Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-12
MONTANA men
CAN sing
Or Fight as the Occasion De-
lnands of Them.
MACARTHUR DOES NOT FEAR
The Whole Island If They and the
Kansas Boys Were a! the
Batteries.
MACARTHUR DOES NOT FEAR

Mrs. Hilda Reed of 81 South Crystal
from Mathes j. Ostberg, a member of
Company F, First Montana volunteers,
now in the Philippines. The epistle is as
follows:
Battlefield, near Caloocan, Philippine
Islands, March Z, 1891 will send you a
few lines to let you know that all is well
here under the circumstances. We are
still in the field and enjoying good health.
Nice scenery surrounds our lines. Once
in a while a few volleys from the enemy
greet our ears to remind us that it is
war time. Now and hen a few cannon
balls from our batteries find their way
into the ranks of the nigsers. The grass
is green in the fields and the trees are
full of singing birds. The weather is fine.
but rather hot. The niggers are trying
to burn as much of Manila as they can,
but their work is not successful, although
they have inflicted some damage. We
are smoking out the smallpox and other
diseases from suburban towns. We tried
to save Caloocan and Guadalupe shacks,
but the smallpox patients We're flying
from them in hundreds and thousands.
They were as thick as Mauser and Rem
lngtOn bullets, but something like 40
shots from our field artillery and about
400, 600 rounds of Springfield bullets did
it's work and made a lot of Good Fill
| pinos. They started the play, but the
Americans finished it. The enemy vast
ed about a million and a half rounds Of
ammunition that day and the day before
and kept up the firing two nights. Will
liam L. Hill, our captain, was shot
through the leg or thigh right at the
start and was left behind; and Lieuten-
ant Colonel Wallace was shot through
the lung. Both men are getting along
finn .ial1fl1ar f q I'd a,, hira yrac chnt ~,
the leg, but he has been with us right
along. The ball penetrated to a depth
of only about am inch and a half. Be-
fore striking G~ardenhire it struck the
cartridge sack of one of the other boys
and cut a cartridge almost into halves.
In this fight a few more were wounded.
We have had a few skirmishes at our
outposts, and a few attempts have been
made by the enemy to break through our
lines, but so far they have proved futile.
Old A%guinaldo has been bombarding the
Montana and Kansas boys, but he has
been getting only the laugh. Dewey's
fleet had worse luck two days ago. A
boatload Of marines tried to land at NAL
abon, but the enemy fired on it with
cannon and the marines had to return
to the gunboat Bennington, whence they
came. The town still belongs to the
enemy. The Bennington threw a few
shells into the ranks of the insurgents
10 prevent Inem from IlT1nS on the ma
rines. The shells set the town on fire.
Yesterday and the day before the niggers
fired a few cannon shots at our line on
the right, but the only effect it had was
to cause our lines to straighten up and
advance about three miles. When our
reinforcements arrive we will go ahead
to Malabon and Polio ond also the in
surgent capital, Malalos. For a few
days We will have to stay where we are,
as the lines are too thin to make an ad-
vance. At Malabon we will go against
40, 900 niggers and at Malalos 100000.
Then the fun will begin. Malabon is
a mile from here. A few Of our boys
were owe in the church night before last
and sang some songs and had a good
time. Major General Macarthur was lis
tening,, and after it was over he told
the chaplain that Montana had song
birds as well as brave men; that with
Montana and Kansas men on the Utah
and Sixth batteries he would not hesitate
to fight the entire niger force on the
island. We had an attack the other day
and five niger priests were in the lead.
The outpOsts fired at 600 yards and
downed one. The others ran. They fired
a few hundred shots before we returned
the fire.