The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-02-10


Mckinley, for TROOPS, Co. G was one
of the first organizations to respond.
Col. c. F. Mudgett was then captain
Of the company, Charles W.. Getchell,
first lieutenant and Harvey Pray, sec
ond lieutenant. Work began at once
to recruit the company up to our
strength and to get the company ready
for service in the United States army.
The company went into camp at Far
20 with the other Companies OF the
First Regiment on May End, was mus
tered into the United States service on
May 14th and about ten days later
took the train for San Francisco
headed for the. Philippine Islands.
After a short stay at San Francisco
for drill and final equipment on the
9th day of June, 1898, the First
North Dakota, of which &c" was a
part, sailed through the Golden Gate
to the west, to most of US, toward an
unknown land,l filled with the spirit
of adventure. The first land sighted
after leaving San Francisco was the
Hawaiian Islands. We arrived at the
harbor Of Honolulu at about l o'clock
at night and even at this late hour, we
were met by committees of the people
with bands playing the plaintive Ha-
waiian music and were taken ashore
to be dined and wined by the enthus-
iastic inhabitants who had just been
admitted into the sisterhood of states.
The next day great feast was spread
for our soldiers on the grounds sur
rounding the kings palace and the
day. was enjoyed by all visiting this
most beautiful city and surrounding
country. Late that night we again
pulled to sea and our next stop was
Manila Bay on the 31st of July. 60.
G and the first battalion went ashore
at Cavite on the 5th of July. On the
10th Of July we were transferred across
the bay to Camp Dewey just south
Of the city of Manila. On the 18th,
went on outpost duty on the firing
line and just at day break the morning
Of the 18th received our first baptism
of fire. We sure Rugged the trenches
pretty close as the bullets went whist
ling by. No one was hurt and soon
the firing ceased. At about 2 o'clock
we were relieved by the 18th Mime
sofa and fell back to the reserve.
Shortly after 8 o'clock Dewey's guns
began to boom and the Battle of Ma
Mia was on. The Spanish batteries
on the old forts on the south line
were soon silenced. The Utah and AS
tor batteries soon destroyed block
houses in our front. About l the in
fantry was ordered to advance and
attack the Spanish defenses. A rath-
er stubborn and nasty fight developed:
especially in front of the Second Di-
vision of which we were a part. The
first line of defenses were taken by
our troops were stopped on the sec
ondary line. We were back in the
reserves and could hear the fight but
for quite time had no news as to
what was happening. The roar of
the artillery and rifle fire was contin-
uous, we knew that something was
doing and waited anxiously for some
word. After awhile the order came for
reserves to come forward as rapidly
as possible and we beat it up the road
as fast as we could stand, shedding
our blue coats as we went. We were
halted Just back Of the fighting line
within the zone Of firing, guess the
Spaniards must have seen us coming
for soon afterward they gave up and
retreated back to the walled city and
put up the white flag. Late in the aft
ernoon we entered The city and spent
the night on guard duty in the city to
prevent looting and the destruction of
property. From the 18th day Of Au-
gust until the fourth of February Co.
G and the rest Of the troops IN Ma
Mia We're kept busy cleaning up the
old town and doing guard duty IN and
around the city: Trouble with the
Philippines started to develop almost
Immediately after taking Manila: The
Philippine soldiers were not permitted
to enter the city with our troops and
guards were established to prevent
their entering with, arms. They were
dissatisfied with this and Immediately
established line all around the city
short distance outside Of our lines.
We soon realized that we were likely
to have trouble with them and planned
our defenses in the event of trouble, !
Each organization had it's orders that
in case Of an attack, to take up q po-
sition at once in a certain dehnlte
spot. After several false alarms the
insurrection was touched off at about
eight o'clock in the evening of Feb
ruary 4th, 1899. Our position was on
the south line right next to the Ma
Mia Bay. The trouble started with
Nebraska regiment stationed over on
the other side of the town. The first
information was the faint cracking
of rifles and the booming Of cannons
and the cries cts off" "its off" and
the rushing of individuals and organi-
cations to their places on the line.
CO. G was the first organization to
get into its position on our line, fol-
lowed quickly by Co: 8 Of Fargo and
H Of Jamestown Our orders were
not to fire a shot unless attacked and
we rested on our arms all night with
out firing a shot. The roar Of battle
became continuous and gradually ap-
preached and at 1880 in the morning
we got orders to open fire following
a bombardment across our front by
our fleet in the bay. From this time
N, n,,r fyo was continuous our lines |