Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1900-03-15
BRAVE EXPLOIT.
Col. Casteel Makes Splendid
Record.

|
dition of The Country Murders are
Frequent Exploits of Various Off,
GERS.
The last issue OF the Charleston
Tribune has letter from a sol
dier in Manila who has the following
of interest to say about the condition
OF affairs over there and Of Col. Cas-
teel who is well known in Morgan
town. Mrs. Casteel is here at present
with her father Mr. James G. Wal
lace:
Hardly day passes that fails to
bring the report OF massacres, ambus-
cades and outrages of all sorts in the
outer districts. A troop OF cavalry,
patrolling presumably pacftied dis
tricts, will be suddenly ambushed by
greatly superior force; a small body
of soldiers will go out unarmed for
walk in the outskirts Of a peaceful
| town, and be found by their comrades
few hours later, weltering in their
I blood, and. in many cases, with their
/ bodies sayagely treated--in Short,
guerilla warfare is daily INDUCED in
by the sU-called "Army of the Phil
ippine Republic" They are treacher-
Gus and persistent, cowardly and
crafty. In every case where they have
met the American soldier on anything
like equal ground they have been igno-
minioasly routed, and in the majori-
ty of cases they have been routed,
whatever the odds.
| Fifty men Of the Fourth Cavalry,
under Lieut. Munroe captured over
seven hundred Of them, including
arms and supplies by daredevil bluff
backed up with fifty carbines and six
shooters. Capt. Baston of Macabee
scout fame, and two troopers of the
Fourth, made pistol charge on
trench and drove off fifty of Aguinal-
| dos regulars; and last, but not least,
brave West Virginia volunteer Capt.
| ID. L. e. Casteel, late Assistant Adju
tant General at Charleston, utterly
routed an ambuscade of 400 insur-
gents with only a part of company.
AS this engagement was a character
istic one and thoroughly illustrates
the tactics of the Filipinos, it might
be well to describe it from the anthem
tic report Just received
| On January goth Capt. ID. T. E.
Casteel commanding Company e,
9th Infantry numbering seventy-oue
men, was Unexpectedly attacked by
force of some four hundred Of the en-
envy between Morong and Panay.
The insurgents opened fire from the
<Nfk tn ut 4 11.f A<. - n f..
at distance of 600 yards, killing
First Sergeant Neeland and mortally
wounding Private O'Rourke. The
Americans fell back at the first fire
and, after returning few volleys from
the cover of rice bank foot high,
Capt. Casteel led his command
through the waist deep mud and
water of the rice field 20 within 100
yards of the enemy, who stubbornly
held their ground. Then the Ameri-
can captain coolly fanked them, right
and left, causing their immediate
rout 10 'front.' and had Quartermaster
| Sergeant Scheurer, who commanded
the rear guard detail, taking advan-
| tage of the opportunity and opened
| fire on the flanking party OF the enc
my that had cut him off from the
main body, the whole command would
probably have fallen into the hands
of the intrepid little band of men it
started out to capture. This is fair
example of the method employed by
the insurgents in all the principal en-
gagements.
The Filipino has found out by ex-
perience that in square, stand-up
| fight he is no match for the Ameri-
cans, and he has ceased to meet him
on anything like equal terms. He
substitutes craft for courage, attack
| ing our soldier only when he is I'M
armed or otherwise at disadvantage.
| To trust an "Amigo" means death,
as our forces have learned by grim ex-
perience. With such existing condi-
tions, the difficulties Of the problem
here are many and intricate. There
is no longer a large force Of insurgents
To combat, and the principal part Of
/ the island is in the hands OF the Uni
ted States--~that is, ia Importance, for
the Americans hold only about one
| third Of the actual area Of Luzon.
The people profess to desire American
control and to be thoroughly satisfied
with what the United States offers in
the way Of civil government, yet as
soon as they are granted little liberty
they use it as an opportunity for
treaehery and outrage. The same
man that sells you fruit in the town
and processes to be .'mucho Amigo, !"
will be found dead in the next trench
you take. It seems that there is
hold ON these strange people that is
stronger than any the United States
has yet been able to secure.