The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-05-06
DETAILS GIVEN
OF The FIGHT
In Which The Two Gallant Lieut0nantS
Lost Their Lives.
GERMAN CAPTAIN HUFNAGLE
deliberately Lied to The American
Party.
HEAnLESS BODye 1sGERE FOUND
81
On the BattlefS 6 .ext Morning and
Were Bur.S Easter Sunday
With - ads Which Had
E Recovered.
GERMAN CAPTAIN HUFNAGLE
HEAOLEss BOD,s 3StERE FOUND

& ~SSOO'SANNe'
San Francisco, May 5.-The regular CORE,
| spondent of the Associated Press writing
| from Apia, Samoa, under date of April
| 20 gives detailed account of the fight in
| which Lieutenant Lansdale of the Ameri.
| can navy and Lieutenant Freeman, of the
! British navy, lost their lives.
On April l a landing party made up of
| sixty American sailors and marines and
sixty-two English sailors and about 12J
natives proceeded to Vailel to break up
an assembage of rebels who had been cofnt
mitting depredat tons in the vicinity. The
party was under command of Lieutenant
Angel Freeman, first officer of tie
Tauranga and with him were Leutenants
Cave, Of the Porpoise and o. F. Hickman
of the Royalist. The Americans were under
command of Lieutenant Lansdale who had
with him Ensign Monaghan and Lieuten-
ant Perkins of the marine corps.
DR.. Lung, of the Philadelphia, also accom-
panied the expedition. When the party
had reached the German plantation, Lieu
tenant Cave asked Captain Hufnagle, the
German manager, If there were any Sa-
means in the vicinity. The manager said
| that none had been there that day. At that
very moment and within a few hundred
yards from the expedition was a large body
of rebels. Hufnagle advised that a return
home be made.~ Three other Germans were
with Hufnagle and heard the conversation.
No one gave any warning of danger. The
return march to the beach was commenced
and no sooner had the men got out of the
plantation, when at bend in the road 400
lar .sp,,, -
seen.
A Colt automatic gun of which the ma
| tiyes have great dread -AnnHedi2tely-
| brought forward. 1t refused to act The
rebels got off clear and halt was made
| to fix the gun. This took half an hour and
| then Lieutenant Lansdale fired few triad
| shots. The gun worked all right and the
march was resumed, with the friendly ma
| tives in the lead Misled by information
| of Hufnagle, it was decided to return BY
the main road.
Fired from Ambush
The troops marched down the road to a,
narrow gully, the sides of which were COW
cred with buffalo grass. On the top of the
slope, just after the last of the troops had
begun to march through the gully the
rebels fired upon them. The line was about
800 yards in length. The rebels were lying
in the long grass, while some were in the
tops of cocoanut- trees. The Colt gun again
dale was trying to fix 1t he was wounded
in the knee.
At the beginning of the fight Lieutenant
Freeman was shot through the chest and
fell dead. The friendly natives retreated
at the first fire and the white force, being
too weak to cope with the rebels, was
thrown into confusion. To retreat was i'm
perative, and the automatic gun was ac-
cordingly abandoned The allied forces
were surrounded on three sides. Through
| the scrub grass the sailors retired, Lans-
| dale being assisted by his men. The firing
| of the rebels was severe.
Wanted Them to Leave Him
Lansdale, who was being assisted by En-
sign Monaghan and two men, seeing that
he could not get away, urged them to leave
him to his fate. One of the sailors was
shot dead and the other seeing he could not
save his officer saved himself. Monaghan
refused to go and stayed by his fellow off,
GER. Next morning their headess bodies
were found on the battlefield. Monaghan's
revolver was empty and also was Lans-
dales. Between them lay the dead bodies
of three rebels
When the American party reached the
beach it was found that four men were
missing besides the officers. They were
Edsell and Butler, of the Philadelphia, and
Long and Prout, from the British ships.
DIR. Long, who had been conspicuous for
his coolness and bravery under fire, took
command of the American forces, and on
the approach of reinforcements the rebels
retired. Several of the Malietoan men lost
their lives. The decapitated BODIES of tho
three officers were recovered next morn
ing on the field, and on Easter Sunday they
were buried with the heads, which had
been recovered by a French priest All
the leading American and British officials
were present.
In the fight there were killed forty-three
and fifty injured on Maletoa's side. The
list of Americans killed was:
Lieutenant Philip Lansdale, Jr., J. r.
Monaghan, Coxswain T. Butter, Electri-
clan Norman e. Edsell, Private Thomas
Holloway and Major John E. Nudge, of
the marine corps.
Wounded: Coxswain j. H. Wellington,
shot in elbow; Fireman e. Andrews. right
leg; Landsman ]. C. John, left shoulder;
Landsman ]. W. Laird. left hip; siarine
John M. McCarty right wrist.
Captain Hufnagle. the German manager.
has been arrested for completely in the
fight on April /. He is held on board the
German Fake under pledge from her conn.,
mander to return him to Captain Stuart
on demand.
White Man with Rebels
Affidavits have been made by men en-
gagged in the Valel fight that white man
was with the rebels, directing them
throughout the engagement. Hufnagle an
swers the description of this man exactly.
He was seen at the station ana gave mis-
lediang information to the troops as they
passed his house on the way out, but when
they returned he was not to be seen. De-
serters from Mataafa's forces say that on
a previous occasion Hufnagle had narrowly
escaped being shot while encouraging the
rebels to attack.
Won Buelow, a Prussan cavalry officer,
has been deported to Sydney by the Ger
man commander He vas seen on Arri II
in command of body of 500 men Oh the
[contihacd on sseo..d i-ase.I