The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-08-27
DIRTY FACED DAGos.
Emporia Boy Writes of the Heroism
of Colored Soldiers.

EmpOria, Aug. 27.-Jonas EckdaI has
received letter from his brother Carl,
who Joined the volunteers of the Dis
tr1ct OF Columbia. He has been having
some peculiar experiences. The letter
is unique, to say the least. 1t is writ
ten on three kinds of paper and en-
closed in an envelope made of an Ar
buckle coffee wrapper. The paper was
SeWed through and through with strong
black thread so that there was no dan
ger of the letter being torn and lost
He was in the fight before Santiago and
says: Every inch of the ground over
which we went had been holly contested
and on every hand could be seen the
newly made graves of the Americans
who had been killed. The Spaniards
were given short shift and in most
cases were the builders of their own
graves and monuments, our boys simp-
~ killing all who resisted in their
trenches and pilfng their own dirt over
them. We were in position and
under fire for about four hours and a
half when the DOns sent up a flag of
truce No one in our outfit was hurt
and don't know whether we did any
damage or not. l sneaked down and
out four trenches and worked my way
around to the right of the battery when
L found the Sixteenth regulars, whom
we had just relieved, in new trenches
and right here bObbed up one of those
incidents peculiar to the life I have led
more or less since I was Is. OF course
no one is allowed on the firing line or
in the trenches but the men detailed for
their trick of duty. I got in without
being challenged and in so doing STEP
ped on the mans hand on my right
It is unnecessary to say that he ripped
out an oath proper to the occasion and
one such as only a soldier can coin. I
was on the point of attempting an ex-
PLANTATION Of my clumSiness when our
eyes met. That was enough He was
an Old-time friend of mine and a print
er whom I had seen last in Albuquer-
que in 1888, just before I had the small
poE. Between taking turns at cracking
away at the Spaniards, we renewed ac-
quaintance. He had no business to do
so, but he let me try his Krag-Jorgen-
sen rifle. know one thing and that is,
that l pulled an officer down from his
horse at 500 yards range and sent him
crawling into the thicket.''
He pays a high compliment to the
colored troops. From where he was he
saw some colored regular troops sur
prfsed by the Spaniards Their am
munitiOn and their Calling guns were
burnt out. The officer in command or
dered the whole line to the rear when
right here is where the American sold
Ter, even If he was black, showed him
self better man for the place than the
man over him. One of the black cavalry
Sprang to his feet, flung the officer out
of his way, swung his empty carbine
around his head and yelled, To hell
with the reari Let's charge the dirty
faced DagOs,' and started across the
open space between the brush and the
Spanish trenches. In an instant both
regiments OF DIackS breasted the left of
the ridge, on the point of which was a
large Spanish blOckhouse with a couple
of machine guns and an immense num-
Der of Mauser cartridges. The Sixteenth
and Twentieth seeing the pace set by
these cOlored troops and not to be out
done, set aside orders, made a rush for
the front. This was a style of fighting
to which our Spanish friends were not
used to and they lost their heads. The
blacks literally dubbed the enemy out
of the trenches and then gathering up
the Mauser rifles and cartridges, shot
hell into them with their own medicine.
1t is said that between 500 and 500 were
killed there that afternoon. The
Spanish sharp shooters are not Spanish
at all but are mostly Austrian French
and Italian volunteers. as are also their
artillery gunners. = I put in yes
terday burying dead mules, which is in
teresting, to say the least"