Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1900-03-03
JOHN SHAY
Morgantown Lad Gets Baptism
of Fire.
Fighting with nsnrgents-Number OF
Latter Killed-Relics Seeured-De-
tails of Life Since Landing on the
Island-Climate is Very Agreeable
He is Getting along Well.
LA CARLoTA

our very Interesting anu welcome
letter which was written Nov oath,
was received on the 18th and | was
glad to hear from you. | got the pa
pers and read them through and
Athrough and | do wish you would send
Yme all you get hold of.
We are having fine weather now, it
very seldom rains. The days are very
warm but the nights are cool and COM
Portable.
didn't know that Vice President
Hobart was dead until yesterday when
one of our officers got some kind of a
notice that was printed stating that
he was dead and that the army would
be in mourning thirty days. but it
was all over before we heard anything
about it. We are almost cut of the
| world, we dc not know what is going
| on in the states nor we do not know
anything about the war here, only
what we do ourselves. We get the
Manila papers about every two weeks
but they are not allowed to publish
anything about the war and all the
war news we read is out of some
American paper.
We left Manila December 23d after
lying five long days in Manila bay
with orders to go to Iloilo on the
(Panay island which is our regiments
headquarters. The first Battalion
twas detached to Negros island
We arrived at lloilo December oath
and as | sat on the transport |
thought of last Xmas eve when | was
in Uniontown running around to
keep from freezing. We left uoilo
Xmas morning and arrived at Bacalod
Negros Island that afternoon. Bacalod
has population of 5000. 1t is
queer looking place. The only large
building is an old church used by co.
! M. Of the 9th infantry for barracks.
The rest are nothing but bambo huts.
We left Bacalod with 10 days ra-
. tions on the 9th of December, but
! did not come in contact with an in
surgents during our stay in the noun
! tains.
We stayed in a small place called
Maao for few days. There is rich
old native lives there who is one Of
the best friends the Americans have
ion this island he treated us Ene while
we were on his plantation. He gave
Jus all the bananas we wanted and
brought cigarettes to the boys every
day and gave US two sheep and one
beef during our stay.
We left there the 5th and got here
. the same day. La Carlota has a pop
! uiation of $4,000 and like Bacalod it
has nothing but bambo huds except a
church which is used by Cos. III of the
9Th and d of the 44th. This is our
headquarters now and | like it fine.
Our company was split up in three
detachments the Lieutenants taking
bne apiece and the Captain one. ]
n with the Captain and the Lieu
enants are out yet and will return to-
morrow. | do not know whether
they had any fight or not, but they
sent in two prisoners this morning.
But, / will tell you what de-
tachment out of Co. III of the 9th
land our detachment did. We left
here the 9th with two days rations
Respecting fight that evening, but
Ibid not find any as the insurgents had
hill and at o'clock a. m. we cooked
our breakfast and at three we left for
IA 20 mile march to town where Co.
K of the 9Th was. When we got there
We sent for 10 days more rations.
We stayed there until the 18th when
With two companies of native soldiers
nd attachments out OF Cos. IL and
of the 9th and ID of the 44th we
lit at O'Clock that night. The
me day some insurgent officers were
trmitted to propose peace terms to
lionel Byrne but they were I'M
isfactory. We sent all our rations
ek to La Carlota with the exception
two days rations.
We marched all night through the
untains. No one was allowed to
hk or smoke or make any noise at
an. We reached the place where the
Insurgents were before day light but
we stayed in the deep grass until day
A break; when it was light enough to
see we started on. The insurgents
! were Ia hollow but at the top of the
hill there was shack. One of the
boys Of the 9th looked in it and there
were seven men asleep. We opened
fire and killed all of them before they
could get their guns. One was an
officer The ones in the hollow were
awakened by the firing but the two
Companies of native soldiers and X
Co. were there. Most of them got
away but we killed about 30 of them
! and captured % rifles, one shot gun
two swords, several daggers and a big
bag OF ammunition
We took the advance guard coming
back and as we came out OF the woods
into the open the enemy opened fire
upon us and Tell you | did not feel