The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-05-17

war and the insurrection in
the Philippines, none perhaps is more
thrilling than that which befell Lieu 4.
tenant James G. Gilmore, of the York
town, and his boats crew, who fell iuto
Filipino ambush year ago aud were
either captured or killed. The tale
is told most interestingly by Lieuten-
ant Gilmore himself in Collier 8
Weekly.
IT was on the morning of April 70,
1899, that Lieutenant Gilmore left
the Yorktown in the second cutter
with crew of fourteen men and two
passengers--an officer and man
near the town of Baler, where they
were to try aud discover the position
OF church in which it was said a
party of Spanish were besieged by in
surgents, The men were landed safe
ly, but Gillmores boat was discovered
by the enemy n little later as he was
going back to the mouth of the river
which flows past Baler. To throw off
suspicion rs to the real purpose of his
trip, Gilmore began making sound
ings across the river, and sketches
In doing this the boat was allowed to
approach close to the left bank of the
river where there was swamp COW
cred with tall marsh grass.
GAS L was about to give the order
to return" Lieutenant Gillmore's
narrative says, "we rounded bend
and came full upon an outpost who
hailed us aud fred a shot. Before L
could answer the hail volley was
fired at us at close range--about fifty
yards.
''The effect of this voley was terri
BILE. Two men were killed instantly,
the brains of one being scattered over
the boat and crew. Another man had
the fingers cut off his left hand, but
still kept bravely to his post at the
starboard stroke oar. The starboard
oars were riddled and most OF them
shattered. The boat was pierced by
the Remington balls and made water
fast. AS soon as possible after recov-
ering from the first shock we opened
fire with Colt and rifles. The ambush
was so complete that we could not see
at what to fire, not even the smoke.
The second volley threw the Colt out
of action by shattering the box and
cutting the loading tape. The order
was given to back oars, but as only
very few could be used, the tide drifted
us in on sank bank. Three of the
men brayely jumped over to swim the
boat out but did not succeed, the tide
setting us in.
1.-The volleys were now poured in
Oh us from the left bank in quick sue
cession, mortally wounding two men
and seriously wounding three others.
and myself slightly. At this time |
was under the impression that most
of the crew were either wounded or
killed, as the bodies of the men who
were killed and mortally wounded had
fallen on the slighter men in the boat,
in the bottom of which they were
struggling. The boat was covered
with blood, presenting fearful sight.
The cries of the mortally wounded,
asking me to shoot them and not allow
them to fall into the hands of the
savages, were heartrending. At the
same time there could be seen coming
1 WV II biN Dblih a. Dullt Vi buNuHGS
-bolo and spear men-with few
Remington rifles. / theE gave the
order to hoist the white flag. This
was done by one of the men, who re-
ceived ball through the wrist and
dropped the flag.
''The firing from the enemy now
came faster, and / thought they in
tended to massacre us, so continued
our fire. We were now hailsd in
Spanish from the left bank by an Off
Ger, saying that if we did not cease
firing and surrender he would murder
us all. then surrendered to him.
The savaSes on the right bank came
up, took us out of the boat, robbed
us, tied our arms behind our backs
with bamboo thongs and lined us up
on the beach to be shot. | protested
against being shot with my arms tied,
and this alteration, which lasted
about five minutes, probably saved
our lives. They loaded their rifles
and were all ready, when a Tagalog
officer came out of the brush and
ordered otherwise. We were then
sent aboard the boat, and after stop
ping up the holes made by the rifle
balls and pulling the boat out, pro.
ceeded up the river.
Two of the crew were dead, two
mortally wounded and three seriously
wounded. The boat was run ashore
a little way up the river. The dead
were left in it, the mortally wounded
put in the shade ashore aud then the
rest of the party were started fol
Baler. There orders were received
from Aguinaldo to bring them to the
capital, San Isidro; and, leaving the
seriously wounded behind, they be
gan long and weary march into the
interior over country broken with
mountains and unbridged streams an
over roads deep with mud. Their
guards were bow-and-arrow and spear
men, commanded by Tagalog cor
poral. Lieutenant Gillm ore tells the
story of that march, stage by stage
rec;ting how at times the party campec
in the open in rain storms and cold
or were met with threats and inhos
pitality in towns, and how, too, il
some towns they were well fed anC
we'll treated by order of the towr
presidentes.
The party remained nine days a
San Isidro, and then as American
forces were pushing forward the,