The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-06-21
SOLDIERS LIFE IN LUZON
A SHORT CAMPAIGN FROM THE
BOYS SIDE.
Corporal Finley Furnishes Some Side
Lights on Fighting and Camping
While Chasing Elusive Filipinos.
Special correspondence of The Star.

Special correspondence of The Star.
MAASIN, Philippine Islands, May S.
We received orders, April 20 to pre-
pare to join one of General Lawton's
columns, and were ordered to send our
blankets and extra clothing to Manila
Camp Cold Food. The clothes we had
on, a poncha and shelter tent, which
we had to carry ourselves, a rifle, 100
cartridges, a canteen of water, a haver-
sack, and twenty-four hours rations,
are what we carry on the march. Can
ned beans, salmon and meat are our
travel rations. The meat is the celebrat-
ed brand put up by the patriotic beef
packers of Chicago and Omaha. 1t is in
large supply yet. Our ration wagons
carry coffee, bacon, hard tack, tomatoes
and q few other necessary articles
Each company was limited in its trans
portation to two buffalo carts with Chi
nese drivers, and pony cart On these
were carried ten days rations for each
company, the kitchen outfit, and $1,000
rounds of cartridges. The bull train, !"
as the buffalo outfit is called. left at 6
a. M. April 22d and the troops left Ma
linta at p. m. and arrived at Bocane
at 4. The next morning at O'Clock
seven companies of the Oregon regi-
ment, eight of the Minnesota, one troop
of the Fourth cavalry and one gun of
| the Utah battery, started east towards
Santa Maria. None of us knew where
we were going, and in the absence of
facts, fiction prevails, for hop dreams
of the widest kind have gone about the
camp at all hours. The first day out we
halted about three miles east of Santa
Maria to rest and allow the bull train
to catch up. They finally arrived in bad
order, two buffaloes dead from heat and
| exhaustion, and the others in bad shape,
At p. m. we started again, the Fourth
! cavalry in advance scouting, and the in
| fantry putting out flankers from each
company, 200 yards from the main body.
! In short time the cavalry ran into and
captured two Filipino scouts and their
horses The Filipinos were just chang
| ing from the red uniform of the Third
Malolos regiment to the white clothes of
the amigo" and tried to stab the SER
geant with a balo. They were the first
| prisoners out of hundreds 1 have seen
that admitted they were soldiers.
At o'clock the advance discovered
the outposts of the nemy. The first bat
talon of the Oregon regiment, the cav
airy and the Utah gun drove the Fill
pinos into the village of Norzagary. II
was a running fight for two miles, but
no Americans were shot. We camped
| by a small stream for the night, and at
s o'clock the bull train arrived in good
order, two buffaloes to each cart hitch
ed tandem and spare ones tied behind
| The owners of these recruited buffaloes
appeared next day and were paid for
the animals or got them back. There is
good military road from Bocane to
Norzagary, with graveled road bed and
stone bridges. There is one ford and
several steep hills. On the down grades
a rope is tied to the carts and they are
held back by hand, or the rope given a
turn around tree.
The next morning, April "a, a batta-
lion of the Minnesota regiment, the cav
airy and the Utah gun took Norzagary
after an hours heavy firing. Three
Americans were wounded and one
horse was killed. We entered the towT
and stayed three days waiting for Gen.
eral Lawton. We were under fire al
the time we were there from the ma.
tives who got on the hills. The next
morning, Angat was taken after hot
fight. The seven companies of infantry
and cavalry were bathing and washing
clothes in the riVen when the FilipInoS
fired Volleys at them from the hills. Nc
one was hit except two men in towT
who were struck by spent bullets. Bu
over fifty men waited for two hours
before they could get their clothes Ii
the afternoon the firing began again
The Chinese drivers were soaking thS
buffaloes. Every Chinaman got on the
lee side of his buffalo and just kept hi:
mouth and nose above water.
The next day the other brigade arriv
ed and went into camp at Angat 1
was composed of the Twenty seconC
and Third regulars, the North Dakota
regiment, two troops of dsmounteC
cavalry and a section of the Sixth artil
lery. Our brigade moved to MaruncC
and camped in a rice field. That nigh
at 8 o'clock a terrific thunder storm
broke, during which about four inches
of rain fell flooding us out. We stayeC
at Marunco two days, waded rivers anC
climbed hills in scouting, and on Apri
80 took San Rafael without firing {
shot while on the other side of thu
river the Twenty-Second and Third, anC
North Dakotas had a hot fight. We
were ordered back to Marunco. On Ma!
l we waded the river again and again
took San Rafael after a hot figh
against 800 Filipinos. The fight LASTED
two hours, during which time the Fill
pinos were chased five miles. Three
Oregon men We're wounded and one
Minnesota man killed. We were all des
perately tired. 1 never was so tired il
my life as after that five mile chase
over the hills terraced with rice bikes.
JOHN b. FINLEY,
Corporal Company I, Second Oregon.