The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-14
LAWTON STIRRED UP A HORNETS NEST
The Insurgents Put Up Fierce and Ugly Fight, Dis
playing Unexpected Generaship and Making the
Americans No End of Anxiety and
Trouble for a Time.

ments could be brought. Two bat
talions of the 14th regiment and one
battalion of the 9th regiment were hur-
ried to the front, and in the afternoon
the battle was resumed. The Monad-
mock anchored close to the shore and
her heavy guns pounded the rebels con-
tinuously, while smaller warships,
steaming along the shore, poured bull
let's from their rapid-fire guns at the
enemy. The Filipino force engaged. it
appears, was the largest and best or
ganized body of men which has met
our troops
The Americans are compelled to ad-
vance along narrow roads and over
small bridges commanded by earth
works 10 feet thick.
The only means of crossing the Ia
pOte was by small bridge, which the
Filipinos commanded with a trench
spreading "V"-shaped, whence they
could concentrate their fire on the
bridge. They also had the advantage
of the trees and jungles so that the
Americans could hardly see head
When the battle was resumed there
were reinforcements our battery hav-
ing silenced the enemy's guns. The
Americans waded waist deep in the salt
flats and, pouring a steady volley of
musketry at the rebels. drove their OPP
pOnents beyond the river.
The armies lay facing each other
! emy practically out of sight, while the
men in blue lay in the main
bushes, many of them without
any shelter, for three hours without a
moments cessation in the firing, pour
ing bullets at the enemy as fast as they
could load.
The thousand rifles blended into q
continuous roar, which was vastly diff
ferent from the intermittent skirmish-
like rattle of most of the engagements.
one battalion after another General
LaWton summoned from Las Pinas un-
til only enough troops of reserves We're
left in the town to prevent the F'ilipinos
from attacking the Americans in the
rear, which was feared as they We're
| creeping around our left through the
woods, delivering fianking fire, which
| put great strain upon the endurance
| of the Americans. who were founder
| ing in the mud across the river, while
on the right the Filipino sharpshooters
! hidden in the trees were peppering our
| men.
But thanks to the poor marksman-
! ship of the rebels, our loss was not as
| great as it would have been il the Fill
| pinos had shot straight. An army.
! however. has seldom fought under a
| greater handicap or more courageously
| than did our regulars, a majority of
| whom, comparatively speaking, were
recruits who could have been pardoned
| for retiring. in the face of such fierce
! fire, from their exposed positions. The
| 18th regiment lay to the right of the
bridge, and in front of them was the
| 18th regiment, with the 9th on the
right and the 21st up the road facing
the bridge, which was the key to the
| situation.
| On the bridge We're the bodies of two
Americans who had attempted to rush
across Many wounded men We're car
ried from the open ground before the
bridge.
After firing in volleys for a short
| time, the Americans were ordered to
| fire when and where they could see the
enemy. 1t was every man for himself
| and the best the men could do was to
aim at the faint mists arising from the
| rebels smokeless powder. General
| Lawton. though exhausted by the
mornings fight, rallied by sheer will
| power and was the commanding figure
in the battle. He went along the lines
! directing and encouraging the troops.
| General Wheaton and General Over
shine were equally courageous. In
! fact the generals We're among the few
men on the battlefield who refused to
/ take shelter under the hottest fire. The
only approach to the fighting ground
was by narrow winding road where
| the rebel bullets dropped thickly,
wounding several of our men. At 4
! o'clock there was an hours lull In the
fighting and an artillery sergeant gall
| loped back to where the guns from the
| mountain battery were waiting in re-
serve. and shouted:
Bring up those guns"
| Then the sergeant tumbled exhausted
from his horse. Twenty wounded men
We're carried to a boat, waiting on the
beach, which was rowed to Paranaque.
1t is impossible at present to estimate
the number of Filipino dead. There
are many dead bodies in the fields the
| Americans traVersed. This battlefield.
incidentally, was formerly the scene of
several of the greatest struggles be-
tween the Spaniards and the Filipinos.
The Zapote was considered impregna-
BILE and hundreds of Spaniards and Fill
| ipinos have been killed while fighting
over the same bridge in lormer contests
for it's possession. In June, 1897, Cen
erals Pho del Pillar and Trias turned
| the scale of war on the side of the Fill
pinos by defeating the Spanish army
/ there on the evening of a decisive bat
tie carrying native militia with them
| and thereby breaking the chain of de-
| Tense around Manila.