The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1901-01-10
BATTLE OF MANGATAREM.
Description of the Fight by an Ohio soy

1. f. Freeman, Co. +, SD g. S. V, son
of Comrade William X. Freeman, Dayton,
o., writes as follows:
Well, L am no longer a recruit, but a
veteran of two fierce battles-Mangatarem
and the fight in the mountains near Man
gatarem. Co. Il took the City of Man
gatarem and drove about 500 insurgents to
the mountains. We captured a lot of am
munition and small arms, also several
pieces of artillery. We liberated over 100
Spanish prisoners and IL or II Americans.
Although the fight was u fierce one, we
lost only one man, wounded. He was shot
through the foot There were only 76 of
us in the fight, including the Captain and
Lieutenant
| will give you little description of our
trip to the mountains. After leaving Ma
Mia my company landed here at San
Fabian on the morning of Nov. q, 1899.
The next morning Gen. Wheaton sent us
out on a little scout as far as Dagupan,
and to locate the enemy. When we got
there, on the 22d, we heard the enemy had
been sighted ahead of us few hours
march. We were anxious for fight. The
Captain said he would exceed his orders
and go after the 'niggers." So we marched
on all the next day and night, until some
time after midnight, when we laid down
in the road for rest. We were nearly
on top of the outpost guards of the enemy.
upy were on one sue Oh u river ana
we on the other.
We kept very quiet so we were not dis
covered until about 4 o'clock in the morn
ing, when we got up and stripped for action
that is, threw off our haversacks, etc, so
we would not be loaded down. We were
then about five miles from the town of
Mangartarem, where the artillery of the
enemy was located. We had to fight over
every foot of the ground to the town, wad-
inc riynrG ond rico folds
times we were in mud and water more
than waist deep. But we kept pushing on
and driving the "niggers' before us. They
made their last stand in the town. Their
bullets were flying thick and fast about us,
but they couldn't stand our yolley firing,
and our aim was too goGti for them.
We killed a Brigadier-General, q Cap
tain and several nOn-commssiODed officers.
We killed in all, privates and officers, 80,
and wounded a lot that got away, beside
those we found on the field afterward.
They fled in all directions from the town
and left us in possession.
We were very fortunate not to have any
of our number killed, and only one man
wounded. When they opened up their
cannon on us, we thought the day was
lost, as we had no big guns, nothing but
our rifles. 1t was only our nerve and
charging on them, yelling like Indians,
that saved us. The battle lasted for five
hours. and we were all nearly exhausted
when it was over.
This battle took place On Friday morn
ing, Nov. "a, 1899, and we didn't get any
reinforccments until Sunday night, when
Col. Bell, of the Both, with about 500 men,
came in.
Monday morning we started with Bell
to the mountains after the ''Riggers." We
ran onto them Tuesday morning, and
whipped them without the loss of a man
on our side. We captured more ammuni-
ton, guns, provisions, etc. We destroyed
an arsenal, where they manufactured
powder. These two battles were severe
blows to the Filipino army.