The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-09-08

coming to stop inside his shirt-a
most narrow escape. The infantry
boys were not so fortunate-10. were
killed and 40 were wounded. The fu-
nerals of the dead were held yesterday
and were, of course, very sad and
touching ceremonies The wounded
now lie in tents in camp and are re-
ceiving the attention of the hospital
and medical departments.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION.
The battle was as follows: The Tenth
Pennsylvania regiment, or more prop
erIy. a battalion of it under command
of Major Culebrtson, was stationed
along the American trenches on either
side of monastery formerly a fine
building, now riddled with bullet and
shell holes. Back a half mile or so
were the supports, consisting of a COM
pany of the Third United States artil-
lery, armed with the Krag-Jorgense
rifles. By the way, the Spanish troops
as q rule are much better armed than
we are They have the Mauser rife, a
rife of German make which is one OF
the best rifles made. 1t is. however,
in no way superior to our Krag-Jorgen-
sen. Both are magazine guns. But the
only troops with US having the Krag-
Jorgensen gun are the regulars, four
companies of the Eighteenth infantry
and two companies of the Third ar
tillery. The Pennsylvania Colorado,
Nebraska and California regiments
have the old Springfield.
Those Mauser bullets do have an ugly
sound as they ping through the air
or clip off the tops of trees or blades
OF grass within a few feet of your head.
Two guns of our battery and two of
Captain Grants We're also in the
trenches-ours on the right, his on the
left. AS good luck would have it, We
had moved our guns from the inSur-
gent position in rear to their new rest
ing places the morning before the en-
gagement and Captain Grant had
taken up two of his guns. 1 had very
carefully concealed my guns by put
ting matches in front of the embra-
sures. or holes through which the guns
protrude. and / and all of US are quite
convinced that the Spanish were taken
wholly by surprise when my two guns
opened on them-they supposed they
were still in the rear-in the old in
surgent positien-and that is where
they got fooled, to their cost we be-
lieve. Captain Grant had taken no
means to conceal his embrasIIreS. al
though they were in fact partly hidden
and Lieutenant Grow feels assured
that the Spanish believed that the only
guns they would have to deal with were
the two on the left-for that reason
they kept thin line in front of the
left wing, putting most of their men
on our side in order to avoid the guns.
There had been skirmish fire during
the day between the sharpshooters, but
nothing serious. About in the after
noon ! had gone up on a porch on the
third floor of the Monastery, with Cap
tain Grant and Lieutenant Kragenbuhl,
Third artillery. We crawled out to the
end of the porch where I've had a SPLEEN
did view of the Spanish lines. l had
Just left them and had crawled UP the
rear slant of the roof to the gable Il
had seen Colonel Hale in the same eX-
cellent position in the rlorning) when
the Spaniards began firing like sin.
don't know whether it was at US or
not, if so, nothing came very close, but
Grant and Kragenbuhl made bee line I
for the staircase, and from thence down /
into the trenches. But for me escape !
was not quite SO easy, so I made up
my mind to stay on the roof until |
things looked more encouraging. There !
remained to the immense enjoyment |
Of the boys in the trenches below, for !
about half an hour and then | sneaked |
down pretty close to the staircase, and |
got down in hurry, l assure you. AS |
a matter of fact, we have all been i
where the bullets fly ever since we
came. A bullet comes through camp
once in a while. A man was shot in |
the leg by one yesterday morning.
ALLssWAS SILENT.
To return to the battle. All was COM |
paratively silent, until II 80 The boys
were creuching behind the earthworks, J
most of those, belonging to the battery :
being. asleep, under the canvas shelter |
constructed for them. Then there !
arose from the Spanish lines, marked |
a Of n,Tr.
say there were at least 1900 of the /
enemy. Their guns back in their lines 4
Joined in and the dark and rainy night, I
1isagreeable enough under any circum- |
stances. was made hideous by the flight |
Of messengers of death. The enemy 1
came out of their earthworks Wifi the !
evident Intention of throwing our right |
flank. which was supposed to be in !
charge of the insurgents but which in |
fact was most woefuily weak and I'M /
protected. The Pennsylvania boys /
returned the enemy's fire, 1
rising up over the parapet to deliver /
their shots and loading under cover. /
When things got intolerable Lieutenant 4
Gibbs let drive with one of our pieces, |
out the temporary cover to /
he conference.-the was followed by I,
Lieutenant Grow on the west They |
ired shrapnel (sheils each containing |
700 builets) right into the enemy's !
iashes. Lieutenant Kragenbuhl says |
hat each shot left a gap in the Span /
sh lines The Pennsylvania boys fired |
so rapidly that before long they were |
almost without ammunition, then for !
| time things looked extremely blue |
The SDaniardS seemed to have an mex |
supply and their firing kept !
ip internationally. Gibbs cut his |
'hrapnels at zero, so it. would explode
n the gun and let them have it right
md left Grow followed suit just at
he critical moment up came the re-
eryeS under Lieutenant KragenbuhI
They came through. the mud at a
iouble time with their bugles blowing,
hey filed into the trenches and were
eceived with hearty cheer by the
,oyS- Immediately the commands
load, ready" aim and fire were
leard and the regulars rose above the
works and poured volley after volley
nto the almost victorious Standards |
hen up came other regulars Third
rtillery. then the Colorado boys and
ONE California company and the Span
ard concluded he had had enough and
etreated after two hours hard con-
est We do not know how many were
Tiled among them, but it must have
zen considerable number, they were
ut of their trenches, we were in ours
nd we had our cannon right against
heir lines.
PRAISE FOR THE UTAH BOYS.
You should hear the praises be-
towed on the Utah boys 1t is fire.
uently stated that we saved the day.
hat the Spanish would have been too
1uch for our infantry without the pro-
ection of our guns. We fired leo can
on shots during the cement One
rovoking feature of the affair was the
hooting into our batteries and trenches