Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-06-04

June Major March, with his detach-
ment of the Thirty-third Regiment,
overlook what is believed to have been
Aguinaldo's party, on May 10, at Lagat,
about one hundred miles northeast of
Vigan. The Americans killed or
wounded an officer, supposed to be
Aguinaldo, whose body was removed
by his followers.
Aguinaldo had one hundred men,
Major March one hundred and twenty
five. The American commander reach
ed Laboagan, where Aguinaldo had
made his headquarters since March 6,
on May Z. Aguinaldo had fed seven
hours before, leaving all the beaten
trails, and travelling through the for
est along the beds of streams. Toward
evening, May 10, Major March struck
Aguinaldo's outpost about mile out
side of Lagat, killing four Filipinos and
capturing two. From the latter he
learner that Agulnaldo had
Camped There for the Night
Although exhausted and half starved
Major March's men entered Lagat on
the run. They saw the insurgents
scattering into the bushes or over the
plateau. A thousand yards beyond the
town on the mountain side the figures
Of twenty-five Filipinos, dressed in
white, with their leader on a gray
horse, were silhouetted against the
sunset. The Americans fired volley
and saw the officer drop from his horse
His followers fed, carrying the body.
The Americans, on reaching the spot,
caught the horse, which was richly
saddled. Blood from badly wounded
man was on the animal and on the
ground. The saddle bags contained
Aguinaldo's diary and some private
papers, including proclamations. One
of these was addressed:
ITO the civilized nations
1t protested against the American
occupation of the Philippines. There
were also found copies of
Senator Beveridge's Speech
translated into Spanish and entitled:
The death knell of the Filipino peo-
ple'
Major March believing that the Fill
pinos had taken to river which is a
tributary to the Chico, followed it for
two days, reaching Tiao, where he
learned that a party of Filipinos had
descended the river May goth on raft
with the body of dead or wounded
man upon a litter covered with palm
leaves.
There Major March reviewed his
command, shoeless and exhausted, and
picked out twenty-four of the freshest
men, with whom he beat the surround
ing country for six days longer, but
without finding any trace of the insur-
gents. The Americans pushed on and
arrived at APART May 29th.
The officer shot was either Aguinaldo
or his adjutant, and as the horse was
richly comparisoned, it is fair pre-
sumption that
1t Was AguinaIdo.
The soldiers of Gen. Young, military
governor of the Northwestern Luzon,
captured early last month an insurgent
officer with papers revealing Aguin-
aldo's whereabouts. Gen. Young imme-
diately organized for pursuit, giving
Major March chance to finish the
work begun in November. Major March
left Candon May 10th, hurrying north
towards Laboagan, while Col. Hare,
with a battalion divided into two
parts, started from Rangued province
of Abra, covering the trails westward.
The garrisons in the Cagayan valley
were disposed in such way as 10
guard the avenues OF escape eastward.
Spies heralded the approach of Major
March with signal fires. On reaching
Laboagan, he apprehended a letter in
Aguinaldo's handwriting, the ink of
which was hardly dry, addressed to an
officer of guerrillas of the Filipino army
and saying:
There having arrived this morning
at Laboagan a hostile column from
Bokoc. 1 have set out with all my
force. My road has no fixed destina-
ton"
This was. signed Colonel David
a soubriquet.
Aguinaldo called at the Presidencia,
from which he issued DEGREES and
where his followers
Celebrated Easter
with banquet at triangular table,
when speechs were made eulogizing
Gregoria de Pillar
That night Major March's men slept
in the bamboo. resuming the advance
in the morning and reaching Lagat,
forty miles distant, in two days, al
though 1t was raining hard in the
mountains all the time.
Aguinaldo's papers are very import
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