The Portland daily press., 1898-12-24
WAS FOR EFFECT ON SPAIN.
The Famous Battle of Ialate Was But a
sham.


That the bombardment o Malate FORT
and the storming of the trenches at,the
CITY of Manila was sham battle pure
and simple, says correspondent Oh tne
the st. Louis Globe-D Democrat, Is the IN
formation contained in an interesting
built of history diyulged in letter from
a petty officer on board the Olympia, Al
miral Dewey's flagship, to a friend In
Duluth, MINI. In the. light OF what is
told the affair takes on complexion Oh
comic opera. 1t might be said TO- have the
aspect of what in sporting parlance would
bs called a sshippodrome. So far as
known, this is the first inkiing of the
true state of affairs that has reached the
public 1t in no way detracts from the
fame of Admiral Dewey. By dint of un-
paralleled daring and hard fighting he
had the Spaniards at his mercy. Manila
was under his guns, and that he chose
to Join in little scheme to let the Span
ish commander down easy, SO that the
latter could put on better front on his
return home, merely shows that his spirit
of generosity and accommodation IL equal
to his gallantry. The letter is dated at
Cavite, Oct. 6. 1t says:
81 suppose you would like to hear the
yarn about the fall of Manila. !, I take 1t
for granted you have heard how Rome
get this letter the fall of Manila will
doubtless seem an old story, but here goes
nevertheless:
fsDewey and Merritt had sent several
Joint notes to Jandines (Augusti had re-
signed) demanding the surrender of the
city, and representing the needless siaugh-
ter and suffering which would ensue if it
became necessary to lombard and storm
the town. JandineS answered, saying
that he was compelled to resist until
oyerpowered, and was required to keep
his non .com mbatants in the walled town
as he was afraid the insurgents would
massacre them If they were transferred.
Finally, through the offices of thu Belgian
Consul, compromise WAS made.
The agreementsswas to the effect that we
should make sham battle of it, the t1eet
to bonn bard Malate Fort, and the army to
storm the trenches.
81 heard the gist of this myself. / was
working on the poop the day before the
engagement, when Admiral Dewey and
one Of the generals think it was Gem
eral Greene-were sitting there. Anyway.
/ overheard Dewey say to his "nibs:3 e
Well, I'm going over tomorrow, at y 10
is that they will not fire shot, The Be-
gian Consul will be waiting to take
Brumby ashore to hoist the flag. II they
fire on my fleet will destroy the city.
'This was on the 12th. That after-
noon, the divisional officers had the gun
captains up on the after Jurret, taking
bearings on the Manila fortitications. We
L e. cola in, "a nj
the I'd of May and had it on board AND
mounted on a tripod. By its aid we could
see every trench, fort, battery, blookhouse.
and, l might say, every gun in Manila.
We had Manila pat then.
"Well, the next morning. we hove an
chor at O'Clock, steamed to Manila and
csme about 8, 000 yarcs right abreast OF
the city. The foreign fieeJ had been mott.
fed on the 18th to get out OF range. And
who do you think were the first to get.out
of the way2 Nobody less tnan our Ger
man friends and they took with them
their terrible 'Kr-r-rwupp' guns. The
foreign fleets anchord according to the
way their sympathies tended-the English
and JapS near our transports, and the
French, German and Austrians away up
at the northern end of the bay, nearly
hnll down.
"We opened fire something after 9
o o'clock and kept it up pretty regularly,
but not rapidly, until IL. The army
signale.i to us, Cease firing; we are to
charge And charge they did No
doubt at all about t.:at, They went over
three-quarters Of mile of rough country,
through three trenches almost tilled with
water about four feet deep, and did not
stop until they were in the city, where
they halted to restore formation. From
the first moment, the first trench was
passed the affair degenerated from fight
into foot race. The Spaniards could
have given big handicap to our troops
and then beaten them. We could seq
them dropping over one side of the Malate
Fort as the Colorado troops -came up on
the other. ! suppose you know that the
Thirteenth Minnesota was the first troops
to enter the town.
cat this time, about l2 O'Clock, Ad-
miral Dewey called the Belgian Gonsul's
tug alongside and sent Brumby, the flag
lieutenant. and two signal men ashore to
receive the surrender. They took No.
j American ensign (the largest regulation
flag made) to hoist when the surrender
was made.
s'We waited all the afternoon until 8
pollock, when the Belgian Consul a gain
rame alongside. He brought word that
Jandines would surrender as soon as q
general with 600 troops should be landed
In order to protect the town from the in
surgents. General Merritt went ashore
with 600 OF the Oregon yolun teers
marched up the Lunate and grounded
arms in front of the governors palace.
Then the ceremony commenced. When
the transfer of sovereignty was made we
hoisted the Stars and Stripes and down
came the Flood and gold. The two flags
passed each other about midway of the
staff. We saw it at once, and let loose.
We immediately signaled, 'Cheer Flag
and fire the national salute That night
we anchored off the city front"