Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-12-06
FROM PHILIPPINES.
Robert Tarlton Writes interest
ingly of Soldier Life.
FIGHTING WITH THE INSURGENTS

Long Marches Thru Mountains in the
Neighborhood of obay, BohoI-Many
of the Soldiers Have BIstered Feet
ENEMY Cuts Telephone Wires.
A few days ago the Courier printed
letter written by Private Robert
Tarlton, who is serving in Company
G., of the Forty-fourth United States
Volunteer infantry, now stationed at
Jagua,, Bohol, Philippine Islands. In
it he told of the very exciting cir
cumstances of clash with natives,
in which one of the bolo-men made
ferocious attack upon him, doing his
best to run the American thru with
a boo or sword; Tarlton's life was
saved for the reason that the point of
the weapon was stopped by Tarlton's
watch. Tarlton secured the sword
and is keeping it and the watch as
momentoes of the occasion
Miss Jennie Tarlton. sister of Rob.
ert, employed in the Pallister cigar
factory in this city, is in receipt of
two letters from the Philippines, in
extended account of the skirmish in
took place. In part this letter is as
| follows:
Private Tarlton's Letter.
con August the 18th detachment
| of men left the town of Guindolman
under the command OF our First Lieu
tenant Theodore Levak, being among
the number. We had heard that
there were insurgents about 35 miles
from lis and we went out to find
them. We started over the mountain
and thru valleys where the mud was
up to our knees without catching sight
of them, SO we gave up all hopes of a
scrap there.
I'VE then went ten miles further to
the town of Carmen which was re-
ported to be their headquarters. We
found nothing, however, and were
starting back to Guindolman when,
bang! went gun from the hill in
| front of us and down went the horse
our lieutenant was riding.
Our Lieutenant said Here they are
boys and eat them up" We began
| firing at the riflemen on the hill tho
| we had to leave the road so as to see
them.
| Hide in Tall Grass.
In order to do this we had to go in
to some high grass at the side of the
road. The minute we got into the
| grass We found that we were in the
midst of number of Bolo-men. These
Bolo-men do not have rifles but carry
long heavy swords which are much
more dangerous than a rifle at close
| quarters. Before we could get out of
the grass one of our men, lad from
Illinois by the name of Marshall, had
been cut to pieces and six of our men
wounded, one of them being so badly
cut that he may die. The other five
will get we'll
| When those Filipinos make a rush
! at you the only thing to do is to either
kill them or get killed yourself. We
however, prefer to fix few of them
and so when the thing was over there
were 100 of them that had bit the
dust, and it only took one-half hour.
Marched twenty-five Miles.
After the scrap we marched TWEEN
ty-five miles to a town called Tubigon
where some soldiers of Co. B were
stationed. We captured four Filipinos
and made them carry Corporal Nc
Donal, the man who was wounded so
badly. From Tubigon we took a
steamer to Loay where we were met
by reinforcements which made our
number 100 strong, under the COM
mand OF the major of our battalion
/ With him in command we could whip
/ 1000 of the worst Filipinos that ever
carried a bolo or gun and they knew
1T. We burned everything in the town
OF Carmen except the church and con-
vent as it is the rules of war not to
destroy church property
Return to Jaqua.
! We returned to Iagua without any
thing of interest happening except
that our scout. John P. Collins, and a
man enlisted with me at Cheyenne,
Wyo., shot spy who was attempting
to fire upon us from ambush. We
have been in Jagua two weeks Satur-
day and will leave for Obay tomorrow.
1t is thirty-four miles or a two days
march. have been over the road
twice. Last Saturday eight of us and
our captain brought our baggage from
Guindolman. | came back in quieley
/ (buggy) with signal corps man and
we were not molested. don't think
liut lASlS VIII uS uIuCu more uS0UllS
as that little conversation" we had
with them August 81 seemed to cool
them off little. If you don't hear
from me for a month at time don't
worry for if there were anything seri
GUS to happen to me you would be not
flied within forty-eight hours. This
morning when the doctor examined
our feet to see if we were able to &c
to Obay he saiu: "Tarlton, have you
had enough licking yet?" and | said
no. | must close.
A Later Letter.
Obay, Bohol, P. l.,
September 80, 1900.
;, Dear Sister:-We left Jagua week
ago last Monday and came here With
out being molested on our journey. II
is forty miles and we made the trip in
two days arriving here Tuesday
night. My feet were blistered so thai
have to stay in camp. Our captain
took thirty men for few days triI