The Dickinson press., 1898-09-10
First Manila Mail.

On board Valencia, Cavite Bay, Philip
pine Islands, Aug. 2, 1893.
To THE Passive are now at an
Choir in the waters where Dewey won his
great victory the day Co. X left Dickin-
son for Fargo-May land the people
were telling us that we would never get
outside the state of North Dakota; but
here we are, and with chances very good
for smelling powder within a few days or
hours. We got into the harbor at $3.50 p
m. of the 31st of July and cast anchor be-
hind Dewey's gunboats drawn up in line
of battle. We lay just behind the flag
ship Olympia and about 2oo yards from
us are the wrecks of three Of SPANS feet
just showing above water and off nearer
land are two more partially above water,
and just a little astern of us, perhaps IS
yards, is a buoy with a red flag on it that
marks the resting place of three more.
There were two that were captured that
can be repaired. There is no dock here
where we can go to land the men so we
have to land in lighters which makes it
very slow. l think we will get on shore
tomorrow. The Indiana and Ohio are I'M
loading today. We left Honolulu on the
afternoon Of the 9th of July, and had a
very good trip; would have made better
time only that the Morgan City was some
slower than the rest of the feet. The
Newport, Gen'l Merritt's flag ship, did
not wait but came on ahead, so Gen'l
| Macarthur took command of our feet
composed of the flag ship Indiana, the
Ohio, Morgan City, City of Para and the
Valencia, carrying about 1850 men, infan-
try and artillery. We had fine weather
until the last two days of the trip, when
we had pretty rough weather and a good
many of the boys, including your most
humble servant, were treated to another
dose of seasickness. Oh, it's fun! The
North Dakota boys came into port in the
best shape of any body of troops that
have come over; we reached here without
losing a man and only one man sick.
| Lieut.. Conklin of Co. B was sick with
typhoid fever, but he is getting along
nicely: he will be taken ashore here at
Cavite and put in the brigade hospital.
When we go ashore we will 60 in heavy
marching order and with ten days field
%rations and ammunition, all other proper
ty will be left on the ship until after the
fight and then it will be unloaded at Ma
Mia; it lies just across the end of the bay
from us and we can see the old yellow
rag of Spain flying owe the town very
plainly. The boys thatare on shore have
a little brush with the Dons every night.
We stood on the bridge last night until
II o'clock watching the flashes from the
light artillery and it is reported today
that the Spaniards captured the Utah
battery last night, but don't know wheth-
er it is SO or not. There is also one
company Of the 10th regiment missing
that may have been captured. l think
they were out on a reconoitering expedi-
ton. They had a little brush Sunday
night and a captain of the Ist California
regiment was killed and 2omen wounded;
Spanish loss not known.
We are only waiting for the Monterey
and when she comes she will turn her I9
inch guns on the Notifications from the
harbor and at the same time land forces
will attack in the rear and when the
Spaniards hear the North Dakota yell ]
don't think they will last long. There
are about $4,000 men in intrenchments
so it is apt to be a pretty warm SCRAPS ]
don't know as there is much use writing
this as you will very likely hear all par
ticualars by cable long before thisreache:
you. There are several foreign battle
ships here including English, Japanese
German and French. The German ad
miral sent a message over to the English
man, asking him if they were going t.
allow Dewey to lombard the city and tn
Englishman sent word back that he has
better address his communications t
!. Admiral Dewey. The English man-oi
war that is here is the and largest in tn
world and there is another just comini
into the harbor, She is flying the Eng
lish flag, but do not know what she
any more than that she is a warship.
1t rains here nearly all the time, it be
; ing the rainy season, but it is not yer
: warm, in fact quite cool. We catch a
the water we use for cooking and drinl
: ing and it is not half SO bad when on
o gets used to it. 1t is much better tina
, water that we had on board ship aftt
it had stood in tanks for thirty days.
The English Consul at Manila die
here today and all flags in our fleet, bot
%men-of-war and transports are at ha
mast. We have been getting our ANN,
milton up out of the hold today read
to take on shore. We have everythin
ready now, and as soon as we can g
/ boats we will go ashore. There will ha,
to be a detail left On board to guard til
, ship and the boys are all excited for fe;
q they will each be the particular ones lei
e Co. KS officers are safe, as l will have
e go as adjutant and of course they 'coul
not take Lieut.. Gruschus, as that woul
leave the Co. without a lieutenant; b,
some of the privates and perhaps. SON
) of the non-commissioned officers wi
. be left. Fred Macendra, on the Waller
It cia, is correspondent for the San Fra
J. cisco Examiner, and he says that he
!, going to the front with the 1st No. Oak.
when the attack is made tn write up II
: fight. will close, hoping that long b.
fore you receive this that we will be o
cuping Manila; with kind regards to al
remain, yours truly,
LIEUT.. A. ]. OSBORN,
Adj't and Bat. 1st N. OAK,
= 9th Army Corps,
:. Manila, Philippine Island
). P. S.-We have a postofice establishe
MI EH