Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1898-09-15
U. S. S. BALTIMORE,
MANILA
ISLE DE LUzoN, Aug. Z, '9S.


Dear Friend Frank: | was very much
surprised to hear from you, but you can
not imagine my delight to hear from one
of my old chums. We are III state of
excitement now for we expect to take
the city tomorrow or next day. The
monitor Monterey arrived here three
days ago from Frisco, after a hard trip
of over fifty days. She was towed all
the way out by the tug boat Brutus the
distance here from Frisco is over 5000
miles. We were expecting her here for
over one week, and when she did
arrive every ship in our fleet gave her
three rousing cheers. The Monterey
carries two twelve inch and two ten inch
guns in turrets. If you have seen a
picture of the Monitor you will know
what the Monterey is like. We expect
the Monadnock soon. She is a sister
ship to the Monterey. There are over
$4,000 troops here now and all but three
ship loads have been sent ashore here
at the navy yard at Cavite. The troop
ships here number thirteen, so with our
eight men-of-war and six coal Golfers
we have quite a fleet. Over near the
city there are four English five German,
four Japanese, and three French men
of-war waiting to see us take the city.
We may not come out of that fight SO
lucky as we did on the 1st of May, for
they have several large guns on the
forts in the city front. | do not think
the forts will last long when we start to
throw those terrible shells at them
they are poor marksmen. AS soon as
We destroy the forts we will land our
troops in the city and put it under mar
tial rule with strong patrol. All of
our ships are cleared for action now and
rumor says we will make the attack at
daybreak tomorrow. OF course we do
not know for sure. Our soldiers have
had several little fights with the Span
ish outposts near Manila and we have
lost eighteen men killed and over fifty
wounded so far. The Spanish loss is
unknown. / am learning to speak
Spanish fast, and if we stay much long
er l will be pretty well advanced in the
Spanish lingo.
We have very little sickness in the
fleet for all our water is distilled and
everything we eat is inspected by our
doctors. The troops ashore are having
pretty hard time although there is
scarcely any sickness among them, but
the rainy season has been on for over
a month and Camp Dewey near the
walls OF Manila is very unpleasant; we
have excellent food now. A cold stor-
age ship was sent here with cargo of
frozen mutton for the fleet and other
stores OF all kinds of vegetables and
fruits. Two ships came down from
Hong Kong with stores to sell the fleet.
Uncle Sam has sent us everything for
our health and c. mfort, but if he would
only send us some cigarettes we will
fight for him the rest of our days. We
have cigarette famine in the fleet. and
some think that the worst of all. We
feel confident that we will take the city
as easy as we did the pretty little
feet of Admiral Montejo's ten Spanish
ships. Well, if you were here you could
see the tunnels and masts of some of
the big ships sticking up out of the wat
er near Cavite. That battle the first of
May was a little bit worse than the shot
that knocked Charley Turner and out
OF Hayes cherry tree one night several
years ago.
have quite number of curios | in
tend to bring home with me when /
come. Most of these got in Cavite af-
ter the battle. This paper came out of
the Communicates building in Cavite,
and have a lot of fine Spanish books |
got out of the officers library in Cavite.
You spoke about a picture. Well, l will
not be able to get any taken until the
war is over, and we get to Hong Kong
or Yokohama. | will send some to you
when | get some taken. Now you must
give my best to all the boys. and love
to all the girls, and write soon and tell
me all the news from home.
Your old friend, FRANK.