The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-03-18

sent 20 the watch tower of Jaro and Gen.
Carpenter was ordered back to Jaro to wait
for the weather to dry up. and the two bat
talions OF the Eighteenth Infantry and the
battery returned TO Jaro and laid by for
nearly fortnight. General Hughes halted
at Tigbauan instead of returning TO Iloilo.
FILIPINOS IN RETREAT
Then there was another long, deary sea-
son OF rainy weather, so much prolonged
that every one wondered if the rainy sea-
son was not setting in anew. But by Nov
% the roads were reported to be in fair con-
dition, and the signal corps men on the
watch tower. who had been signaling with
lamps at night to General Hughes, re-
ceived orders directing General Carpenter
TO make direct frontal advance on Santa
Barbara. intending to himself come up
from the rear. Accordingly, on the morn
ing Of Nov. 81 General Carpenters COM
mand. consisting OF the same troops as on
the first advance. left Jaro before daylight.
A mile and a half out of Jaro at Illayo.
the advance guard. Company F. suddenly
received volley from the rebel trenches.
the location of which was pretty we'll
known and which were being cautiously
approached. This company and Company
Il promptly deploycd. Company G was
standing at rest when a volley of bullets
came crashing down the road. The COL
urn as one man sprang to one side and in
minute every man was down out of sight,
while Adjutant Evans and General Car
penter led their horses to one side In two
or three minutes Captain Brigham's bat
terry was ordered up. and as the artillery
men Numbered By on their big mules drag
ging the field gun, Company gave them
a yell OF encouragement that brought the
company commander 10 his feet 10 enjoin
silence. Before the artillery got into ac-
ton Company was deploying across
canefield half mile TO the left OF the road.
and after forming as skirmishers took up
the forward march, while the cannon was
booming off 10 the left, where a terrific
firing was kept up for a half hour, until
breaches were made in the Notifications
and the Khakiaks were in retreat along
their whole front, extending to the right
of the road quarter of mile TO the Jaro
river, on the far side of which battalion
or the Twenty-sixth Infantry had begun
before our advance to fire in order to dis
tract attention from the advance of the
main column. This engagement was time
of suspense and inaction for c Company
which was the extreme left flank. and had
little to do but seek shelter behind ridges
and trees from the bullets that were
shrieking and whstling over it. Fifteen or
twenty feet from me one man stuck up his
head to try and see what was going on,
and instantly fell back with bullet wound
In his scalp. Lieutenant Eskridge hurried
20 his side. when one man OF his squad
called out, "Locknart's shot!'' 1t was only
a scalp wound. but Lockhart was pale and
unsteady on his legs when the lieutenant
led him TO the rear. after binding up the
wound with bandages from a first-aid pack
age In the mans haversack. The bullet
plowed a f'irrow in the scalp and fell down
I'm front of him when Lockhart raised his
hat
All this time the company was I'm an aw-
full state of suspense and excitement. Away
over the river a perfect roar was being
kept up by the volunteers rifles and CAT
ling guns. while nearer at hand the deep
believing of the cannon and the sharp
barking of the Krag-Jorgensen volleys and
now and then a chorus of yells from the
frightened Khakiaks raised an internal din
that wrought the company TO the highest
pitch, lying there on its belly. unable TO
catch single glimpse of what was hap
pening off there to the right behind the
dense thickets of cane and banana plants
By and by the wild yell of the Americans
who had been contemptuously silent of
the Khakiak cheers told that they were on
the charge and the thanking company was
ordered forward on the double-auick
Pushing through young cane switching in
wifi
track furlong wide lay before the SOL
diers and beyond it the deserted trenches
OFF here to the left the trench was a deep
and narrow evacuation like trench for a
gas main in a city street, the loose earth
thrown up for further defense on the Jaro
side of it. 1t was dug with a slight fall to
the right and drained off into the river a
mile away. In the bottom of the trench
where l stepped across lay a dead rebel, his
blood-covered face upward. drawn in awful
lines and the CLASSY eyes protrudng with
the fear that had come upon him I'm his last
moment. Beyond the trench the troops
pushed forward through an almost impas-
sable jungle. at times single file in cross
Ing deep chasms of narrow streams and
again spreading out as much as possible
Il and + companies had lost several men,
AS = Company clambered up a hill Cap
tain Griffith. of Company, came out of
the brush.
Lose any men. Mr.. Baldwin," he in
quired.
zone man wounded slightly"
That's fortunate. Five or six of my
men are done for"
Then the psws came down the line of a
man in the battery shot dead, a sergeant
ripped open and several in the other two
companies dead or dying. 1t was a serious
moment as the men talked over in low
tones the taking off of men with whom
they had talked and spent a pleasant hour
one day before.
THROUGH TIMBER AND RICE FIELDS.
Then there was an hours wait and final
~ the hill was left behind, the column
emerged from the woods and lay at the
edge OF broad rice field extending a mile
on either side of the road. which had here
left the river. which swept away in a
broad bend. Two miles i'm front the rice
field brought up at a fringe of tall timber
which, as was afterwards learned. bordered
the river brought back to the road by an
other sharp bend The corrugated iron
roofs Of several tall buildings two miles
ahead, pesping up among the lofty cocoa
81 of he Of