The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-17
.OUfF|N IN THE FIGHT
Utah Boy Tells of Work On Firing
Line.
LONG SIEGE AT FRONT
HAS BEEN ON DUTY SINCE THE
TROUBLE BEGAN.
Only One Opportunity to Battle and
Change His Clothes-Fort Near
thur Built By Batteries A and B.
Utahns Are Badly Split Up and
Have Many Pieces of Artillery.

The boys in the shoe factory of the
u. c. NJ l. in this city are in receipt
of a letter from their shopmate, George
Duffin, who is at the front in Manila
From it The Herald is permitted to
make the following extracts:
Il guess you know as much, if not
more, about the trouble here than DO,
for when a man is put at certain
place along the fire line he knows what
is going on there, and that is about all.
The firing line is very long, of which L
guess you are aware, and the Utah boys
are scattered all along the line from
one end to the other. Utah has now
about twenty-five guns along the line,
and we left home with only eight. so
you see that is quite an increase. we
have our own guns, four NordenfeIt
rapid-fire guns, three Hotchkiss rapid
fire, and two or three different kinds of
gatling guns. So you see we are split
up pretty badly. And the Utahs being
such a small organization, leaves very
few men to each gun, and that makes
it very hard for any one of us TO get
away long enough to write a letter.
You know that the trouble COM
menced here on Saturday night, the 9TH
of February; but / was on guard that
night at the officers quarters, and l did
until Tuesday, the Sth. But have been
on the line ever since. l have been in
to quarters at times, but Just long
enough to take a bath and change
clothes. Since the trouble started l
have written a letter home, and that
is all, and | had to write that behind
a tree, because / was out at the front.
When / first went out l was at q
point about the middle of the line. My
/
had been there about week L was
transferred to a gattling gun about a
mile farther TO the right. l STAYED
there several weeks; then I was re-
lieved and went back TO my own squad
and guns, and l stayed there till the
goth of March. That day we received
orders to move our two guns to Coloo-
can. My brother and 1 were detailed
to go ahead with a load of ammunition.
We had a cariboue, or water buffalo.
hitched to the load, and couple OF
Cinnamon to help US. A caribou IS very
slow and we had TO start ahead in
the morning or we never could have
got there that night. Mules were Dor
rowed for the guns, and they came later
on. We got to Coloocan that night, but
we lost one of our China boys on the
road. He was shot, and the others
feet got so cold we had a job to keep
from losing him. After all the ammu-
milton and the guns got there we went
into Fort Macarthur where there was
one battery B gun, a mortar and two of
the Sixth artillery guns Our two guns
took the places of the two guns belong
ing to the Sixth, and they went farther
to the right. Fort Macarthur is in front
of Malaban. Our boys built it. 1t was
built with sacks of earth.
The next night, the 4th, there was
a rumOr around the fort that we were
to start the ball arolling in the morn
ing. Lieutenant Gibbs was in command
of the fort, and we received the news
from him. From the fort we could
shell Malabon and the enemies them
selves also.
Under Fire.
That night they were firing on US all
night, but we laid low and did not an
sWer them, and could hear them yell
and cheer as though they had us
whipped. | guess they thought we were
afraid to get up and return the fire.
They also had band out playing their
airs. And they would plax
Yankee Doodle and then yell 'Mucho
malo Americans which means, the
are no good.
las soon as it got light enough in
the morning, Lieutenant Gibbs gave the
order to load. We Loaded our three
guns and the mortar. We knew the
range well and the gunner took good
aim Then the word was given all
ready and we received the order by
battery fire. and the three guns and the
mortar went off at one crash. We then
fired another volley the same as the
first one. Then we received the order
to fire at WILL and we did not stop till
we had fired ninetynine shells. Then
we got the order to cease firing, and the
started to charge on 'em. We
then fired several shots over the infan-
try.