The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-10


 MacArthur, who, with his cavalry es- cort. had preceded me in leaving Ca pas. The cavalry troops then sounded trot. I felt desire to see how near
 could keep. up to horsemen, and l quickened my pace and marched into
 Tarlac but little behind the division commander.
 came into the town a little later.
 was not at all fatigued by the march,
 and after spending some two hours in retting my troops in comfortable guar ters, occupied myself in other duties l during the balance of the day. | By careful observations and inquiry, I found that the march did not have any detrimental effects whatever upon the men.
 T had used special efforts to bring forward the army trains from Mabala- cat; also in corduroying the wagon l road from Bambang; also in crossing the trains over the deep Cutcut river a | day earlier than the division command CT expected 1t to be accomplished. as Is shown by his letter of 10:s3 a. nl., Mo- vember 12; and my command had also l marched from Capas. to Tarlac more rapidly than any other troops had made hope that these facts would induce the division commander to allow my com {, mand to move to the front and engage | the enemy"
 So, learning that there was force | of Filtpinos about seven miles north of Tarlae. General Wheeler asked for the privilege of attacking them. saying he
 was confident that the command would like this service, and he would like 1t himself" But General MacAr- thur replied that such a movement | would defeat the execution of compre- hensive plans which are gradually be- ing shaped for general movement" and that 1t would be detrimental to the public interest" For two days and | a half MacArthur's main command was held in Tarlac, while the heavy rains that came on then swelled still more
 the damage done by washout Of the river across which they had to bring the supplies that were behind them.
 Suggestions and even commands from Manila that a speedy movement for ward be initiated, since Lawtons com mand was scattered out in little de- tachments off to the northeast, and there was danger of the enemy con-
 centrating and wiping some of them
 out, did not move the second division forward until November IT, by which time Aguinaldo was In full flight to the north, closely pressed by Youngs little column. MacArthur's replies to Ma nila's urgent incitations to action were that he must attend to getting the sup plies forward, for the country ahead of him was swept bare of supplies (which proved not to be true at all; meanwhile Youngs column had for some days be- fore been living off the country. and was to do so for yet more days.) It seemed to MacArthur that the Tarlac washout was the crisis of the cam paign," and if this problem could be solved there would be "a very good chance of finishing the war within a week. so far as the organized forces north of the Pasig" were concerned. But In fact the enemy had by this time moved away entirely from MacAr- thurs front, and. by mutual agreement | among the revolutionary chiefs. plan of scattering to the woods and noun tains and waging guerrilla warfare had been inauguratsd General wheeler's s Idea. at the time when the halt at Tar lac was initiated. was that "a rapid | movement against the retreating insur- gents was very important and. in fact. there were at that moment some of them in striking distance.
 He again went loyally to work, how ever, to get the supplies across the river, by having facilities provided be- fore the supplies had come up from Bambang; and, having made these pro- visions. he then sent to MacArthur the telegram quoted at the beginning of ! this article. He was once more and | finally. doomed to be disappointed; for he was kept at Tarlac almost a straight | week experimenting the forwarding of supplies. The washout was so serious with the railroad line that 1t took some weeks before 1t was put into shape to run. trains across, but Wheeler got across the river more supplies than he was called upon to furnish. The raft he had provided for transporting them across the break in the track proving insufficient for the work. he improvised
 bamboo pontoon that answered tho purpose. He says:
 The raft worked slowly and with
 great difficulty, and would bear but It,
 tie weight in addition to the men nec-
 essary to work 1t from one shore to
 the other. saw that there was an
 abundance of bamboo on the north side
 I took a dozen men with axes, and
 with Lieutenant cramer of my staff I swam across. and in a little more than
 two hours we had constructed a sub stantial pontoon bridge of bamboo poles and had fastened 1t firmly in po- sition; and by o'clock I had organized a force and put them to work carrying the freight over by hand. and by day light they had carried over 24,000 ra- tions. weighing 114,o00 pounds, and piled them upon both sides of the l railroad track, the boxes being so placed as to be most easily put upon the cars"
 Then at last General Wheeler was given a chance for a scout in an unex-
 plored part of Tarlac province; but the
 enemy was not in sight Before he
 marched on this scout, he issued a very
 strict field order against footing or
 misbehaviour of any sort. He records
 later his conviction that there was It,
 tie, if any, cause for complaint against
 his brigade on these scores, and indi-
 cates that he made Investigations to
 see. It also appears that he did not let
 his troops occupy the churches of the
 towns they entered. except in one or
 two emergencies. and then but for
 night or two. He says: "I think that
 when the comfort and health of our
 soldiers make the use of churches for
 hospital purposes necessary, 1t ought
 to be done, but have never found it
 necessary to do this in any city or
 town which has been under my com
 mand or control"
 General Wheeler had opportunity for
 two or three other scouts in Northern Tarlac and Southern Pangasinan, and
 was assigned to the command of a dis
 trict comprising thirteen towns In
 those two provinces. devoting special
 attention to the matter of recognizing
 civil government in these towns du-
 ring the somewhat two months more
 while he remained in the Philippines.
 An evidence of the alertness and vigil
 lance of the old campaigner was his
 endeavor to get his superiors to insti-
 ute a special Inquiry, among physi-
 clans long resident in the Philippines,