The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1903-05-08
A Letter From . Dubois County Soldier
In the Philippines.

Manila, +. L., Mar. rs, 1903.
Kind friends and readers, | will
now make an effort to write to the
Courier a few lines concerning the
far away Philippine Islands, my
ex Experience, what have seen and
how | have enjoyed soldier life
in this corner Of the globe. |
do not know how we'll, or whether
can interest you at all, but | will
try, for feel as though ! oSe to
the public few lines.
( | shall never forget the first skir-
mish we had. Ii was the morning
of May 26th, near small native vii
lage on LuzDn Island. | can i'm
imagine yet, how | felt when the
fireing began, | had hundred dif-
ferent feelings in minute. look
ed forward and | saw the enemy ap
preaching very rapidly; again the
Lieutenant's voice was heard in
tone that was shocking, when he
gave the commands Go. skirnish-
ers begin fireing!" leaving M to
murmur low, .Oa. Lord!" for |
saw the supreme moment was at
hand. For the first time | leveled
rifle at a man and pulled the trig
ger to kill, whether | killed or not
| do not know, but we fired quite
volley into them. Meantime the5
were firing on US, but we soon got
the best of them, and was very
lucky in our first combat, didn't
lose a man and captured 26 rifles
and some ammunition. This was
, our first fight and only hoped it
would be our last, for had already
learned the battle field was no pic
mic ground.
The next combat we had was on
Mindoro island, on the 2Sth Of Oc-
tober, where we destroyed some in
surgents. On tho 4th OF November,
1901, we entered into another skir-
&. mish, but when we Americans be-
r gan forcing steel jackets into them, /,
: with the far and hard shooting
e Craig -Jorgeson rifle, our enemy did
g not last very long, snd we're CON-
g PEELED to retreat. By this time we
d began to get quite familiar with
combats. To fire at a gogoo was
J. almost as common az shooting rab-
n its in Winter.
! Oh, friends, | could tell yoI lots
) more, but it takes too long to write.
Q | will wait until | get back where
q can talk to you personally.
q We three boys from Dubois
r county, Stamm, Harder and Ruck'
I, riegle, are together yet in the same
:, ,icompany, and are enjoying soldier
} life very much since everything is
IS quite and peaceable in the Islands
: But we long to see our friends once
i again and the coast Of green OF our
own United States. We are now il
the Philippines you will all agree.
There is nothing here for human
beings. SO that looks bad for US
}. United we stand, together against
all foes, in the worst Of weather
2 2 United in war, united in peace
: !, united in waiting for our release
4 united three years that is true; We
,e are the boys that wear the blue.
a THE SOLDIERS DTRGE.
: "Dead in the battle-dead in The
: field,
.e More than his life can a soldier
yield?
n Dead for his country; muflls the
Z. drums;
le Slowly the sad procession comes,
q The heart may ache; but the heart
I, must swell
l, \ With pride for the Soldier who
q fought SO well,
X His blood has Furnished his sate
it bright;
W So his memory, honor: to him good
"a night"
'e Yours truly,
= JoHN STAMy,
i :, Co. e., 30th Infantry,
Manila. =.