Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1899-03-30


undoubtedly must be one of them. We could
stand thei insults and taunts all right, but we
could stand no such treachery as that, and
orders were then given to halt all natives
three times and to shoot to kill provided they
didn't stop. This, to use the expression OF one
of the boys in our corps, drought on the big
show and Saturday, February 4th, at about
9:45 p. m, the ball opened in dead earnest.
One of the Nebraska boys halted native, who
refused to stop, and fired on him. whereupon
the native beat retreat back to the block
house, and backed by a company of natives re-
turned again and poured vo1ley into them.
This must have been the signal to begin the
attack, for from this the firing became general,
and like a flash of gun powder extended from
one end of the line to the other. was on duty
at Major General Anderson's when the fun
started, having been sent there to relieve
m who wauted to get off for few hours. No
sooner had the firing started however. than he
came running back to his post, when I grabbed
my hat and ran as rapidly as 1 could back to
my quarters to report to my command, only to
find them gone, and no one there but the
guard. Stopping just long enough to ask
which way Capt, Russel's detachment was,
started out again to find him. When I struck
the Escalta, the main business street of Manila,
1 found every thing in confusion. Soldiers who
had been out on pass were hurrying here and
there to join their commands. Citizens were
seeking places of shelter and safety, and pam
demonium reigneds supreme. never saw such
| a sight in my life, and never expect to again.
Capt. Russell was out at the Montana outpost,
fully four miles from our quarters, so in order
to make time and reach him as quickly as
possible, planted myself in the middle of the
road and determined to impress into service
the first rig that came my way. had not long
to wait, in a minute a carriage swept toward
me. grabbed the horses by their bride bits.
showed my revolver into the face of the driver,
| and in flash had bundled its two occupants
into the middle of the road and was Off 1
found Capt. Russell in a few minutes, reported,
| and in second was hard at work. The Mon
tana outpost was driven back by superior
force and had fallen back on the old cemetery
when reached there, but shortly after I ar
rived were reinforced by another company
| and were steadily regaining their lost position,
They regained it few minutes later, and not
withstanding the fact they had cut wires
in twenty different places. we soon fixed it,
and in a very few minutes had re-established
communication with headquarters. 1 have
often wondered when hearing you speak of the
last war of what should do, and how should
feel under fire. 1 have found out, and think
the man who goes in and comes out, for the
first time, with breath enough left in his body
to tell of his experience, tells the biggest lie of
his life when he says the sensations he ex-
perienced were pleasant ones. When 1 say
this, 1 mean of course. for the first few min
utes, say half hour. 1 know that for the
first twenty minutes was in, and heard the
sharp ping of the Mauser and the whir of
| the Remington bullets, (you can easily dis
| tinguish them as they whistle saround you.) 1
| thought every man in Aguinaldo'S army had a
| personal grudge against me. and dare say
| that thought more to the square inch of that
| little place called Goldsboro than l ever did
| before in my life. I didn't mind it much
afterwards and though we were under fire for
| the greater part of eighteen hours on stretch
we did our work calmly and cody as if it
| were every day occasion. Every organiza-
| tion did nobly, including the signal corps, and
while we are not State organization. coming g
| as we do, from every part of the union, and
| want to be heard of as much as the rest of the
troops. still we hove the satisfaction of know
| ing that our work was not the least important
| of the lot, and our corps has been highly COM
| mended by the commanding general Of the
| eighth army corps The duties of the signal
corps. you well know, are to keep the COM
| mands in close touch with each other, so at
| any time of day night the commanding Off
| cials may know what is going on. We did it
| and did it to perfection. Not only the army
| knew what to do, when to do, and how to do
/
battle started up until the present we have
| kept them thoroughly posted. Lieut. Bailey,
| to whose detachment 1 belong, kept them
posted as to the movements of the left wing
| Capt. Russell. with whom served the first two
| days, looked after the centre, and Lieutenant
| Gardner the right wing which extended along
the beach. and to the navy. 1t was the latter
which kept in touch with the navy as well as
the army. and signalled the Charleston the
/
| With Lieut. Gordon there was gallant son of
old North Carolina, of whom I shall speak
later. Towards day break on Sunday morning
| the 5th, the Montana's had advanced as far as
practicable, and as our wire there was in good
order and working smoothly, we were ordered
to report to the Kansas outpost, at Malabon car
sheds and look after the wire there. It was at
this point the hottest engagement of the first
two days took place and twas there that first
saw the effective use of artillery in war, The
goth Kansas, Col Funston. had engaged large
body of the enemy there. and they were having
la pretty hard time of it, when the Utah Light
Artillery came running up, took it's position
on little knoll and from there hurled death
and destruction into the ranks of the enemy
Shells are the thing to inspire the souls of men
with terror, and it took but few doses of this
kind of medicine to make them break and fall
in every direction. This advantage we
were not slow to follow up, and after giving
the men few minutes breathing spell, the
order was given to advance. Gen. McArthul
, hat instructed Capt. Russell that as soon as the
advance was ordered, he was to make arrange
ments to signal the Charleston, SO she coulo
protect the advance with her guns. The min
ute the order was received Capt. Russell turned
| to one of our detachment '.Youngl'' eyes
sir.' ''Present my compliments to Meutenan
| Gordon, give him this message, and say tina
Gen. Macarthur wishes these orders carried ou
Immediately Eyes, sir,' salute and h.
was gone, In order to get this message t.
Lieut.. Gordon, he had to cross place of nearl,
half mile in length, with virtually pro
1 lection, and in full view of the enemy He dit
| it, and did it successfully, and a few minute
afterwards the deep-toned roars of the Charles
: toms guns followed by the unearthly scream
of the shells as they few over our heads, bor
eloquent testimony to that effect. There wa
one chance in a thousand he would come ou
J, unharmed. but Notwithstanding the fact tina
1 he went under heavy cross fire from tn
enemy he came out untouched, and has prove
s to the world that other States have thei
r Hobson's as well as Ala 5ama. sent you hi
picture about three weeks ago. His name
:. Hirschell B. Young. of Shelby. N. C. He ha
e made record that the corps is proud of. hi
people will be proud of, and one that th
veterans of the grand old State of North Care
/ lima land North Carolina, herself, may well
q proud of. There are only eight Southern me
, out of the ffty-fve in our corps, ..and it give
= me a thrill of pardonable pride when I thin
e the man who carried off the honors of the da,
q and was the most highly commended of thel
all, was a Southern man and North Care
linian to boot
y Please don't think for minute that al