Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1899-04-06

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How the American Soldiers Were Fed and
Housed In Rainy Season.
In the first two papers on 1.-The Cap
ture OF Manila" General Greene de-
cribes In the Century the difficulties
under which he labored In keeping his
brigade In good condition for the as
sault upon the city:
General Anderson came over from
Cavite and accompanied me on one Of
my Reconnaissance, and two plans Of
attack were then discussed. One was
to drag our artillery over the road
through the rice swamps to the hill
at San Pedro Macati. Here II would
have q commanding fire on the Span
ish lines east of the city, which were
weakest Mt this point; and General
Anderson favored making the prin-
cipal attack from this direction. This,
however, would take US away from
any direct communication with the
navy, whose one hundred and fifty
seven pieces Of artillery, large and
small, operating on the flank Of the
Spanish lines, would, In my judgment,
more than counterbalance the disad-
vantage of attacking the strongest
part of the Spanish position. While,
of course, | was ready to carry out
without question any orders that Gen
eral Anderson might give, yet l ex-
pressed very strongly my opposition
to his plan of moving away from close
touch with the navy, and he declined
to give any orders pending General
Merritt's arrival.
Meanwhile, the men made them
selves as comfortable as possible in
camp They had nothing but shelter.
tents and one set of clothing. 1t
rained on parts or all of every day,
and the rain was of infinite variety,
from n passing shower to an all-day-
and-all-night storm. with cool wind,
and rain falling at the rate of from
four to six inches a day. Immediate
steps were taken to get the men off
the ground by building beds of split
bamboo. set on posts from eighteen to
twenty four inches above the ground.
On top of this the shelter-tent was
perched; and while the rain went
through the thin cloth of the shelter
tent, and was driven in at the end by
the wind, so that the men were never
dry during the twenty-four days we
remained in this camp, yet they did
not sleep on the wet ground. / had
caused every bottle of wine and liquor
TO be removed from all the ships the
day before we sailed from San Fran
cisco, so that the officers and men
landed with their systems absolutely
The water for drinking and cooking
was obtained from wells sunk few
feet deep on the edge of the camp.
1t was abundant in quantity and APP
parently of good quality, but, as pre-
caution. every drop of il used for cook
ing or drinking was boiled. This was
done in spite of the greatest diff
culties, as fire-wood was extremely
scarce, the bamboo poles and green
trees in the vicinity of camp not being
combustible. The company cook had
a discouraging task. To be awakened
at half-past three in the morning, in
the midst of drenching rain, at times
with three or four inches of water
over almost the entire camp site, and
told to light fire, and not only to
make coffee and fry bacon, but to boil
water for one hundred men, was to re-
ceive an almost impossible order. Yet
ii was carried out, and with the ut
most cheerfulness. The health of the
men under these adverse conditions
and extraordinary hardships was sur
prisingly good-so good that it was
hard to account for 1t. The sick-list
was seldom as high as three per cent.
during all the time we were in this
camp, and none of the sickness was
of serious character. Freedom from
alcohol. sleeping above the ground,
and boiling the water. were apparently
the causes Of good health. to which
should be added the fine spirits and
enthusiasm Of the men, confident that
in short time they would take Ma
Mia, and proud that they were TO have
part in the success of so important an
event.