Evening star., 1899-05-25
OPERATIONS NEAR MANILA
Gen. MacArthur's Report Of the Beginning
of the Outbreak.
Trcspassing of In-urgent Troops-A
Promise Made nnd DisrcRnrd-
ed-The Results

Gen. Macarthur, in his report of military
operations near Manila in February. makes
a brief statement of the position Of this
United States troops in Manila and suburbs
just preceding the outbreak of February 4.
He says; The perjinaCilv 81 the Insurgents
in passing armed parties over the line of
delimitation into American territory in
duced a correspondence, which. in ;ne light
OF subsequent events. is interesting as IN
dicating with considerable precision a pre-
meditated purpose on the part of somebody
in the insurgent ermy 10 force collision
Gen. Macarthur addressed the following
note to Col San Miguel of the iasurgent
army:
The line between your command and my
command has been long established and is
well understood by yourself and myself.
1t is quite necessary. under present COM
dltions, that this line should not be passed
by armed men OF either command
An armed party from your command
now occupies the Village in front pf block
house No. I. at point considerably more
than hundred yards on my side of the
line. and is very active in exhibiting hostile
intentions. This party must b. withdrawn
{" your side of the line at once.
From this date If the line is crossed by
your men with arms I'm their hands they
must bc regarded as subject to such action
as | may deem necessary"
Col. San Miguel replied to Gen. MacArthur
as follows:
In reply to yours dated this day. in
which you inform mo that my soldiers have
been passing the line of demarcation iiNed
by agreement, l desire to say that this is
foreign 10 my Wishes and I shall give i'm
mediate orders in the promises that they
retire"
Promise Disregnrded.
Next came the disregard of the promise.
which precipitated the outbreak and this is
described hN- tSptp oral Mac Arfh h,lr in tho f.l-
lowing language:
AT about $50 p m, February 4, an In
surgent petrol. consisting of four armed
soldiers, entered our territory at block
house No. :. and advanced 10 the little VIII
lage of Santol which was occupied from
the pipeline outpost Of the Nebraska regi-
ment The American sentinel challenged
twice, and then, the insurgent patrol
continued to advance, he fired, whereupan
the patrol retired to block house I, whence
fire was Immediately opened by the entire
insUrSent outpost at that point.
AT pm. Colonel Stotse1burg. LIST Ne
braska Infantry. L. s. Y. reported consd-
able firing at his outposts. which extended
gradually along the entire front of the di-
Vision. AT 1910 pm. il evident that
hCstilitieS had been commenced in earnest
ny the insurgents. and accordingly an order
issued from these headquarters to put
everything on the firing line according To A
prnsfam which had been prearranged for
such an emergency
Continuing. the report shows that the
lighting progressed fiercely ali night and
the next day the insurgents were driven
back from their whole line.
Results of the worI. of the Troops
The quartermaster subsistence and med
ical departments are praised as completely
successful in every detail. General Mac
Arthur speaks of the results of the work Of
the American troops as follows:
The punishment inflicted by the division
may be estimated from the fact that ottlc al
report las been made of the actual burial
OF IA insurgents Killed in action during the
month. The enemy's wounded were as a
general rule, successfully removed so that
II IS impossible to speak with any pre-
ciSlon in that respect but il is assumed
that three wounded to one killed would be
a reasonable estimate"