The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-06
LETTER FROM a SOLDIER
A FORTY-FOURTH INFANTRY BoY's
PHILIPPINE IMPRESSIONS.
Army Authorities Have Prohted by
Mistakes i'm Cuba-Primitive Meth
DDS of the Native Farmers.

IulUlStfdllOH. dciut vi - OAittoi oh1'y
ances. was bothered by complaints. criti-
cisms, pleas and suggestions upon the
plan of the campaign. usually emanating
from people entirely ignorant of the funda-
mental principles of warfare, people who
howled for war and when the call came
waved their silk hats in farewell to the
volunteers and stayed at home. This ora
Gle, or kicker" is in evidence In the
| Philippine trouble. and 1t is for his benefit
that a few remarks concerning the Philip
pine insurrection should be made. That
the administration made mistakes in the
last war cannot be denied, but it profited
by them, and nothing illustrates that so
much as the organization of the volunteers
for Philippine service. In the last war
| people complained because their favorite
| regiment was not sent to the front or
| was not mustered out when they thought 1t
| should be. Some of the officers were un-
| fitted for service and also a great many of
the men. Congressman and senators were
| always applying for discharges for some
friends son, and confusion reigned gen.
| orally. The new volunteers are vastly
different, a harder, more experienced and
| more soldierly lot. The field officers are
! taken from the regular army. the line Off
GERS are the best volunteer officers of the
Spanish-American war and the men were
| recruited from different sections of the
| country, thus abolishing all political in
terest, both local and national. That the
new regiments have done better work Is
| evidenced by the press dispatches. TIL
| transport service is more adequate to meet
| the demand for the shipment of more
troops to the Philippines. the quartermas-
| ter's department can properly feed and
| clothe the large army now there and the
increased medical corps is not deficient
and worked to death. What a change
from the conditions in Cubai
FORTY-FOURTH INFANTRY.
There are many young men in the vol
unteer army who enlisted partly with the
idea of seeing the world and they could
not nave chosen a better way to accom-
plish that end. A little sketch of the
Forty-fourth Volunteer Infantry will prove
that. The Forty-fourth Regiment was
organized at L~eavenworth, Kan, and un-
der the mastery hands OF Colonel Edward
J. McClernand, Lieutenant Colonel Scott
and Majors Hale and Mccoy, both of
whom had served in the Philippines a year
before, was equipped, drilled and ready for
Philippine service by Nov. 10, when it
boarded the transport and sailed for
Manila. The first battalion sailed on the
| City of Puebla, a ship chartered from the
Pacific Steamship Company. and fitted out
as a transport. Although small. it was
very clean and comfortable and the rations
were as good as could be expected. but
not equal to camp fare. Most everyone
,ro~ -oo-;olx af 6rct h.t ~, the fipna we
arrived at Honolulu everyone had gained
his sea legs" and was in condition to
see beautiful Honolulu. Thanksgiving
day the regiment saw an exhibition sham
battle by the Honolulu National Guard.
and in the afternoon passed in review be-
fore an audience of 5000 or 1000 people.
A great many rich people live in the
| city and even Englishmen come there to
live because of the mystic beauty of the
| place. Dur regiment spent five days there
and then sailed for Manila, which was
reached after an uneventful voyage.
Manila is surprisingly cosmopolitan. One
sees many Spaniards, some tradesmen,
but most of them wearing the blue drill
Uniform of the defeated Spanish army.
German and French sailors, English sail
ors, usually chatting or drinking beer with
his American bluejacket cousins: China
men, industriously engaged in the turning
of honest or dishonest pennies; Jews, Ital-
ians, Swedes, Filipinos, but the most IA
miliar figure is the American infantry
man in his yellow suit of khaki and cam
paign .hat-a healthy, neat well-fed look
ing fellow. who surveys all about him with
an air of superiority, to which he has a
perfect right.
Manila is a very interesting city and the
drives are beautiful. Everywhere is an
evidence of former Spanish rule and the
numerous grim-looking prisons prove
former misrule. But all this is over and
the place is rapidly becoming American
lied. We spent four days In Manila, and
passes were freely given so that the men
had an opportunity to see the place. There
our regiment was split UP and our battal-
ion, under Major Harry c. Hale, formerly
General Merritt's aid-de-camp, went to
Negros island. $50 miles south of Luzon.
Then another split-up occurred. Each
company was assigned to a GER
tain district, with headquarters
in the principal town OF that
district. My company CD was sent out
with a force under Lieutenant Colonel B.
A. byrne, who has done much to put down
the insurhectLon in 'Negros and whose
name is spoken in a whisper by the insur-
rectos. We had one fight with Colonel
Byrne's detachment, but the details are
not essential, except that after an all night
march over terribly rough ground We
reached the insurgent stronghold and
American pluck won another fight. After
moving around rather indefinitely for some
time Company d was sent TO Castellana, a
town at the base of the mountains and
known TO be a bad place. Lieutenant
Richard W.. Buchanan. formerly captain in
the Observation-Disclosures Indiana, is
a first lieutenant in Company d, but DEM
onstrated such excellence in military
government that ne was detached from
his company and sent in charge of a body
of regulars to valladolid, a town known to
be full of insurrection promoters.
AN ATTACK IN THE NIGHT.
One night Captain Curtis received some
secret Information from a spy and the re-
suit was that We were marched up in the
mountains at night and after wading swift
streams. stumbling over unknown paths
and marching ali night. we reached the