The Newtown bee., 1900-01-26
County.
WASHINGTON.
BEN FoULoIs IN yHF PHILIPPINES.

wrote last. Since then we have ha,
 some great times. We left Lloilo Novem
 Der 9. Our battalion, the 2i battalion,
 battalion of the 18th and one battalion of the 26sh Volunteers. We marche, nearly all night through pouring rain, t. a town on the coast called Oton. Abou the only shelter we could find was al immense church, and it certainly was
 dne one. There was room enough fo all. Coming into the town, we had t. cross narrow bridge. It had no rails ol the sides, so several wagons were lost and man out of the 18th. The rive
 was searched the next morning, and hi body was found short distance below the bridge. AS soon as we entered thC church the volunteers started to pillage but our officers posted guards througt the church and stopped 1t. It has beer the case ever since, that whenever any footing or pillaging was done 1t was done by the volunteers, and the regulars gen. 5rally got blamed for it. Early the next morning, the 26th volunteers started out
 n the direction of Santa Barbara, but only went few miles when they had to turn back on account of bad roads | About l p. m. we started out in the direc. Cion of the coast. The objective point oi all the forces was Santa Barbara, town about l5 miles from Iloilo, and the head quarters of all the insurgents. Our reg iment and part of the 26 h went out on She left flank, so as to cut the insurgents ott from the mountains. We left Oton November 10 and reached & town on the coast called Tigbaun, about D. m. On our way into the town we crossed over several lines of trenches which the insur- gents had dug, and then deserted about three days before we arrived. We camp ed in the church in this town. It ia s strange thing, that in every town we have been in we always find a large chuEch, and there are not more than 50 or 60 native houses in most of the towns. Yet the smallest church l have seen would hold at least thousand persons. They have saved us so far from spending great many nights out doors. The first thing done when we arrived at Tig- baum was to guard the town, and I was put on guard with one of the sergeants. We were relieved at p. m. the next day. 1 went down to the beach for bath, and got back to camp just in time to hear the bugle blow the call "To arms" We all fell in and marched about five miles over aOnp a awFu1 rnnda Fn anoaU Eox,,, oalIol Cordova. We renamed it the s'Mud Camp" before we left it. No matter where we went we had to wade through mud. We had rain nearly all the time we were there. We staid in that place nearly week, doing outpost duty and scouting around looking for the lnsur- gents. Monday, November 10, we broke camp. Our company was the rear guard, and we had 8 picnic with the wagon train. About every 10 minutes wagon would get stuck in the mud, and we would have to pull it out. We finally reached the town of Leon. Here we re- ceived orders to join the battalion. We left the train at Leon and pushed on to a lltLLS LOWA CulLSO Chu DIHhs nST6 we found the remainder of the battalion re. pairing the road, so the artillery could move with us. About II 8. m. we heard firing on the left front. Our 2i battalion had run into the ineurgents on our left. Our battalion, company of the 26 h vol unteers and mountain battery then moved to the right front. We moved up within half mile before we located the insurgents. They saw us about the same time, and opened fire on us. Bullets whistled pretty lively for while, but we in the 19 h were pretty well scattered ss skirmishers, so had no one killed, and only one man wounded. The 26th caught 1t worse than we did, ss they punched together and made good mark. They had one man killed and three wounded. When we arrived at 800 yards from the trenches we found that the insurgents had retreated to line of trenches on 8 high hill. So we started for the hill. D. and B. companies went around the left flank, our company and F. went up the front, and the 26th the left flank. When we got about half way up the hill the in- surgents cleared out and then 1t was a race to zee who would get to the top of the hll frst. Abont 10 men Of Company F. reached the trenches first, and I and my squad were next. The place was covered with blood. There were three dead insurgents and one wounded one left in the trenches The paths leading away from the trenches were covered with blood, so they must have taken quite number of wounded men away when they retreated. The insurgent that we found wounded in the trenches was 8 brave fellow. He was trying to load his gun as we came up, so he could have an- other shot at us, but 1t was taken from him before he. could do any harm. We carried him along with us for three days and then left him at temporary hos pital in one of the towns which we pass- ed through. After the fight was over we lay down in their trenches too tired to go any farther. We slept in the trenches that night. The next morning, November 21, we could see the insurgents digging trenches about two miles in front of us, in the direction of the town of San Miguel. h the afternoon went on guard on an outpost. There was no sleep for us that night. Between watching for the insurgents and fighting moequitoea we had our hands full.
 
 RRIDGEWATER.