The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-09-16
Sam WiddifGld TELLS Of Army
Operations in Manila.
REALISTIC STORY OF AN ALARM
Americans Replace insurgents in
TrenChes-Shells and Bullets.
Killed and Wounded.

| Sam Widdiheld, a Honolulu boy in
| Co l., of the First California Regi-
ment, writes from Manila one of the
most interesting war letters pos
sible The composition is most cred
liable to the young man. Poorer let
ters from we'll paid correspondents
have been published everywhere.
! Sam sends the letter to his mother
! and SisterS-Mrs. NJ. G. Widdifield
and daughters. Widdifield was Of
fered a special detail before the
fighting, but preferred to remain
with his company
Camp Dewey, August 9Th, 1898.
* "Since then, have lived
through a battle and an engagement
in the trenches, all of which l must
tell you about. AS you can see by the
heading of this letter we are no longer
at the Fort at Cavite, but are encamped
about three and a half miles from Ma
Mia with the Spanish lines and our
own entertainments about two miles
from where we are When we first
landed at this camp from Cavite, the
insurgents occupied the entertainments.
AS the Spanish will only fight at night
it seems, it Jared our nerves consid-
erabIy whenever we heard a few shots
or the heavy boom of the cannon. After
while we became so used to it that
we hardly noticed the firing at all.
After we had three or four thousand
troops over here in camp, the insur-
gents were ordered out of the works
and the Americans took their places.
Let me describe our first engagement.
We had just turned in, expecting as
quiet a night as we had been in the
habit Of having, when we heard the
heavy boom of a gun and then the
sharp rattle of musketry. 1t gradually
grew heavier and heavier, and then we
heard the clear notes of the bugle in
our own camps blowing ''to arms. to
arms" in quick succession. 1t didn't
take long for us to turn out and put
on our belts, and grab our guns and
fall into line. 1t was laughable to see
some of the costumes 'that the boys
came out in; as for me, l turned out in
pants, belt and gun, and fell into line.
We all thought at first it was only a
drill to try us, but it was stern real
ity.
We marched out towards the en-
trenchments about a half mile away,
halted, and awaited orders. We
lay there for about a half an
hour and the firing had almost
ceased when the outpost came
in and repOSted that the Spaniards had
fired on us, but had ceased and that
everything was all right, so we came
out without having fired a shot, but
there was lots of excitement for a
while, l can assure you.
Enga cement No. 2. This was a bat
tie, and a big one, as you can see by
the papers. 1t was 11:45 when we were
awakened by the most awful racket
one can imagine The wind was blow
ing almost a gale and it was raining
torrents; above all you could hear the
rattle and the crash of musketry and
still louder was the sound caused by
the big 10-inch guns of the Spaniards.
Almost as soon as we awakened the
bugle sounded ''to arms" away back in
the Colorado camp, and the cheers of
those boys were taken up by US, as
we hastily jumped into our clothes and
threw on $50 rounds of ammunition
and jumped out into line. We started
out on the dOuble-quick and in 15
minutes were within $50 yards or so
of our own entertainments, where the
Tenth Pennsylvania and Utah battery
were fighting for their lives. You could
hear the crash of our vOlleys as they
were hurled into the Spanish lines and
the deep "bOom-bOOm" of the cannon
and the Shrek of the shells as they
came into our camps and the zip of the
Spanish rife bullet as it sped by our
ears. We then realized that we were
in battle and had to do or die. We
were then advanced to within 100 yards
or so of the trenches and Company L,
| Cmy Company acted as the support
I and we had to stand and lie and make
ourselves as comfortable as possible
under the circumstances while the
shells whizzed over our heads or burst
around US. The first shell to fall in
our midst fell within six feet of me
and failed to explode. When morning
broke I went out and found it just
where we had seen it fall. saw the
glow it made coming towards us and
called out for the boys to fall as a
j shell was coming: we Immediately fell