The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-06

! nearly INTO the Town OF Manila. Every con-
| fdence. however. is felt that General Otis is
/ master of the situation. This confidence is
based not only on this mornings cablegram,
| but from repeated assurances to that effect
| conveyed by General Otis to Washington
/ from time to time during the past few
months.
GENERAL OTIS'S FORCES.
The forces under his command, as shown
| by the records Of the adjutant generals Of
| flee Dec 10, the date of the last report were
| q, $40 troops, and of these there were present
/ for duty 19, 516 men. This command is com
posed of the following organizations: Com
| pany A, United States engineer battalion;
! Companies c, z, C, I, and l., Fourth
/ United States Cavalry; troop of Nevada cav
! airy; Companies G, II, and L. of the
| Third and d and G., of the Sixth United
! States Artillery; Companies A and D. of the
| California, and 4 and B, Of the Utah Ar
| tillery and the First Wyoming Battery; the
/ Third and Fourth United States Infantry;
! the Fourteenth and headquarters and Com
| panies B, d, f, II, ], K, L and NJ of the
| Seventeenth United States Infantry; the
Eighteenth Twentieth and Twenty third
| United States Infantry; the First California,
| the First Colorado, the First Idaho, the
/ Fifty-trst Iowa, the Twentieth Kansas, the
/
| the First Nebraska, the First North Dakota,
| the Second Oregon, the Tenth Pennsylvania,
| the First South Dakota, the First Tennes-
see, the First Washington and the First wy
oming Regiments of Volunteer Infantry.
A portion of this force the Eighteenth
| Infantry and battery Of artillery, are at
! Iloilo, where General Miller was sent a
month or more ago. Approximately 5000
men are their way to join General Otis
| in four separate expeditions, though none
| is expected to reach Manila for three weeks
or a month. They are as follows: The
Fourth and four companies of the Seven
teenth Infantry, LIS men, under General
Lawton, which sailed from Gibraltar last
Friday; the Twentieth Infantry, comprising
| thirty-seven officers and 1,26S men, under
General Wheaton, which left San Francisco
Jam q; the Twenty-second Infantry. in
command of Colonel Egbert which left San
| Francisco early in the present month, and
| 1900 men and officers of the Third and Sew
enteenth United States regiments of infan-
try, which left New York on Friday on the
Sherman.
There is a big transport, the Sheridan,
now making ready in New York to carry
the Twelfth Infantry and a battalion of
| the Seventeenth Infantry, 1920 men in ALL
and she will start not later than the 14th
inst. That is all that can be supplied to
General Otis in way of reinforcements, ac-
cording to General Corbn If the soldiers
are to be of service in this campaign. More
of course will follow as rapidly as they can
be got ready if General Otis needs them in
any future operations he may plan, but, as
already stated, it is believed this particular
crisis will have passed before they can be
tran al ha ha
United States to Manila.
These troops with those now in Cuba, rep
resent the cream Of the American army,
according to General Corbin. 1t is true that
only about 5000 of General Otiss soldiers
are regulars, but his volunteer soldiers have
been under thorough discipline and training
for months, some as much as eight months,
and many participated in the engagements
attending the capture of Manila and are
practically good 9s the regulars.
INSURGBNT STRENGTH.
No one here knows the real strength Of
the insurgents opposed to General Otis. The
accounts of their numbers are conflicting,
and none of them come from reliable
sources. Still, the best belief of the author
tiles at the War Department is that they
number about $4,000 men, but they are not
comparable to the American forces in per-
sonnel, discipline or quality of arms. 1t is
known that they have some Mausers, some
Remingtons and variety of other fire.
arms, and it is suspected they have been
quite plentfully supplied with ammunition
from outside sources. Taken as a whole,
this armament is decidedly inferior to that
of the American troops. Then, with mex
perienced officers in many cases even the
colonies of regiments being not more than
twenty-one years of age, and their lack of
knowledge of tactics, are at great disad-
vantage. Their strong point is their knowl-
edge of the country and a certain fanatical
bravery in onslaught that would be for
midable to a volunteer force not we'll
trained to stand fire Like the Cubans, they
rely too much on sword-like weapon cor
responding to the machete. a weapon of
little value against long-range rifles. Alto
gether, the War Department officials have
not the slightest doubt of General Otis's
ability to hold his position indefinitely and
the cause for apprehension is fear that, by
taking to the interior of the country, prac-
tically impossible for American troops in
approaching rainy season, a prolonged In
dian-fghting style of campaign may follow.
Besides his soldiers, General Otis has at
his back in Manila bay, commanding the
city, a veritable rock of Gibraltar in
Deweys fleet. With the vessels he now has
and those about to join him Dewey will
have twenty-one ships of various types. Of
full-hedged war ships he now has nine, as
follows: The flagship Olympia the Bos-
ton, Baltimore, Charleston, Concord, Mon
adnock, Monterey, Petrol and the Buffalo.
He also has three armed supply ships, which
are just as effective as a war ship almost
in attacking troops outside of Notifications
and in maintaining the blockade They are
the Cugoa the Nanshan and the Zafiro.
The vessels on the way 10 join Dewey are
the gunboat Helena, now at Colombo; the
Castine at Gibraltar; the Princeton, due at
Port Said Tuesday; the Bennington the
Brutus and the Yorktown, probably at
Guam on their way to Manila the battle
ship Oregon and the water boat Iris. at
Honolulu. The Solace is about to start any
moment from Norfolk for Manila This
leaves out of account the army transports
under Otiss command. which could be made
of great service. The fleet cannot operate
against troops in the interior. but undoubt-
edly Dewey Immediately will draw a tight
Gordon of blockading vessels around the
island of Luzon and make a special effort
absolutely to cut off the insurgents from
the supplies and ammunition, which they
must have to carry on the war.
AGONCILLO NOT WANTED.
One of the first steps of the administra-