The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1900-02-02
A Letter From the Philippines

La Iona, P T., Dec. 2Q,h, 1899.
My DEAR JIM
have Just received and read the
copy of The, Commonwealth OF NOV
tS09. thought recognized your own
bold chirography on the wrapper y on
can now say that your circulation ex-
tends around the globe. | shall not at
tempt to tell You howl thank you fo1
this manifestation Of your lemem
brance. Ernest Nolen is with. me ana
handed it to him as soon as had read
everything and scanned Ht ddre'7'Sc-
,ncpts. In return Ernest gave me the
Euuora Progress and the, Cs,nmercjal
Appeal. How we yaluefavors of. this
kind! g.
Our military duties have been very
heavy here. La Iona is five miles
northwest from Manila and "A part OF
the deIenses which surround thecl,y at
about this distance The insurgents are
something like the ubiqnitions flea,
They have never been known.to make
nm alta 'ck, but it is necessary to mhlh-
tain these defenses to prevent ihelr
predatory bands harassing the .snberos
of Manila which are. generally fnh"olt
ed by rough, disorderly element, VINO
would be ready to join the insurgents
at the slightest encouragement. La Lo-
ma IL only an immense Catholic church
and burial ground and is the head
quarters of my regiment (29th,. Ny
company is divided, and !, with the
ir,t platoon, am On the north%ot 'he
church, while my lst lieutenant with
the second platoon is on the south OF IT.,
We al ltain six outposts (Cos.nckl and
altoget her cover about 600 yards front
This makes guard duty very heavy on
The men as they never have ,l1ore than
two nights off and frequently but one
I don't hardly know what to write
about the situation here. don't mean.
the III iiitary situation, for the war is
ptactically over. To tell you the truth,
there has heen. very little :. fighting
The style or character of the warfare
md its results remind me strongly Of
the old experiences we had chasing tur.
bulent negroes in the Delta. Their only
style of fighting is to wait until our
soldiers approach within 1, 800 or 1000
yards when they fire Il volley and take
to their heels. They say the Americans
don't fight fair" That they. wont stay
in their trenches, and that thes'should
not use rotten (bnrsting) shells. They
hnye beer scattered to the fopr, winds
IN the earth broken into small bands
which are being pursted by detach
ments of opr troops. THEY have been
reported for some time as 'inasslns
about Manila and to the south with
headanarters at San Mateo, h strongly
fortified town l3 mileo east OF, this
place. rs
The sadlest incident of this war was
Gen. Lawton death there yesterday,
He was shot through the heart with
stray lullet An attack had been
MANNED on San Mateo for some time,
but was not to be consummated until
Lawton returned from the north. He
returned Saturday and at once began to
make arrangements. although several
thousand insurgents were. said to be in
trenched there he determiLed to nse on.
IL three battalions Of infantry and two
Of cavalry for the assault He selected
Col. Sargent to command the infantry
and sele ted one battalion from my
regiment unfortunately not the one TO
which belong), and one each from two
other regiments. Stern's company was
IN the battalion selected We under.
stand they had little trouble in taking
the town The troops started from
this place in a driving rain at 10 p. m,
Monday dec. 1Stii,) and we ~have not
received many details. We have learned
that the town was captured at 10 a. H.,