The National tribune., 1899-06-15
WITH THE 18Th MINI.
Experiences OF a ST: Paul Coy in tht
Philippines.

No troops have borne q more hororable
part or done their duty more cheerfully than
have the brave boys Of the 18th MINI. In
nearly all the hard fighting around Manila
and in the pursuit of the Insurgents through
swamps and jungies the command has been
conspicuousy engaged. j.
The experience of one oof the Minnesota
boys is told in the following letter:
BOCANI, 2. J., April 13.
We are still guarding the railroad, though
on account of recent events we How have
two Oregon companies camped with Us.
On the 9th of this month II small party of
OregonS were out scouting, and were fired
on. Part of Co ID who were camped Il half
mile nearer Manila went out to help them,
and got into little mix-up Wewent oilt to
reinforce them. By the time we got there
it was all over; but Capt. Spear, who com
mands our battalion, thought that it would
be good chance to reconnoiter Santa
Maria from the south, on which side we
were. A Corporal and five men, one being
myself, were sent ahead nearly two miles.
where we came upon the insurgents at the
foot of a hill, but out of sight of the town.
We fired. hoping to draw their fire, and so
better determine their position. which was
| on the edge OF the woods, but they were
wise and only fired two shots. We fell
l back to the company, which had followed
1 80 CIV - aiiu WtlG Dstch 10 d.
4 You see, the insurgents are gathering at
l and about Santa Maria to destroy this rail
l road and get MacArthur's division in the
rear, also incidentally to wipe out the
| Minnesota regiment.
| The next day was with another scouting
| to get as near Santa Maria as possible ard
try to find out where the main defenses
l were, and get map Of the situation. we
| went along the Bocani River under cover of
/ the trees. When near to the junction of IL c
l creek and rver, We came upon and sur
| prised an lnsurgeEt outpost armed with
knives-they will not risk losing a gun.
| We had them before they knew it, but we
did not let ON that we knew they were ont
| posts, though We took their knives. We
left them IN house and kept on.
| We did not know the exact location of
| Santa Maria, and as we pushed forward
| came Unexpectedly to the creek soI,tb of tba
city. We turned north and went nm Tho
| creek and headed for large white building
on knoll, which proved to lie a cemetery
We came upon it cautiously, as we thol;rj,i
it was probably a lookout. From fi,is
| Knoll we could see Santa Maria lying TO the
west Iust across creek. AS we had rof
heen 1ired on, We decided TO 20 right I'M to
the creek. We had to cross an oren sro p 90 20
between the creek and woods. We stonned
at small stone bridge i'll full view OF the
Town and not more than 500 wards from IL
we couid see tie insurgents looking at MS.
| and could see officers on horseback. They
| seemed to lie preparing for an attack. We
were IN plain view Of them, and could not
understand why they did not fire on MS.
we sized up the town and The country. and
then started back for camp. '''
AS luck would have it we struck right
through open fields, Instead of going
around by the woods as we came. We had
gone only little over 100 Yards when we
were tired on from our left flank. We
dropped and returned The fire. The in
surgeTts had tried to surrDund us While we
were LOOKING at the town, but we had
STARED Starred !, back too soon. AS it was, they
= Soon after the voIiey from the left thew
l nred on us from woods on the right and we
Started ON a run right upthe middle of the
iieids' stopping and firing every once in a