The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-28
BOYS FROM FORT SMELLING.
C. G. Gamblf, Company G, Third In
fantry, Writes Neyvsy Letter.

William Latchford, Engine House No.
s. received the following letter yesterday
from c. c. Gamble, Company c, Third
United States infantry, now in the field
in the Philippines. The letter contains in
teresting information regarding the
Third s trip from New York to Manila
and their subsequent action in the field.
1t is written from Caloocan and is as fol-
lows:
Dear Friend: 1 have been unable to
write before, as we only stayed in Ma
Mia two days after our voyage out. We
sailed into Manila bay on April "a and
were marched to the outskirts of town at
once. ! was assigned 10 guard duty next
day and SO did not have any spare time.
The day after We landed the Third bat
talon was ordered out, and had. a scrap
with the, natives, in Winch they lost two
men and had I've, wounded. The next
day the remainder OF the. regiment get
orders to move and we went into the
city, then outrtwehty miles by rail to the
place where the fighting of the previous
evening had been. a We camped there for
march. We were in the reserve, however,
the night and Were up early and on the
and kept at some distance from the firing
line. The natives offered very little re-
sistance, and for that reason the reserves
got no fighting. We kept up this manner
Of march until we got up nearly to their
capital, where We expected fighting. The
next morning we moved up to the firing
line and started on to the capital, but
the natives gave way as usual and no
one had much Of any work to do.
These natives can't stand our charges.
They have constructed as fine trenches
as could be made, but in every case,
when we approached within distance Of
their lines, the trenches would be desert
ed and the natives would retreat. If the
volunteers who have been doing the work
were armed with I<ra orgenson rifles,
instead of Springields, which are short
ranged, there would not have been so
many killed The. natives being armed
with Mausers, our boys have to charge
fully 300 yards before they can get within
range. In the meantime, the Mausers get
in their work. Ifsthe natives had been
good, or even fair shots, they wouldn't
have done q thingsto the volunteers The
troops in the rear are usually in more
danger than the ones in front, as the ma
tiVes fire high.
After the natives abandoned their cap
ital we were brought back here and are
now camped at station three miles
from Manila We shave had one or two
scares and have been routed out of our
tents several times at night, but have
had no fighting. The natives haven't
sand enough to attack us in the trenches.
I understand that the troops are sur
rounding them and driving them towards
our trenches, land if that is the case, We
will see warm times vet.
For brief description Of the trip:
After nearly freezing in St. Paul, we got
Thursday. The next day we started on
the long voyage We had good passage
across the Atlantic encountering only
one storm. I escaped being seasick, al
though l had rather queer feeling at
times. We reached Gibraltar just two
weeks after leaving New York and were
received with a twenty salute
from British n1en-ofwar in the harbor.
Gibraltar is built on a side hill and puts
one in mind of Duluth.
I'VE then started for the Suez canal.
It looked like big ditch. There were
mud flats on each side and no grass or
trees, except a few willows and some
thing that looked like sage brush. We
got to Suez at last and only stopped long
enough to coal. The trip through the Red
sea was without incident, and there ives
nothing of interest until We struck Cey-
Ion. There everything was green and
cool looking and everybody wanted to
go ashore Singapore was our last stop
until we got to Manila. We coaled and
body counting the hours. We got there