The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-06-14

across the deep stream, the enemy
driven practically out Of sight, while
the men in blue and khaki lay in the
main bushes. many of them without
any shelter, under fire for three hours,
without a moments cessation, pouring
bullets at the enemy as fast as they
could load. The thousands of rifles
blended into continuous roar. which
was vastly different from the intermit-
tent skirmish rattle of most OF
the engagements.
One battalion after another General
Lawton summoned from Las Pinas, I'M
til only enough troops of reserves were
left in the town to prevent the Fiji
pinos attacking the Americans in the
rear, which was feared, as they were
creeping around our left through the
woods, delivering a thanking fire. winch
put great strain upon the endurance
of the Americans who were FOUNDER
ing in the mud across the river, While
on the right the Filipinos' sharpshoot-
ers, hidden in the trees, were pepperlng
our men.
Thanks to the poor craftsmanship of
the rebels our loss was not great. An
army however, has seldom fought IN
der a greater disadvantage or more
coura geously than did our regulars,
majority of when were, comparatively
speaking, recruits, who could have been
pardoned for retiring, in the lace OF
such a fierce fire, from exposed posi-
tons. The Fourteenth Regiment lay
to the right of the bridge and in front
was the Twelfth Regiment, with the
Ninth on the right and the twenty
first up the road facing the bridge,
which was the key to- the situation. On
the bridge were the bodies of two
Americans who had attempted to rush
across, and many wounded were 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 VIII
| power and was the commanding inquire
| in the battle. He went along the lines
directing and encouraging the troops.
General Wheaton and General oven
shine were equally courageous. In
| fact the generals were 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 a narrow, winding road, where
! the rebel bullets dropped thickly,
wounding several of our men. AT
| o'clock there was an hours lull in the
! fighting and an artillery sergeant gal
| loped back to where two guns of the
mountain battery were waiting in re-
serve and shouted: Bring UP those
| The sergeant then tlInhlp0 pX-
| hausted from his horse.
| Twenty wounded men were carried
to native boat waiting on the beach,
which was rowed to Paranaque.
It is impossible at present to esti-
mate the number of Filipino dead.
There are many bodies In the fields the
| Americans traversed.
This battlefield, incidentally, was
| formerly the scene Of several of the
greatest struggles between the Span
iards and the Filipinos. The Zapote
River was considered impregnable and
hundreds of SpaniardS and Filipinos
| have been killed while fighting over the
same bridge in former contests for it's
possession. In June, 1897, Generals Pho
del Pillar and Trias turned the scale
of war to the side Of the Filipinos by
defeating the Spanish army there on
the eve Of the decisive battle-carrying
the native militia with them and there
|
around Manila.
At daylight to-day the rebels at Ca
wife Viejo dropped two shells from a
big, smooth-bore gun mounted in front
| of the church into the navy yard. The
only damage done was to splinter the
top of the huge shears on the mole.
The gunboats Callao, Manila and Mo-
quito proceeded to dismount the guns
After breakfast the rebels opened fire
along the beach to Bakoor After
silencing the big gun at Cavite Viejo
! the gunboatS ran close along the shore,
bombarding the rebel position. The
rebels replied with rifle fire and with
the fire Of some small pieces of artil-
lery. So vigorous was the enemy's fire
that at 800 a. m. the gunboat Helena
joined the gunboats already named and
the Princeton, Monterey and Monad-
mock. from their anchorage, dropped
occasional big shells among the rebels.
This apparently only served to incite
the rebels, as they kept up an incessant
fire of musketry and artillery near the
mouth of the Zapote River, two miles
north of Bakoor.
Tie fire Of all seven warshirs was
concentrated on this point shortly after
noon, when the upper bay presented the
appearance of being the scene of a
great naval battle. The insurgents
were eventually forced to abandon their
guns after holding out for four hours,
only to be confronted by General Law
tons force on land and in their rear,
where there was heavy fighting.
Beyond the destruction Of several