The Batesburg advocate. [volume] (Batesburg, S.C.) 1901-1911, 1901-04-03
SOME SIDE LIGHTS
On the Pacification of the Philip.
nlno Islands
HUNTING THE FILIPINos.
How Our Soldiers Kill and Az
Killed. An American Off.
GERS Marrow Escape
from Amigo Bullets.

from Amigo Bullets.
An officer Of one Of the New Yo,k
volunteer regiments in the Spanish
American war, who is now q first lieu. .
tenant In tie Twenty sixth United
States Volunteer Infantry in the Phil.
lppines, tells, in letter to his former
colonel, now an off ser on Gov. Odells
stan, OF the tactics pursued in hunting
the Filipino band on the Island Of
fanay. His account, under the date
OF January 30, throws q remarkable
sideilght on the Manila cable dis
patches. which announce that the is.
land OF Panay has been pacifsd. The
writer was stationed, at the time the
letter was written, near the town of
Lrrsga, and he states that active
operations were being pushed against
the natives.
With the exception of the first two
weeks after landing at Iloilo," the lieu
tenant writes, II have been almost
constantly in the field, 30 much that l
have not been able to say what 'shsck'
or casa was mine to call home. Field.
work began on November 10, 1899.
when, in command of my company, [
was sent to drive in the enemy's out.
posts, before the advance of the Eish.
teenth United States Infantry. This
we not only accomplished, but had the
6tunt of all the fighting that day.
But with all my experience since then
L believe today have rs mortal fear
OF a bullet, at the beginning Of
scrap, as any man In or out of the
service. After the first few rounds,
however, one gets ones blood up and
does not mind it. / have had many a
tight shave, and in some Of them am
not ready to believe it was no lu,k,
but rather Providence.
On one occasion recently l had
charge of several small pueblos, and
was sleeping in convent ut one of
them. Near my bed on q shelf was q
picture of my wife and the boys. At
night about 300 of my 'mucho amigos
(Filipinos) got through the outposts
and past patrol to within 200 yards of
the convent. Knowing, perhaps, the ex.
act location of my room, about half q
dozen of them climbed a mango tree
and took few shots at my room be-
fore the general shooting began. One
Mauser. bullet went through tho pic
ture of my wife and the boys, four
more struck my bed, and one puAc-
tured pocket in my trousers, which
were under my pillow.
'"hen b0ssa a. seod a scrap as
ever L got into. | only had forty men.
and 1t was very dark, but we had them
on the run in less than three. ouarters
of an hour. When it was over I found
that 1 had one man killed and two
wounded; Their loss, I was told,
amounted to thirty. None of them
could be found when daylight came.
not even an empty she'll. Both of my
lieutenants, Formal and Wagner, have
since lost their lives, one of them
drowned and the other killed in am
bush. | have also lest eleven enlisted
men, which is the highest company
loss in the regiment.
Since the election Of Mckinley. we
have been pushing the insurgents hard
ano fast. Orders arc very open now.
80 that you are not afraid of being re.
called from scrap before you could
get lLto one, as was many times the
case before election. l have been in
the field since election day, and until
recently | could run into rs many as
three or four scraps day, but now
dry weather is coming on, and together
with Mckinley's election. and our hit
ting them hard all around, things are
more quiet. You have to hunt for a
scrap now. L have been given q dis
trics to clean up, and have detach-
meat of forty FIVE men together with
some native scouts, w Work here is quite
hard from the nature of the ground,
and the fact that you begin your days
werk' In most cases at / =. m, and cover
from eighteen TO twenty elk miles a
day; ye. when you iud "strike" you
forget that You are tired until it is all
over: That was pretty good hike
We had together down in Virginia.
from Camp Alger to the Gap, but this
Is of different color. We are not
troubled with stragglers here, They
keep up without warning, for they
know their fate if they drop behind.
and fall into the hands of the bolo-
men. .@'r7.
Men out here in the volunteer ser
vice who are anxious to get commits
SION In the regular army, think it is
hard lines, to be compelled to stay
right on here two more years without
going home. A person staying here
two years without change cannot
stand il without serious results. l have
got along pretty well-native fever
twice and dysentery y'once-losing about
one month in the hospital.
The other day ran down chief Of
q notorious gang called the Polshans,
whom | had been after for more than
three months. l surrounded his barri
cade with ten men at 2 a. m. and
waited for daylight. When it came, it
took us ha'f al hour to force our way
inside, and then we could not find our
man, We were about to give up, when
we saw a pile e'of bamboo, and upon in.
vestigation it was found to cover a
bole in the ground which led to an un-
dergreund hut, out OF (which we smoked
the chief, also forty three. members of
his gang. He fought hard, and two of
his men were killed before he surren-
dered. New York Evening Post.
/" .' An Unstable jury.