Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1900-07-24
BEN GoODWIN's LETTER.

t BEN G0ODWIN'S LETTER.
A Soldier Tells What Our Boys Are Doin
in the Philippines.
Ben Good win, of this county
who served through the wa
!. with Co. M, 2nd Oregon, is nov
a sergeant in Co. K, 4oth Regt
U. S. V. In recent letter t.
H. L. Holgate, which Mr. Hol
gate sends to the GAZETTE from
Washington, D. c., he describe.
some of his experiences with hi.
new regiment of which he is
justly proud. Mr.. Holgate sug'
gests that Ben would doubtless
} highly appreciate it if his Co. NJ.
(2nd Ore.) comrades would send
him greetings and news from
homeland. A portion of Ser
geant Goodwin's letter follows
CAGAYAN, M1NDANAo.
! You will doubtless be inter
ested in the soldiers news from
here-the most southern island
of the Philippine group. We
are about I, 900 miles from Man
lila. l will tell you a little of
our fighting. We left Manila
February 18th, bound for South
ern Camerins, a province of
Southern Luzon, and arrived off
the coast of cur destination Feb
ruary 2oth. We landed, but
| what a landing it was! The
transport was compelled to anch-
or more than a mile from shore
at high tide. The soldiers were
then put aboard the small life
boats and started landward, but
before we reached the solid shore
the tide went out SO fast that we
were compelled to abandon the
boats and wade through the mud
and water. I hardly know hew
we succeeded in making any
headway a. all through that
mire, for we sank in until it Gov
cred our cartridge belts. The
mud was as thick as printers
paste, but we struggled through
it and in the face of a terrible
rifle fire poured at us by the in
surrectos on the shore.
We reached land where we
had to combat the rebels hand to
hand. for our ammunition, thick
ly coated with mud, was useless.
However, we drove them back,
until we reached a small stream,
where we took off our cartridge
belts and washed them. Re-
placing them in our belts, we
pushed forward, entertaining the
''goo- goos'' with Krag music.
With empty stomachs we pushed,
scrambled, and fell through the
heavy bush which afforded the
epemy such excellent shelter.
Major Case, formerly captain of
Co. F, end Oregon Vols, was in
command and he certainly did
the work nobly.
The Third Battalion steadily
worked its way up to the town of
Nueya Caseris, which has been
one of the worst hot-beds of re-
bellion on the island, while the
45th Infantry, which had been
landed further up the bay, swung
around between the high hills
and the town to cut off the re-
treat of the rebel soldiers. When
their movement had been ac-
complished we opened up al
heavy fire on the long line of in
surgent earthworks. The insur-
gents made a good stand, killing
and wounding several of our
boys, but fell back just as our
fellows were about to charge
bayonets on the trenches. When
we entered the town we found
their dead lying in heaps of
ten and twenty and the build
ings were badly damaged. The
scene presented to as was ter
rible one.
The soldiers were soon at work
cleaning up the town, putting
buildings in repair, and policing
the streets. The 4oth remained
on guard here until March z4th,
when our regiment boarded
transports and steamed south
ward to this island of Mindanao.
The first port to be opened
was Surigo, where we met with
no resistance. Two hundred armed
soldiers cheerfully gave up their
guns to Major Case, who was
the first to land and treat. with
the natives. They received him
royalty and seemed to be very
favorably impressed with him
and the terms of agreement he