The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-05-01
GEN. FUNSTONIS
AN ABLE SOLDIER
Leader of Army in Vera Cruz Gain.
cd Fame in Philippines

Fighting Fred Funston. who has
been ordered to lead the first advance
of the army to Vera Cruz, is the senior
brigadier general OF the American ar
my. although he is now only ~ years
old and did not enter the regular army
until 1901. He came into the regular
establishment with the rank he now
| holds, his commission having been
| given by President Mckinley in APP
probation Of his remarkable feat in
capturing, almost single handed, Emilio
Aguinaldo, the Filipino insurrec:o
leader
Funston has been in the volunteer
service from the outbreak of the Span
ish-American war; when he recruited
the Twentieth Kansas among. the same
kind of men forming the backbone cf
the Rough Riders. Before he engaged
i'm the enterprise he had been for about
two years n soldier in the Cuban army
of liberation. and so big a factor was |
he in the warfare that Butcher Wev-
Ter the Spanish generalissimo, set a |
price upon his head.
Ten Times Wounded.
Funston is a product of the Univer-
sity of Kansas. After his student days
he became a newspaper man. then
the service of the United
States department of agriculture and
was sent 10 Alaska To study the flora.
He showed the stuff of which he ~
made by floating down the Yukon
alone in a canoe i'm 80.
He was wounded ten times i'm battle
During his Cuban experience lie took
part in twenty-five engagements and
lie kept that pace after entering the
american volunteers. once he was
.rrested in Cuba by Spaniards as he
vas trying to reach the sea coast. He
epresented himself as deserter from
he patriot army having swallowed his
which indicated his rank. He
vas condemned To death, but cventu-
lily was liberated and got back to this
ountry. p
His Kansas regiment was assigned -"
D Philippine duty and on his way he Il
let and married his present wife, in y
an Francisco. He joined Gen. Mer- -
1T before Manila, which he aided in
aducing. Leading the pursuit of
guinaldo in April 1899, he came to Il
he Murilac river. on the other side of ~
Mich was considerable force of the ct
lemy. The bridge had been destroy q
J, but Funston, with twenty of the ;.
any men who volunteered swan the u
YER, drove the hostiles back and took 10
ghty prisoners. OF
Captured Filipino Leader. sc
A few days later he crossed the Rio III
rande at Calumpit on a raft and re
owe the enemy, $500 strong. from I'd
entrenched position. This feat won vi
s. brigadiership of volunteers.
1t was in 1901 that he made his big
ark. From his hiding place in the ~
'oVince of Isabella, Aguinaldo had 81
He'd the insurgents to rendezvous IN
ar his headquarters. Funston cap IN
red the messenger who carried this ap
He and several comrades IN
ide their way through the thick of co
stile country with eighty Macabebes, III
10 passed as insurgent Tagalogs who or
q captured the Americans. Word al
IS sent To Aguinaldo and orders were ne
zen for the prisoners to be brought sil
him. ry
Before the strategy was suspected ye
nston had entered the rebels houae es'
i taken him prisoner. That act ''i
Ike the neck Of the instruction and iai
ice negotiations were at once begun. PEI
funston Is a little man, with a eh
~, memcnto of several wounds. oa
possesses bubbling sense Of hui
+.
" OCC