Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1900-04-06

Tor LOST bat were keScued-Dorsey
Distinguished Himself by His Bravery
Under Fire American Prisoners.
TAYABAs. +. |.
Feb Il 1900
/ FRIEND kUNkLE-About two
hundred years ago "a good concrete
road was built over the mountain
from Santa Cruz on Laguna de Bay
TO Lueena on the Pacific coast, just
80 miles The towns between Santa
| Cruz and Lucena are Magalener.
Lukbor, Maiayiay pronounced
Mahihi) and fayabar. Each of
these six towns are exactly seven
miles apart with few important
towns between them. The road with
the exception of the seven miles be-
tween Majayjay and Lukbor is
about as good as when made. | will
only have time in this letter to
speak Of what Dorsey calls war
business. We left Santa Cruz Fri
day morning, with wagon train Of
provisions that had an escort OF
thirty five men members of the 37th
regiment. This tramp has convinced
me that the Philippine is the garden
spot of the earth Ii the Garden OF
Eden was not located in the Philip
pines there is no reason why it
should not have been. 1t is the rich
est county in the world and we have
nothing in the state tocompare with
1t. When company Of soldiers
start out through a hostile county
county they throw ont point. :
The point consists of three men.
lOne marched in the middle of the
road The other two march some
distance behind one on each side OF
the road, the three forming trian-
gle. A fourth man marches about
fifty yards behind the point and
keep up communication behind the
point and the main body of soldiers
On the trip, the band marched on
each side of the wagons, between
themain body and rear guard with
order to hold the mules in core they
attempted to stampede If we should
be fired at cap "a Magalena the insur-
gentsIopened fire on us from trenches
on each side of the road. and for
about five minutes their yolleys
kept the air full of bullets. Their
cross fire was something terrible.
The mauser bullets made musical
sound while those from the reming
ton sound like they had tin can
tied to them. Fortunately they were
mostly going high. This shooting
high is a great weakness OF the
Filipinos. AS the mules treated the
entertainment with silent contempt.
Major Cheatham who was in com
mand ordered the band to get in the
bitches on each side of the road.
The little body OF soldiers were
obliged to charge the trenches be
fore the Filipinos could be driven
out. | found out one thing during
this engagement the American sol
diers have no fear of death. The
way Major Cheatham led that little
body OF men up to those trenches
was something grand and how they
did pour the fire into those Philip
pinos. The Krag rife used by the
Americans is far superior to the
mauser for rapid work as the maus-
er is hard to load when the shells
are little rusty.
Maiazjay was the destination of
the wagon train, and the next morn
ing we resumed our journey with
only Is men for an escort; we fol-
lowed mountain trail through
scenery so picturesque it would
pay to make a trip, around the world
to see it. We marched single file
this time with instruction not te
bunch up but walk five feet apart.
When about half way to Lukbon we
were fired on. We were down in a
hurry, but there was no ditch this
time and the insurgents who were
located in a bamho thicket were do
ing splendid work, their bullets
tearing up the dirt all around us
We made piles of stones in front OF
our heads to protect ourselves and
did it quick too. It "a man in the
states could pile stone that fast he
would receive about ten dollars a
day Our little escort soon drove
the gugus out Of the thieket. A halt
mile on we were again fired on, and
again they were driven off. We
tramped about one more mile with
ont a word being spoken when we
discovered we were in nest of gugus
and again we received their cross
fire; bullets were coming from the
left and in the edge Of the woods not
more than three hundred yards to
our right; we could see at least two
hundred gugus. 70 90 farther
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