Evening star., 1900-04-12
Officer of the 47th Regiment Writes
of His Experience.
TROOPS FOLLOWING A Willy FOE
Rebels Keep Our Troops Con-
stantIy on the Alert.
THEY TAKE TO AMBUSH

The following letter was written by an
officer of the 47th Regiment, Volunteer In
fantry now in the Philippines. to friend
| in this city:
| 'LEGASPI, P. l.. February 10. 1900.
I've have been at this place for week
and have had some lively times and few
| anxious moments since our arrival. The 47th
Regiment has done well. however, and now
we are resting and getting ready for another
! hike inland. Aguinaldo is said to be
| somewhere in the southern part Of the
island and We hope to be present at the
| final roundup and assist in bringing him
| in.
| II think you will be interested in the pro-
ceedings of the past week and therefore
will give them to you in some detail at the
risk of growing tiresome. We had, as l
have already written you been pretty thor
oughly split up: headquarters. band and the
Sd Battalion were at Sorsogon. two COM
panies of the 1St Battalion "a and D., with
Major Wise. were at Donsol: Company b
was at Bulan and Company on the Island
of Catanduanes. Sorsogcn is on the bay of
the same name. which opens into the China
sea- the town being at the head of the bay
and about ten miles from the sea; the
other two towns on the coast, while
the Island of Catanduanes is some distance
up the east coast. lying in the Pacific, and
about latitude twelve degrees north. The
had been sent here and the instructions
given to each commanding officer were to
open the ports to trade.
Expected Some Resistance.
'It was expected that there might be some
resistance at Sorsogon. but none was an
ticipated anywhere else. and the landing
was made at that point first, the Nashville,
Helena and one of the gunboats captured
from the Spanish being present to assist If
necessary. When the landing had been
made the Nashville took the DonSol party
and the Helena the Bulan outfit. and saw
them established, all in comparative quiet.
few shots being fired and casualties.
The Nashville then conveyed the Legaspi
expedition and the C2tanduaEeS company
to their destination on the Pacific coast, the
latter meeting with practically no resist
ance, but the former stirring up a hornets
nest. The FilipinoS had line of trenches
along the beach and in the town that
filaded the landing place, and had battery
of small guns posted on two hills near the
beach. They are reported to have had 5000
men in their works, and, judging by the eX
| tent of the defenses, all of which were do
| ing business at the same time, this number
cannot be far out of the way. Shipton saw
that 1t would be useless to try to land at
the landing place. ard therefore carried his
people in small boats and under a hot fire
some three-quarters of a mile up the coast,
and got ashore through the surf in a posi-
ton where he could partially flank of
the trenches. The Nashville kept up a
steady fire with her small guns and drove
the Filipinos out of the batteries at the
other end of the town, setting fire in the
meanwhile to large warehouse which the
FiEpinoS were using as a shelter. ShiptOn
came up the beach with great gallantry
and drove the Tagals out of their works
and through the town. having several hot
corners to go up against.
FilipinOs Lost Fffty-Two.
When things quieted down he found that
| his men had killed ffty-two Filipinos-this.
at least, being the number of bodies found
| and had ten prisoners. The loss on our
| side was two killed and seven wounded
| one of the wounded being Capt. Jno. J.Brad-
| ley. assistant Quartermaster of the trans
port Hancock which steamer had brought
| US from Manila to Sorsogon. Bradley had
come mere as volunteer aid Gen.
kobbes staff and had taken part with
Shipton in the advance up the beach and
had shown marked courage. His wound
| fortunately is slight, being the back of
the right hand. and reported likely to
soon heal without permanent disability.
The Nashville got away that day and
Shipton set to work to get his stores on
shore and to open the road to Albay, mi,e
north. and to Daraga, two miles north of
Albay These three towns had formerly
combined population Of 81, ,OOO Legaspi be-
ing the port and Albay the capital of the
province of the same name. Albay and
Daraga were both well-built towns nicely
u
| fine place. Both these towns were occupied
with but slight resistance, Companies F
| and II going into Daraga and Company G
| to Albay, all three quartered in the
churches. these being the largest and
strongest buildings in the towns.
The priests leaders of the insur-
| rectOs. and the resources of the churches
| are used to aid Aguinaldo. hence nobody
| feels any compunctiOns about taking these
places and holding them fortified works.
| We have found them of great service, both
| in sheltering the men from bad weather
and protection from the attacks made
| nightly by the Tagals-
| Priests Strip the Churches.
| "Al of the churches are stripped of their
| contents by the priests. and when we get
| into them we always find them absolutely
bare. But to go back to my story, Com
| pany E was eft at Legaspi. where it was
necessary to guard the beach at both ends
| and to keep outposts on each of the three
| roads leading to the town. What with the
guard over the prisoners and the patrol this
| company has especially hard work to do,
| but II stuck to 1t for nine days, having
1 fights every night and being gradually
| worn out. This was the condition of things
Il