The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-03-26
AREPRESSING ONW Ard
Continued From First Page.

Philippines. Until now this has been the
field of activity with Wheaton,s flying
column beating back the insurgents. But
today Lawton's forces are idle and the
scene of activity is shifted to the north
Of the river. Here the partial circle of
American troops sweeps from the water
works around to the bay.
l. Maj Gen. Macarthur is IN command of
all the troops noFtti,of the river and these
are roughly estimated at between 1900
and 1900 men, the others being with
Lawton on the south. Before the action
began this morning Gen. McArthur's'
forces were divided into three main bod
les. Far to the right. near the water
| works was Hale's brigade. Far to the
| left, about Calooean,. were the brigades
Of Harrison, Gray, Otis and of Wheaton,
the latter having been drawn from. Law
tons forces on the south in order to
| strengthen McArthur's command for this
| operation. Between the two was the bri-
| gade of Hall, held as sort of reserve,
! to demonstrate but not to attack.
Hale's brigade, as shown on the mill
tary map, was made up of the Third Ne
braska, First South Dakota, First Wye
ming, First Colorado and Battery B. of
the Utah artillery Harrison Gray Otis
| command on the left was made up of
| the Twentieth Kansas, First Montana
| Tenth Pennsylvania, a battalion Of the
Twenty-third infantry and Battery A of
| the Utah artillery, these are the troops
| with the additional force of Wheaton's
and some recent arrivals, possibly not
| yet reported. which have sustained the
| brunt of the action today.
PROBABLE LINE OF ACTION.
| With this approximate disposition Of
the forces, Maj. Simpson took the official
dispatch of Gen.. Otis and the more de-
tailed press reports and pointed out the
| probable line of action today. 1t began
| with Macarthur moving rapidly north
| ward to Novalich passing the insurgent
| forces on the left. On reaching Novalich
Macarthur turned sharply to the west, In
| tending to make forced march Of about
seven miles to Palo. BY this movement
McArthur's forces are carried outside of
the insurgent base of operation.
This base is at Malabon, midway be-
tween McArthur's forces and the COM
bined forces Of Harrison Gray Otis and
Wheaton at Caloocan. Thus the rebels
are flanked and between two strong bod
les of American troops. To the west of
them is Manila bay, cutting off retreat
in that direction, and to the east the
forces of Hall, as reported by Gen. Otis,
are demonstrating in order to forbid an
insurgent movement toward the east.
They are thus left between the two main
bodies of American troops and must en-
gage either one or the other OF them.
1t is Gen. Otis plan, as shown by his
dispatch, to have the brigades of Wheat
on advance towards those of Macarthur,
thus gradually enclosing the rebels be-
tween two parallel lines until they are
either crushed or made prisoners.
The two opposing forces appear to be
rather evenly matched in point of num-
bers, the estimate of the American force
north of the river being about 1900,
while Gen. Otis places the insurgents at
about 1900. Maj Gen. Otis is in SUI
preme command, directing the operations
from a central telegraph station. The
actual field movements are being exc
cuted by Maj. Gen. Macarthur, who is in
person leading the attacking brigade in
its decisive move to- flank and surround
the rebel forcesC II