The Oskaloosa herald., 1900-02-22

/ from General Macarthur TO make re-
conoisance northward and keep on going
until he came in contact with the enemy
| On the Sunday preceding the Colonel
had been out with mounted officers of
the regiment and secuted the country
within radius of seven miles from
Porac. Had searched the country over
from high points for Insurgents, but saw
| none. Returning he remarked to me
that he didn't believe there were any In
surgents near Porac. When he received
such order from Gen Mac Arthur he
felt satisf i that we would travel all
day before striking natives in force, If at
all Knowing that general advance
was contemplated he took these things
into consideration and requested permits.
sion to move so strong to company, the
balance of the command to go to Angc.
les with the regiments and mems prop
erty which would be left behind Per-
nilsson was granted as desired and on
the morning of the 9TH we moved north
ward. Little, if any, resistance was of
tered and that evening about o'clock
we marched into Mabalacat and after
preparing supper turned in and slept I'M
til daylight, when we were awakened by
a few friendly shots from the Amegos to
our west, who seemingly desired to in
form us they were still on earth. No
one hurt and not a shot fired by us. nc
distance from Porac to Mabalacat IS
about Is miles. Our entrance into Ma
balacat placed our regiment about SIX
miles ahead of the extreme firing line,
our line then being at Mangalang. ne
next morning, the 9Th, General Wheeler
and staff with brigade came into Mabal-
acat meeting no resistance on the way.
Anticipating his move the Ist and ord
Battalion moved south from Mabala-
cat and covered the road to Barrio
called Dolores about FIVE miles distant to
cut the retreat any body of the enemy
which might come our way, The end
Battalion remained in Mabalacat. We
saw nothing of the Insurgents
back and past Mabalacat to Bamban dur
ing the night. This was proven to be
fact by the reason that an outpost we
had stationed on the railroad during the
night killed three Insurgents, who upon
being challenged refused to halt. To
show the American soldiers marksman-
ship | might say that that outpost fired
but three shots that night and that those
three shots brought down three Insur-
gents. The Insurgents | think must
have been hankers to the column which
retired during the night to Bamban from
their position between Mangalang and.
Mabalacat Returning to Dolores we
took UP quarters there That day the
Colonel with scouts, mounted officers and
20 men from Z Troop, 4th Cavalry. made
a reconnaissance in the direction of Bam-
ban. They struck an Insurgent outpost
consisting of about 80 men and captain
and completely annihilated it. Killed the
captain and either wounded or killed
all but four of the men, the four being
taken prisoners Returning they brought
all the rifles. This was an excellent
piece of work. The outpost position
was low and the hill in its rear was gain
ed unknown to them. At the first tlre
they were completely demoralized. Our
men had all the advantage, being almost
directly over them while they were COM
PEELED to fire stright up, which can never
be effective. We rested in Dolores near
Mabalacat until the morning of the nth
when an attack upon Bamban was or
dered by General Macarthur. Leaving
at 2 o'clock a. m. we made detour to
the northwest in hopes we could gain a
certain commanding position by daylight
and there await the arrival of General
Macarthur and his troops. 1t took us
until about o'clock to get our position,
but we reached it unmolested and await
ed the others arrival below. At about
8 80 the artillery opened up and then we
showed ourselves on this hill or rather
hog-back During our half-hour wait,
we had plenty of time to look around
and see what was in front OF us we
had every trench located and had plenty
of time TO figure on the range to be
used. Guessing it at 1900 yards from
where I was to the nearest trench as
soon as the fire opened up had the best
shot in my company raise his sight to
that range and fire shot. Picking the
object. he fired, while | at his side watch
ed with my field glasses. 1t fell and |
told him to try 1900, for it fell short. He
did, fired and it struck the trench on top.
To be sure had him fire twice more at
the same object and with same range.
Results were the same. | then gave my
company the range as 1900 yards and
gave the command Fire at will. !"
Other companies were doing likewise.
| We were in virtually no danger as the
| insurgent cannot aim well and his aver
age gun will not carry that far. Several
bullets fell short of us. One othcer was
killed, being shot through the head: One
| man in nv company was wounded in the
| right knee. Both were pure accidents:
The mems fire was the most steady l
have ever seen them give, and they were
as cool as if on target practice We SIM
ply fired to keep down their fire. When
1t In he
mean time, the colonel and the I'd Bat
talon were moving around on their
| flank and we were covering their move
with our FIRE. The whole fight was pure
10th scrap. The other regiments did
nothing. General Wheeler remarked
that it was the prettiest fight he ever
saw. He said the goth looked like so
many ants on that ridge. We marched
into Bamban about noon and had dinner
Leaving about o'clock we marched or
to the next town. Capas, about four miles
north. from Bamban. at which place we
met the 18TH infantry and stayed ove
might and until about o'clock. when We
started for Tarlac We took the Wagon
road as far as Murcia. railway station
about four miles north of Capas Will
us we had two Calling Guns, out TO
inch Hotchkiss cannon and our Colts
automatic machine gun. The road wa
very muddy and the Gatlings were stucl
in the mud several times. This cause'
much delay, as it took us about fou
hours to 60 those four miles. The col
onel was bound to take Tarlac that night
so he left the I'D battalion with the Cat
linps at Murcea. while the Ist and q
hattalions, with the small guns, went int,