The age-herald., 1901-07-13
The Story of His Capture of Aguina|dO Officially
 Told
HOW CLEVER SCHEME WORKED
Official Paper of One of the Insurueni Generals Was Secured On This Letters With Forged Sigma
 lures Were Written.

Washington, July 13-The war depart- ment today made public Brigadier C.sa- eral Funston's report of the capture of Aguinaldo, made under date of May 6. General Funston goes into detail ton- corning the use he made of Ceclo Sagls- mundo, who had presented himself to Lieutenant J. D. Taylor, of the Twenty fourth infantry with letters of Aguinaldo that he was to deliver to various insur- gent chiefs. General Funston gives the following account of the forged letters, which were used to deceive Aguinaldo:
 "On October 24, 1900, while scating in the vicinity of Gapan. Nueva Ecija, I had surprised the insurgent chief La cuna in his camp and had captured, among other things, some writing paper which bore his headquarters seal On this paper two letters were written to Aguinaldo over the carefully forged sig nature of Lacuna.
 "One of these letters was dated at Bulacan and stated that the writer had just received a communication from Bal dermo Aguinaldo ordering him to send one of his best companies to Emilio Aguinaldo in Isabela. In accordance with these orders he was sending this force under Lieutenant Colonel Hilary Placido. These letters were dictated by me, but written by Segovia. We were in possess sion of a number of samples of Lacuna's signature and had previously succeeded in executing a very neat forgery of his au- tograph at the end of each one of the two sheets"
 ''The Maccabebes started up into the town and we heard few shots followed by scattering firing. We hastily crossed the river and. running up to the, towfff.. found that the Maccabebes werersome- what demoralized and firing wildly in every direction. They were gotten under control with some difficulty. Aguinaldo's guard of about fifty armed and neatly uniformed men. had been drawn up to receive the endorsements. and on being fired into broke and ran, a few of them returning the fire as they retreated Az uinaldo, with his officers had awaited in his quarters. Placido and Segovia enter ed the house to report their arrival and after a short conversation Segovia step ped outside the house and ordered the Maccabebes, who had just come up from the river bank, to open fire on the insur- gents who were standing in line at a distance of about fifty yards.
 The Maccababes were so excited that their fire was ineffective But two of the insurgents were killed the remainder, in their flight. throwing away eighteen rifles and a thousand rounds of ammu-
 'As soon as Segovia had given the or der he ran back into the house and opened fire on the officers surrounding Aguinaldo. He wounded Villa and Alhambra. The latter jumped out of the house into the river and was not seen again. Villa on being wounded surrendered, as cid also Santiago arcelona, Aguinaldo's treasurer.
 "The five remaining officers escaped from the house and swan the river. Pla- cido seized Aguinaldo and -old him that he was prisoner of che Americans. At this uncture the Americans arrived on the sceneand gave their attention to getting the Maccabebes under control and protect ing the prisoners from them. One Macca- bebe was slightly wounded by d gunshot in the forehead"
 In conclusion General Funston deals out praise generously to all who had d share in the expedition, mentioning Captain Hazard, Captain Newton, Lieutepant Hazard and Lieutenant Mitchell while especially praising Lieutenant Taylor for the discretion he showed after obtaining the Aguinaldo letters. He also speaks in high praise of Commander Barry of the Vicksburg and the assistance the navy rendered him.