed through his head. He did not have
tino to 9roAn, simply stlifonel out. a
shot struck haversaek full of cartridges
and nearly half of them went off from the
concussion. That poor fellow will lose his
loft hand Ho put his hand to the bag and
it was nearly blown off. Wo stood up and
watched the Spaniards sneak past us over
the drawbridge into their walled city
Some looked sullen and vicious little slim
swarthy, black-eyed devils, pale, sallow,
mean and every other one had q bloody
bandage tired around them somewhere.
Wagon loads Of dead were piled up. We
saw awful sights in their lines. They
we're dead but not cold or stiff yet Heads,
legs, arms, hands, fcst and all portions of
anntomy lying around. Everything was
lying around In pitiful shapes, guns,
swords, bsyonets aud clothing didn't
have time or inclination to loot the dead,
or pick up keepsakes. 1 had all tho lead
could stagger under, my littla ration of
canned (horso) beef, and hard tack. Twas
too thankful to be alive than to hunt over
corpse for trinkets, watches and
money, as I saw other men do. thought
maybe I'd get got chunk of lead before
this Is over and some, one would rob my
dead body OF watch, money and purse,
then brag about it. I will have few
things to bring homo (when do GOMEZ
but they will be things came by lawfully
and not stolen from the dead. Am
rightp 1cannot write more at present but |
will add some to this before mail 1t to
yon. We have no idea when things will |
be settled and will be sent home 10 Gods |
country again. 1 am ready right now.
Evcry thing is military law. We guard
the entire city Of 85O,009 people; every
street, avenue alley and for miles out on
all the country roads are strongly guarded
against theInsurgsnts who are still on the
war path and not allowed In the city un.
less unarmed. We crack them over the
head every once in q while. It's supper
time ard will close. lam worn out
hungry, tired Of sleeping on the hard floor
and wet trenches and mud; going dirty,
sleepless and half starved.
Two days ago our.conpany was sent out
in the country to Spanish artillery OUT
post for their arms, ammunition, horses,
.to., and only nine men went around, my
'elf and eight privates. The rest brought
n the above mentioned stuff. Everybody
,ame In town the Spaniards hauled down
jheir flag. got quite intimate with a few {
If them and they admired the Americans l
7ery much (after we whipped then). Ny
orders were to stay and hold 1t until dark. =,
posted three men as lookouts. The In
urgsnts are still out and won't surrender (
% The United States. They want FREQ t
country same as Cuba, but they don't get t
t. Pretty soon we saw them sneaking t
lown the road In bunohes, then by oom- +
,aniss. then In regiments and every ono Of
hem took shot at us and as we had no r.
riders to return their fro we bid behind t.
he good thick wall Of earth works until
t got too warm even for me. They use v
Remington rifles and shoot copper bullsts, {
which are deadly poison. so l ordered re- o
reut under scorchins fire for nearly a o
nile and fortunately no one hit stopped
nd said we would either talk them out Of
t or fight it out then or there. My men .
greed to anything I said, so we formed S
int across the road, loaded our rifles and {
'aited until they came around bond In !.
he road. III admit I felt anything but q
rave but did not show 1t by my looks or b
otlons and stopped out in the middle Of
he road, square in front Of the mob and 81
aid "Haltl' l raised both hands high /,
bo, Q my hendi (the peace sign); they all "
topped and all began to talk at once in o
,venteen different languages. l never
I'D word until they quleted down a
tile. bit of the enc Of a cigar, lit 1t So
ON one Of their cigarettes and then n
started in on Spanish, l said Ameri.
ans were their friends. We had whipped
10 Spaniards and had them all prisoners O.
nd that the United States would square Il
le deal for them, They all npolosizsd V
" shooting at us and wanted to know If
Q were hit or was angry with thsm.
I'D no, We were friends; they all shook
ands We ss,noked and jabbered like mag
cs and suddenly 1t was their turn to be
Irprised when they saw about four hun.
ed big Colorado soldiers swinging down
o road with fixed bnyonets. My Colonel A
ajor and captain was in the lead. 1t had
eu reported that myself ind men had
en killed by tho insurgents, We cap
red 3S4 pr Unsrs and marched them In.
town. ~ ,
(Contiuued to-morroWl al