The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1899-04-28
ON THE FIRING LINE.
A Mankato Man in The Fighting Near
IlOilO.

from her husband, Sergeant w "A Lauf-
man, of Co. I, Eighteenth U S, In
fantry, who is at Jaro, Panay Island,
in the Philippines with his regiment.
1t is dated Feb. 28th and consists of an
interesting account of the capture of
Iloilo and Jaro. He says:
What brought the battle on was as
follows: On Saturday morning the
Arizona was taking coal off of an Eng
lish sailing vessel, when an insurgent
custom officer came aboard and de-
manded pay. This was refused, as we
controlled the harbor. The officer then
went aboard the gunboat Petrol with
the same demand, but was told to go
to. He went ashore after making
threats and five minutes afterwards the
fort fired on the Petrol, which lay off
from the fort about 200 yards. The
Petrol then let her guns loose, followed
by the Boston. and then the Sixth artil-
lery on board the Newport.
AT about 900 a. m. the insurgents
began firing the city. 1t was grand
sight to watch the bombardment and
the burning city. We were ordered in
to the small boats at once and were
towed to shore by steam launch un-
tt, our boats grounded, then we jumped
overheard and waded ashore 1t was a
pretty sight, with the troops spread out
along the beach Co / was the next to
land and formed and charged up through
the city, followed by Cos. K and b,
through the fire and smoke and the
roar of the guns of the Boston and
Petrol and the small guns of the insur
gents and ourselves. The marines of
the Petrol tore down the insurgent flag
from the fort and ran up Old Glory, the
insurgents retreating and firing all the
time. We reached the Plaza, where
the marines with gattling gun were
doing good work. We could get no
further, as the line of burning build
ings prevented further advance.
Here we released some Swiss and
English people whom the insurgents
locked up in building and set fire to.
A German girl had her head shot off by
shell from the Boston. We supported
the artillery while routing out the in
surgents from sugar houses across the
river. We capturedatwo old pieces of
artillery and number of prisoners.
The hospital corps had arrived and
opened up for business, but all they got
were wounded Filipinos. This ended
the first days battle. We never lost
man nor had one wounded. The loss of
the Filipinos must have been heavy, as
/ counted % in the street as we ran
through the fire, ana they carried lot
of their wounded and dead with them.
The city was ruined by fire.
Sunday morning we were ordered
to fall in about 500 a. m. and marched
through the burned district to the stone
building, Gen. Millers headquarters.
300 p. M. we were ordered to cross the
bridge and advance on Jaro. This battle
opened on the road by the Sixth artillery,
and the firing became general at the
bridge. Private Summers of Co. l, was
wounded. Here l wounded my first
manic know it. | shot the fellow that
shot Summers through both legs. We
kept up steady advance in the face of
hot fire until we reached the suburbs of
Jaro. Here the insurgents took stand
behind stone wall, but we soon got
them out of that with artillery. Here
also we had two men wounded We
drove the insurgents out of this town
across the Jaro river back into the
towns of Marc and San Barbara. Here
we stopped and put out our outposts
and have been holding what we have
taken. The insurgents did not have
time to burn this town, although they
tried to do so.
II was put in charge of a scouting
party, as our company was all divided
up in squads in outpost duty in Cossack
posts. Not knowing anything about
the country, we got into the enemy's
lines, and as 1 only had four men with
me we had to run for it and wade the
river. Our outposts at this ppint were
ordered back after made my report of
the enemy's position. That night we
lay without shelter in the rain, without
anything to eat. Twice our picket was
driven in by heavy firing. Morning
within fifty yards of the enemy. Then
began the fun That night and until
400 p. m | fired 1875 rounds. 1t was
hot fire, but we finally drove them
back. The rice field was full of dead
Filipinos. We were relieved at..4:00 o,
m, but were called out Tuesday noon
to support the artillery and the other
company. Here we lost our first man,
Corporal Grigsby, shot through the
head, and one other man wounded.
This was at the bridge leading to San
Barbara, and from this time on we
have been fighting every day and night.
In the meantime, Co. drove the ma
tives out Of Moro, but not having force
enough had to let it go. We are cover
ing all the territory we can hold. We
have strengthened the bridge so we
can cross with our artillery,
aud we shell the natives every
night. We have our lines stretched
from the bay to the sea. We have about
1900 men against 10000 insurgents.
They are poor shots and poorly armed.
Most of them have machetes. They
have attacked US several times, but we
have driven them off. / learn through
the Sisters of Charity that the Filipino
dead and wounded number about 75O,
I'VE have been holding this position
ever since waiting reinforcements so as
to advance San Barbara is their
stronghold and they whipped the
Spanish there and the Spanish never
could take San Barbara, as it is strongly
fortified with trenches and artillery.
Our men are very tired and we need re-
Inducements bad, as we are on the
firing line from 400 p m. one day un-