The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-11-12
TT WAS A CLOSE CALL
FOR UTAHS GUNS.
On that Hot Morning in the Month Of April
Some of the Montana Boys Lent Hand
That Proved to Be IN the Nick of Time.

lay anu S"e1teEGd anu SWOT6, While o,bvu
insurgents. just across the narrow Bag
Bag, poured a steady, persistent and
calling fire upon them.
Leading northwest to the river ran a
broad, white road, cane and sparse
underbrush marking its sides and
spreading over the surrounding coun-
try. Back some distance the road had
left at an acute angle the railway,
which ran almost due north into the
enemys country. The railway bridge
across the Bag Bag had been destroyed.
Far off to the left of the track lay one
battalion. waiting, like the battalion on
the right The lines of the right bat
talon stretched from the railroad track
eastward across the white strip of
road. and anxiously surveying them
was Captain Dillon. Company 4, First
Montana commanding the three com
panies-k, G. and H of his regiment
forming the command.
Deployed as skrmisners along the
high bank Of the river, looking down
upon the insurgent trenches on the OPP
posite and less elevated bank, lay X
company, each man at the proper in
terval from his companions prone upon
his stomach, with the sun blisterins
his back.
Eighty-five yards to the rear of the
skirmishers lay c and H companies.
likewise deployed and held in reserve.
Five numbered yards further back was
reserve battalion and regimental
headquarters Exactly opposite The
point where the road dipped over the
bank and ran into the river was the
main body of the insurgents. Their en-
trenchments, which lay in a grove of
banana trees We're banked 10 feet high
and rooted with galvanized iron. These
works We're constructed in the shape Of
a gigantic " the apex of the letter be-
ing at the point furthest from the river
so the fire of the entire body could be
concentrated on the road. There in
comparative cool and comfort, were the
insurgents, sending tons of lead every
hour across the river into the exposed
American line
The expedition had left Malolos, five
miles back, on the morning of April 4,
under General MacArthur's orders. to
make a reconnaissance. 1t consisted
of the First Montana. two guns Of the
Utah battery, under command of Lieu
tenant Fleming, and Colts auto
matte gun from the gunboat Helena,
commanded by Ensign Davis of the
navy
At 1870 O'Clock in the morning Cap
tain Dillon's battalion had reached the
position detailed in the foregoing. With
a view to accurately determining the
- @l,n L. a,JI ,.,r y, Il
been brought up. So broken was the
country that the mules had to be de-
tached from them and the weary Utah
hatterymen placed upon the drag-rapes
to haul the heavy guns and caissons
into position.
Hot! Was ever heat like that. Here
and there lay men Frustrated by the
sun, and about them the earth was
moist with their perspiration
Swollen tongues and staring eyeballs
told the story of the suffering. Pat,
Pat, pat, the bullts fell about them, In
the road little clouds of dust constant
ly We're in the air, marking where the
tiny, deadly projectiles fell
And with it all the spirit of the men
did not flag. They longed and begged
for a chance to go forward, cross the
river somehow and storm the trenches
CT the enemy, though they knew he out
numbered them five to one. Hot
though their bodies We're, their brains
were cool.
Once Captain Dillon ordered a soldier
to go back with a message to Colonel
Wallace. Casting his haversack into
the dusty road, the man sped away.
Presently he returned, reported, and
then, while Captain Dillon turned to
speak to Lieutenant Fleming, cody
stepped out into the bullet-spattered
road to recover his haversack. A score
of leaden messengers of death dropped
about him.
Here" yelled Lieutenant Heming.
what are you doing?'
Sure, sor,' said the man. "Orm after
gettin' me haversack. Uncle Sam would
charge me for ut if Oh losht ut.'
Exhausted from their work on The
drag ropes, the Utah men had thrown
themselves gasping upon the earth, too
weak to fire even shot. Then Private
Robert NJ. Richwine of Company X
so lately to die in the Philippines,
where he had re-enlsted-begged and
was given permission to fire a few
rounds from the field pieces. He was
an expert gunner and placed the shots
we'll
And then the weary wait for orders
was resumed, while the dark-skinned
insurgents over there across that glar
ing white river kept up their work
Now and then a man would be hit and
carried to the rear but more terrible
than the bullets was the sun. Two Of
ficers and Sc men Frustrated by the
heat is the record of the day. Prac-
tically all of the batterymen whose
work in coming up had been more ar
durous than that of the others, We're
unfit for duty.