The San Francisco call., 1898-10-13
COLONEL SMITH oVERL Lo0KED
MEN WHO DID THE FIGHTING
 NOT ADVANCED.
Californians Gain All the Honors at Manila, but Officers With Friends at Washington Get the
 Benefits.
BY SOL N. SHERIDAN.
Special Correspondence of The Cali.

Special Correspondence of The Cali.
 MANILA, Sept 1.-The story of the 1 taking of Manila is a tale that is still
 being told in various ways. It is being | told, for one thin in the rewards | dealt out at Washington to the soldiers ] who are supposed to be deserving of l all honor-and dealt out, so far as our | meager information goes, as rewards
 are always dealt out at Washington.
 Dealt out, in effect, not to the men who
 are most deserving. It is long pull
 that reaches from Manila to the dome
 of the Capitol. To be effective, as it
 seems to have been, it must of neces-
 sity be strong. We have been told out
 here that Anderson, Greene and Mac
 Arthur have been made major generals | for the part they took in the battle of
 August 13. We do not in the least ob-
 ject to that. Anderson was in command
 on that day, and success, however won,
 goes to the commander. Also, Ander-
 son is good soldier and good fellow.
 He gave the command for California to go ahead-and California went ahead.
 She always does-save, perhaps. when
 it comes to getting the reward of merit. l the throne.
 1 | and a good fellow, and the fight he made on the extreme right deserved
 the honor he has won.
 | Again, nobody will object to 1 Greene's advancement. Greene built | the trenches before Malate, and
 the boys in the ranks will remem-
 Der him kindly for that. He made | the approach on the strongest front of
 the enemys works, in the traditional
 way, approved by engineer officers,
 since tte brutal pastime of war be- i came a science the lads who toiled
 at those trenches under the burning
 sun or through the torrential rains of
 the tropics, the brave boys who kept l long ward behind the works through
 the night hours while the searchlights i from the ships swept up and down
 over them, while Spanish SharpShooterS
 snapped at them from clumps of bam- | boo, the widows and loved ones of
 those men killed in keeping the trenches | where there was need for neither the I trenches nor the keeping, the dead | asleep by the lonely Paranaque, where
 no American dead had need to lie, with
 the voices of the living and the voice. l less elOquence of the lead, will acclaim | Major General Greene. Let us get l down, for once, to facts. There was
 no more need for trenches before Ma 1 late, no more need for the loss of one
 American life in the operations prelim- | mary to the taking of Manila, than for l the whole blundering series of opera | tions out here since Dewey's great vic | tory to set free people whose sole notion of freedom lies in license to cut
 the throat of a captured foeman. Dewey 1 knew this. He knew the city was at 1 his mercy at any moment he wished to l take 1t, and he knew, also, that the
 rebels, so-called, a rabble handful of half-clad natives, held the Spaniards at bay waiting the good pleasure of the ! Admiral that General Merritt knew the lives of brave men lost before the city fell were
 needlessly lost-only, Merritt and the
 Admiral are too we'll drilled to admit too much.
 Let us return to the rewards of merit for victory. Colonel Van Volzer of the Eighteenth Infantry, we are informed. has been made a brigadier general. Colonel Van Volzer is the senior colonel of General Greene's brigade, and was in the trenches with his men, on the firing line, when the assault began. He did not stay in front, but that was not altogether his fault. Let us go back a little to the land operations attending the fall of Manila. The case of General MacArthur in command of the right wing, we will consider disposed of by his promotion. On the left wing, Greene in command, the First Colorado and the Eighteenth Infantry were assigned to the task of holding those trenches be- loved of the general. The Utah Bat tery had its guns in place then and the men fought them like demons. The
 First California led the reserve, with the Nebraska Regiment and the Penn- sylvanians, who had kept the trenches the night before, thrown back in the order named The Colorado Regiment had it's band out with full equipment, with the purpose of making theatrical entrance into Manila. l speak of the
 things I saw. When the ships ceased firing and the order to advance was
 given the Colorado men, under Col
 onel Hale, and the Eighteenth under
 Colonel Van Volzer, leaped over the trenches and made a break across the poddy fields and bamboo thickets for
 the Malate fortress of San Antonio Abad. This spoiled the band effect
 somewhat, a rush through difficult country not being calculated to in- spire the average army musician with enthusiasm, but General Anderson had ordered the Californians forward in the meantime and Colonel Smith, whose band had been utilized to carry mus kets, swept down into the trenches with his regiment, turned sharply to the right, marched out to the beach on the double, rounded the old iron barge which formed the extreme right of the American works. and carried his men along the beach into Malate, headed by the Colorado band, playing Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
 Colonel Hale's Colorado troops reached Fort San Antonio Abad first and put up the American flag in Ma late. That, after the Californians had brought up their band in good order, seemed to be glory enough for Colo rado. What had become of Colonel Van Volzer and the Eighteenth in the meantime, I did not have time to find out. Colonel Smith had orders to go ahead with the First California, and he went ahead. I went with him. The Second Battalion of the First Califor- mia. Colonel Smith and Major Slime leading, passed the Colorado troops at r1s..4 Sn.a Anfnnin They fnrpht their