Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1917-07-20
ZSH

way. The enemy shooting mighty close
too. The trenches were awfuy hard TO pick up,
although We're only about 40 yards away.
They were hill and had carried their dirt
away.
''The battalions made slow progress on the
TANKS on account of the thick underbrush. The
and had they had few machine guns and some
harbed wire they could not have been rooted out
without great loss of life.
"A call went up for hospital apprentice,
Corporal Frazee had been shot in the head He
had been working hard getting his gun pointed
the enemy and had just succeeded.
"'YOu are right on them now; give them fits y
were the last words ne said.
"IIis pointer was also shot in the head and two
Others were wounded I'm the arm. corporal in
the Thirteenth company shot twice while
operating Benet-Mercier. He refused to leave
his gun and had to be carried away struggling to
get back into the fight
while this was going our other guns be-
gan to come up one at a time and obtained
fire superiority the enemy. who shot very
wildly from now on This last is an after judg-
ment. At the time they seemed to he just miss
ing me. | don't know how the other men felt.
but I expected to be shot any minute and just
wanted to do much damage possible to the
enemy before caShinC in. Several members of
our platoon did cool and creditable work in chang
ing cartridge eXtractors and repairing jams I'M
der fire.
I'VE faced the enemy much as possible while
repairing the guns, we had horror of being
shot i'm the back.
"One of the sweetest sounds ever heard was
the cheering of the infantry battalion Il charged
the right flank trenches Of the enemy. Gunnery
Sergeant Ralph was among the first of these. He
had a pistol fight with the rebel general in COM
mand Ralph and some other man with rifle
i'm at nhpnt fba tina
general
1--WE moved up (" the trenches after the battle
and reformed getting equipment together.
Corporal Frazee died after being hit and
buried within few feet " the place where
he had fought well. The enemy lost very
heavily. and If Santo Domingo was not an island
some of those birds would be running yet"
Mai. Gen. !. Franklin Bell. i'm command
OF the eastern department. with headquarters on
Governors island the medal in the Philip
pines. As colonel of the Thrty-sxth infantry he
was proceeding along the San Antonio Porac road
TO head off Il band of insurgents who had attacked
the Ninth infantry at Guagua and Santa Rita.
Colonel Bell. mounted. was riding near the head
Of the advance party and had with him Lieut..
Col William r. Grove, Major Straub two mount
ed orderlies and about twelve scouts on foot.
Just at dawn the party was fired upon from
what seemed fairly large body Of insurgents
hidden i'm the brush The American fire dislodged
the enemy. about seven Of them running down the
road around n bend. The scouts pursued them
hut Colonel Bell at that the men. with
their heavy equipment were. being easily outdis
tanced by the lightly clad FilipinOs. and he dashed
after them his horse.
Before Major Straub or the two mounted order
lies knew what IA doing. Colonel Bell was
far down the road - the midst of seven strug
Cling insurgents. firing with his revolver and
slashing about with his saber.
The mounted galloped to his assistance
and the infantry supported him as best they could
with rife fire. although II was almost impossible
to shoot. so tangled up the insurgents and
Colonel Bell.
The officer would have. been perfectly justified
i'm remaining with his troops, behind them
and merely directing the dslodging assault. and
for charging alone and driving into the jungle at
least seven Fiipinos. with two officers among
them, the Medal of Honor awarded TO him.
Two Of the few medals awarded in the
against Spain went To a second class fireman and
coppersmith board the battleship Iowa
While the vessel was cruising in Cuban waters
July 90 1895 mt about seven o'clock in the morn
ing. a manhole gasket blew out i'm Of the
boilers in fire room No. 2.
Under 12O-pounds pressure. live steam roared
out into the room and boiling water swashed
around the floor.
In the adjoining compartment were Robert
Penn. second-class fireman. and +. h. Keefer.
coppersmith. Hearing the wild of the
Gaping steam they dashed to the door of fire
room No. -.
The men who had been working there. blinded
by the escaping steam. houndering in the scald
ing water had been overcome that they could
not get out. One of the coal passers had already
sunk To his knees and was dropping forward
Ia matter of seconds he would have tOppled
into the water and been boiled to death.
Undaunted by the terrifying roar Of the steam