Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-01-09
Letter Written From Santa Anna,
Philippine Islands.
SAYS he is A TIN SOLDIER NOLONGER
Is Engaged In Establishing Civil Gov.
ernment for One of the Filipino
Towns-Natlves Are Like
Little Children.

w. Il. Armstrong, captain of Com
pany G., is in receipt of letter from
Captain +. w. Eckers, of the Thirty
second infantry. United States volun-
teers who is seeing service in the Phil
ippines. AT the time the letter was
written Captain Eckers was in An
-eles, one of the most northerly points
held by the United States troops, and
was on the expedition sent to entrap
Aguinaldo. The captain says that
while he has not been in any of the
big fights. vet he can at least deny
the assertion that he is nothing more
than a "tin soldier" He says that his
company did outpost duty, making pa
trolls and reconnaissance work, which
is much worse than the big fights. AZ
/. ter relating the incidents connected
with his trip across the ocean, the
captain says:
We disembarked the next day after
our arrival and went into quarters in
-lanila, in some very fine old resi-
dences which were formerly occupied
by rich Spaniards. We stayed there
for three days and were then sent to
Angeles, the most northern point on
the railroad then held by our troops,
and which is about sixty miles from
Manila. Here we joined the rest of
our regiment and Immediately began
work on outpost patrol and wagon
escort duty. When we arrived at An
geles the Ninth, Twelfth and Seven
'teenth infantry and parts of the
Fourth cavalry and the Sixth artillery
were there, and had been awaiting
our arrival before they started on the
campaign of the north. At this time
the Thirty-siXth was at Porac, a viii
lage about seven miles from Angeles,
having taken the place the day before.
General Lawton and General Young
had cone northeast and had cleaned up
all the country in that direction, and
had taken San Isidro. General
Wheaton hal landed at San Fabian, at
the north end, taking that place and
Dagupan, and was to have proceeded
southwark. Aguinaldo was supposed
to be in Tarloc and the intention was
to get Wheaton, Lawton and Young
above him to cut off his retreat north
and the brigade under Wheeler to move
straight north. We moved out, with
them expecting to accompany them a
few miles and return to Angeles but
we found after crossing the river at
Angeles that they had gone, so we
went no further and returned a very
disappointed regiment. We confident
ly expected to get into fight, as the
whole country north of us was net
work of modern trenches and it was
reasonable to suppose that they would
attempt to hold them, at least for a
while, but our fun commenced as soon
as we were left alone at Angeles. The
enemy was active enough to make it
interesting for US. Outpost duty, when
in the. face of an enemy, is, at best, a
hard duty, but when we must obey an
order that says we must not fire on
thc.n except to protect ourselves, tits
much harder. If a sentinel has halt
ed some one CROSSING his post, and the
4 pee son did not halt, he had to let him
po at the time, not knowing when the
fellow would get him from behind
These orders We're changed after we
had been there four days, and after
our sentinels had plugged few OF
them we had an easier time. The com.
maading generals are beginning to see
that conciliatory measures won't
work and are now waging war in
earnest.
81 took a run down to Manila last
Monday and on the way back, Thurs
day, found that our regiment had beer
split up and that my company was al
Santa Anna. so | got off the train al
San Fernando, and the next morning
started for Santa Anna. 1t was the
worst trim / ever had in my life, anG
when I arrived here found the tow,
worse than the road leading to it. The