The Oskaloosa herald., 1900-02-22

| from AIeneral Macarthur TO make re-
conoisance northward and keep on going
until he came in contact with the enemy.
On the Sunday preceding the Colonel
had been out with mounted officers of
the regiment and secuted the country
within a radius of seven miles from
Porac Had searched the country over
from high points for Insurgents, but saw
none. Returning he remarked to me
that he didn't believe there were any In
surgents near Porac. When he received
such orders from Gen. Mac Arthur he
felt satisfied that we would travel all
day before striking natives in force, If at
| all. Knowing that general advance
was contemplated he took these things
into consideration and requested permis.
sion to move so strong to company, the
balance OF the command to go to Ange
les with the regiments and mems prop
| erty which would be left behind. Per-
nilsson was granted as desired and on
| the morning of the 9TH we moved north
ward Little, if any, resistance was Of
fered and that evening about o'clock
we marched into Mabalacat and after
preparing supper turned in and slept un-
til daylight when we were awakened by
a few friendly shots from the Amegos to
our west, who seemingly desired to in
form us they were still on earth. NO
one hurt and not shot fired by us. lac
distance from Porac to Mabalacat is
about IS miles. Our entrance into Ma
balacat placed our regiment about six
miles ahead of the extreme tiring line,
our line then being at Mangalang. Ihe
next morning, the 9Th, General Wheeler
and staff with brigade came into Mabal-
acat meeting no resistance on the way.
Anticipating his move the Ist and 3rd
Battalion moved south from Mabala-
cat and covered the road to a Barrlo
called Dolores about five miles distant to
cut the retreat any body of the enemy
which might come our way. The 2nd
Battalion remained in Mabalacat. We
saw nothing of the Insurgents
back and past Mabalacat to Bamban dur
| ing the night This was proven to be a
fact by the reason that an outpost we
had stationed on the railroad during the
night killed three Insurgents, who upon
being challenged refused to halt. To
show the American soldiers marksman-
ship | might say that that outpost fired
but three shots that night and that those
three shots brought down three Insur-
gents. The Insurgents think must
have been hankers to the column which
retired during the night to Bamban from
| their position between Mangalang and.
Mabalacat Returning to Dolores we
took up quarters there. That day the
Colonel with scouts, mounted officers and
20 men from f Troop, 4th Cavalry, made
reconnaissance in the direction of Ban-
ban They struck an Insurgent outpost
consisting of about 80 men and a captain
and completely annihilated it. Killed the
| captain and either wounded or killed
all but four of the men. the four being
taken prisoners. Returning they brought
all the rifles. This was an excellent
piece of work. The outpost position
was low and the hill in its rear was gain
| ed unknown to them. At the first tlre
they were completely demoralized. Our
men had all the advantage being almost
directly over them while they were COM
PEELED to fire stright up, which can never
be effective We rested in Dolores near
Mabalacat until the morning of the nth
when an attack upon Bamban was or
dered by General Macarthur. Leaving
at o'clock a, m we made detour to
the northwest in hopes we could gain
certain commanding position by daylight
and there await the arrival of General
| Macarthur and his troops. 1t took us
until about 8 o'clock to get our position,
but we reached it unmolested and await
ed the others arrival below. At about
8 80 the artillery opened up and then we
| showed ourselves on this hill or rather
hop-back During our half-hour wait,
we had plenty Of time to look around
and see what was in front of us. We
had eyery trench located and had plenty
/ Of time to figure on the range to be
used. Guessing it at 1900 yards from
where | was to the nearest trench as
soon as the fire opened up / had the best
shot in my company raise his sight to
that range and fire a shot Picking the
object, he fired, while | at his side watch
ed with my field glasses. 1t fell and |
told him to try 1900, for it fell short. He
did, fired and it struck the trench on top.
To be sure | had him fire twice more at
the same object and with same range.
Results were the same. / then gave my
company the range as 1900 yards and
gave the command, Sire at will" !"
Other companies were doing likewise.
I'VE were in virtually no danger as the
insurgent cannot aim we'll and his aver
age gun will not carry that far. Several
bullets fell short of us. One ofhcer was
killed, being shot through the head: One
man in my company was wounded IN the
right knee. Both were pure accidents.
The mems fire was the most steady
have ever seen them give, and they were
as cool as if on target practice We SIM
ply fired TO keep down their fire. When
they stopped we would stop. In the
mean time, the colonel and the I'd Bat
TALON were moving around on theil
flank and we were covering their move
with our fire. The whole fight was pure
v 36th scrap. The other regiments die
. nothing. General Wheeler remarked
, that it was the prettiest fight he ever
saw. He said the goth looked like so
, many ants on that ridge. We marched
into Bamban about noon and had dinner
Leaving about o'clock we marched OF
Ito the next town, Capas. about four mile
north. from Bamban. at which place w
/ met the I7th infantry and stayed ove
' might and until about I o'clock, when w
: started for Tarlac. We took the wagol
4 road as far as Murcia. railway station
s about four miles north of Capas. Wit
4 us we had two Gatling Guns. out 10
c inch Hotchkiss cannon and our Colt:
!. automatic machine gun. The road wa
a very muddy and the Gatlings were stuc
n in the mud several times. This cause
much delay, as it took as about foti
a hours to 60 those four miles. The col
c onel was bound to take Tarlac that nigh
so he left the I'd battalion with the Cat
z lings at Murcea. while the Ist and 2
r hst'alions, with the small guns, went int