The Topeka state journal., 1899-08-09
Suffering of the Soldiers of
LaWton's Command.
Terrible Hours on the Desert
Behind ParanaQue.
CAPTURE OFLAS PINAS
Fighting the Heat Worse Than
the Insurgents.
A Panic In the Night Suller
'sAmigos.''

II. T. McCutcheon in Chicago Record.I
Manila, June 22.-From the time
Wheaton's men on the Las Pinas ex-
pedition stopped for Ovenshine's bri-
gade to close up the chief problem was
not the fighting of the insurgents, but
the fight against the sun. Even the
Morong march with General Hall did
not equal those terrible hours on the
desert behind Paranaque. The soldiers
were nearly dead from heat and ex-
haustion. Six men lying under a tree
were fired on by the insurgents, but
they hadn't energy enough to seek pro-
lection. Several bullets clipped the
leaves above them, but they had ceased
to care whether or not they were shot.
Long lines of men were exposed for
over two hours out in the open, where
the heat must have been as high as 120
forded by the slightest shrub was pack
ed with men. Scores of soldiers were
stretched out gasping for water, while
comrades scarcely better off were fan
ming them. When at last the march
was resumed at noon. the lines were
crowded with tottering, dizzy soldiers,
who were fighting off complete prOstra-
ton in the hope of finally reaching the
distant shade near Paranaque. Their
campaign hats, of a sort that no army
in the world has ever before used in
the tropics, gave them little protection,
and there were no banana leaves which
keep the scOrching rays Of the sun
from their necks.
TERRIBLE MARCH IN THE DES-
ERT.
Up hills and down hills, tearing their
way through the tangled desert grass,
went the men. There was not a drop
of water for miles that could be drunk
They marched under the intense heat of
a tropical sun al the hottest hour of the
day in the hottest time of the year. The
wake of the army was strewn with
prostrated soldiers. Bands of insur-
gents were lowering about ready to
capture the ones left behind. These
were things which made that march
across the desert one of the most dread
full memories of our campaign in the
Philippines. Once or twice a short
halt was made to clear the way of in
surgents, but there was little dash and
spirit left in our staggering ranks.
The hospital corps, not prepared for
such wholesale prOstratiOnS, was hope
lessly inadequate to take care of the
scores that fell by the way Some of
the most serious cases were given every
treatment possible When the army
advanced these men were left behind,
to follow when they were able.
Not word of censure can be directed
at the hospital corps-men and sur
geOns-fOr they did everything in their
power to help the stricken soldiers.
When a man could walk no farther he
was given such assistance as possible
and then was told to keep with his
L
this way the field behind the army was
scattered with little groups of men, who
by keeping together, prevented the in
surgents from attacking them or pick
ing them up as prisoners.
FALLING FROM THE HEAT.
I saw one man who was struggling to
keep up with his regiment suddenly
throw his arms above his head and fall
unconscious to the ground. He was
taken to the shade of a tree, where his
moaning was pitiful. A Chinese coolie
dropped dead from the heat and an
other went mad. A soldier left behind
undiscovered was picked up by insur-
gents and killed, his mutilated body be-
ing found afterward.
The Colorado regiment had the end
of the swinging line, and consequently
covered much more ground than the
other troops. This regiment lost 40
per cent of its men in less than an hour
from heat prOstration.
At about l o'clock the brigade struck
the first fringe Of trees, which ran along
a little stream about a mile to the
south of Paranaque. The water was
muddy and not very good, but the SOL
dters were dying to drink it. A rest of
two hours in the shade here refreshed