Washington sentinel., 1899-05-13
National shame,

Aeuinaldo," when seen by oui
representative, declared that "tht
American soldiers in the Philip
pines were killing unarmed men
women and children; also that mil
itary despotIsm prevented many
volunteers from returning home
when they wished to do so. These
statements were based upon the
letters from soldiers themselves
He read extracts from letters from
volunteers, Withholding some oi
the names. One man wrote: zone
Of the meanest tricks ever played
is that by which government
officials are refusing to give trans
portation home to men who have
served their time. These Filipinos
have not been licked. A short
time ago we sent out a flying col
umn, and while we burned and
laid waste lot oi places, the coll
umn lost a good many men. and
the Filipinos followed them back
when they turned. We have
brought all this trouble on our
selves. The Spaniards were never
so overbeaTing and exacting. II
is not true that the fighting at
Manila was begun by the other
side. We all know here who
started it and you can bet your
boots we shall do our best to lay
the facts before our people when
we return home"
"We have treated the natives
terribly" wrote another soldier.
whole companies have been used
in shooting down unarmed people.
Our rule here has been to shoot
every thing with a black face"
Another letter. from a private in
Washington regiment, Leonard
J. Adams, Of Ozark, Mo-, says:
"The next day after the battle we
went over the battlefield in squads,
burying the dead of our enemy.
| saw "a buried in one hole. We
would rake them up in pile, dig
a hole, dump them in, throw lit
tie dirt over them, and 60 ahead.
In the path of the Washington
regiment and Battery d, OF the
Sixth artillery, there were 1908
dead Filipinos, and a great many
wounded. We burned all their
houses. i don't knoW how many
men, women and children the Ten
nessee bows did kill. They would
not take any prisoners. One COM
pany of the TennesseeaAs was sent
TO headquarters with 80 prisoners,
and got there with about a hun
dred chickens and no prisoner S"
It may also be Of interest to
publish the picturesque express
sion used by Frederick d. Sweet.
of the Utah Light Battery, who
wrote alb ut the flight ofthe natives
across the open country after the
Americans had driven them out OF
the trenches: "The scene reminded
me Of the shooting OF jack-rabbits
in Utah, only the rabbits some
times got away, but the insurgents,
when once we got our eye on them,
did not"
"It was fine shooting" wrote
Charles Brenner Of Minneapolis, in
his account of the charge by the
Kansas regiment at Caloocan, "as
it was open ground, and we picked
them off like quail" He describes
another scene in the fight which
merits attention: Company l
had taken a few prisoners aud
stopped. The Colonel ordered
them up into line, time after time,
and finally sent Captain Bishop
back to start them. There oc-
Cured the hardest sight l ever
saw. They had four prisoners and
didn't know what to do with them.
They asked Captain Bishop,
and he said. you know the ORDERS
and four natives fell dead"
Mr.. Stevens further quoted the
following from Arthur Minkler of
Funston's Twentieth Kansas:
"Friday afternoon we advanced four
miles, and we fought every inch Of the
way. | do not know how many ol our
boys were wounded or killed. or how
many insurgents; but / saw IS dead
insurgents in one place and n in another,
besides whole lot of them scattered
along that did not count, just on the
1 ground went over. II was like hunting
| rabbits; an insurgent would Jump out
OF a hole or the brush and run He
| would not get very far. | suppose you
| are not interested IN the way we do the
l Job. We do not take prisoners. AT least
the Twentieth Kansas do not. IfYou
had seen how they had chopped two OF
our boys, you would not either. We
burned everything we came to, except
the car shops, which we are using"
We admire Mr.. Stevens for so
unhesitatingly giving vent to his
righteous indignation and making
these facts public.