El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-09-27
LETTER FROM MANILA.
A Member of the TWenty-Third
Regiment Band Tells What He
SAW and Did

HS9IIhSht OAHU "ndl
Saw and Did.
Gus Buckler of this city has receive
from Will Z. House, of the Twenty
third regiment band, now at Manila
an interesting letter telling of his ez
periences during the trip to the PhiliI
pines and since the arrival of the expe
dition of which he was a member a
those islands. From the letter W
make a mum Der of extracts that will n
doubt be of interest to many people O
this city. The letter is dated Angus
20:
THE third expedition to the Pbilip
pines left San Francisco June p. NJ,
ship, Indiana, was the flagship O
the eXpe dition, having on board Gen
Mac Arthur, commanding. We hat
on board, altog ether, about ! 300 men
consisting of: One battalion and head
quarters 23rd L. S. infantry: one com
pspy U. S. engineers: one company u
;. signal corps; two companies North
Dakota volunteers, and two companies
18Th L. 5. infantry. We were crowd.
ed too much for comfort, but then, SOL
diers going to war could hardly expect
cabin passage, and of course we had to
make the best of our rough fare. .
1--WE laid over at Honolulu two days
for coaling and on July 9th started out
ohSO IhofS oh lOuS NOyoSc dCTuSS
the ocean to Manila. Nothing of any
unusual Importance happened until we
were out about seven or eight DAYS
from Honolulu when our first death at
sea occurred. Ayoung man of L COM
pany, Twenty-third infantry, died
with an attack of spinal meningitis,
and was buried with the usual solemn
ceremonies of sea burial. His re-
mains were tightly sewn up in canvas,
h ox-tI aiS hto .
the burial ceremony had been read by
an officer of his company, with the at
tendance of all on board, his body was
allowed to slip over the port rail down
into the dark blue waters of the deep
sea. AS his body struck the waves,
the company trumpeter sounded
TAPS" and that ended the sad cere-
monies of our first sea burial.
THE next day we had another death
on board. This time man of the en-
gineers, and a few days afterward'
young second lieutenant of the same
org snization. The young officers
name was Kerr and he lived in Roches-
ter, N. Y. These were all the men
lost on the Indiana, and considering
the way we were crowded, and our
poor accommodations generally, speaks
well for the strong constitutions and
good health of the soldiers.
I'VE passed around the northern end
of the Luzou Island, July 18th, then
changed our course due south for
Manila. Sunday morning, July 31st,
we rode into Manila bay, anchored near
Cavite, in plain view OF the wrecks of
Spanish gunboats, that Dewey had
sunk on May LIST. We had been just
"a days making the trip from San
Francisco to Manila.
although the camp was about five
miles from Manila, the front line of en-
trenchments was less than mile from
the city, and between the American
camp and enemy's Entertainments. No
definite date of attack had been named
by our commanders, but we were ex-
pecting the order to come any day.
we were not much sur
prised when in the afternoon of the
18th of August, we received orders to
get everything in readiness for an at
tack on the Spanish Entertainments |
early the next morning. We were to |
take rations enough for three meals, a |
canteen of water and 200 rounds of am |
munition per man. OF course the COM |
panies had ammunition in reserve in |
ease of need.
Sat four o'clock the next morning |
he camp was reused from it's slumbers |
ov the stirring notes of the "Reveillen
md in a short time IL, 900 soldiers were |
stirring around looking to arms and |
ammunition and preparing for the /
yreat event that was to take place
hat day. By daylight We had eaten
breakfast and started on the march to
Manila. The rain fairly beat itself
hat morning and poured down in a
lood.
THE 1st brigade, under command of
len. Mac Arthur, and consisting of the
North Dakota volunteers: the 18th
minnesota volunteers; the 23d L. S in
sntry, and the Aston battery was to
axe the lead and compose the firing
inc. Admiral Dewey's fleet was drawn
p insline,s bout mile from shore and
vas to silence the Spanish guns and as
list in dislodging the Spanish forces
rom their Notifications and entrench-
nents.
1.-The 23d band was to assis. the hos
ital corps in caring for the dead and
and our station WAS right be-
ind the firing line. AT about half
ast nine the ball opened. After the
panish guns were located, from their
eturn fire at the land batteries,
)ewey's fleet turned loose. A big pri-
ate, standing few feet from me, re-
parked: ''Jee whiz, hell has sure
roke loose now and l thought so too,
ldginp from the sound. By this time
be Utah light battery had succeeded
q knocking the biazes out of two Span