The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1923-02-01
COUNTY VETERANS
NARRATIVE OF MANILA FIGHT

the taunts, native soldiers appeared
before an outpost Of the First Ne
braska, at the Santa Mesa bridge,
on the extreme right of General Mac
Arthur's line. A native officer, One
of Aguinaldo's trusted lieutenants,
boldly attempted to pass the outpost.
Private Grayson of d company, after
challenging the intruder several
times, shot the lieutenant in his
racks and the balance of the party
made a hasty retreat. This event
opened the long looked for incident
that Aguinaldo desired, being rein
forced with the fact hat the first
shot vas fired by the Americans. AL
most Immediately, the line around
the city was a solid mass of splitting
rifle fire and the fight was mer-
rily on.
The Storm Breaks
During the night the American
defenders of the city remained for the
most part in well ~entrenched posi-
lions and at no place were the insur-
gents able to effect an entrance. The
attack from without the lines was
timed to exactness, by a cowardly and
vicious assault by soldiers and civil
ians On the Americans within the
city. For months before the out
break, arms and ammunition had
been smuggled in, and many of
Aguinaldo's chief aides with hun
dreds of his men were all ready for
internal attack. Within a compare
lively short time after the Nebraska
private opened the engagement, Ma
Mia became a seething inferno of ex-
ploding bombs, rifle fire, assaults,
arson, shipping and treachery, and
it's streets were cluttered with
its dead and dying disturbers. Ev-
erywhere the city in darkness, min
gled with the sounds of incessant
with the natives, the reassur-
ing tread Of determined men as-
to places of action, the sharp
.staccato of the machine guns, flashes
of fire from rifles here, there and
snipers from the house
and barricaded windows firing
upon the moving troops below, while
surrounding the city In a vast semi
a gorgeous but terrible illumi-
nation of the sky, rejecting the
struggle for very life on the firing
line. Mingling with the incessant
parking of the musketry was the re-
assuring roar of the regular and eff
,ective bOmbardment of the insur-
position from the United :
States wal cruisers then in the bay, :
Ind the all-seeing eye of the powerful :
'earchlights of these stolid fighting :
machines, sweeping the field search .
ng out the nests of the fiendish ;
lighters on the enemy's line. +
Fergus County's Soldiers .
"Such, in brief, were some of the !
Impressions, burned that terrible :
light into ineffaceable memory. With T
he approach of the first gray dawn :
# the morning, the American defense !.
lad assumed the offensive and the ;
ldyance was on. I company of Lew
stown, with M company of Anacon- :
la, during the night had occupied a \
most important and dangerous posi-
ion, in front of which Aguinaldo had
.assed many of his best troops, and
tut for the stubborn and resistless
License made that memorable night
y these two companies, the story of
he outbreak might have been sadly
ifferent.
Sweep InsurTectos Before Them
fduClu lIOm tu0 pOSlIlOn u0lu
yer night at San Lazarre cemetery,
he Montana regiment deployed on
9th sides of the Dulumbyau road, a
lain thoroughfare, and drove the in
directors before it, taking up a posi- M
on on a new line between La Iona
hurch and the Chinese cemetery. 1t
Ias in this advance that William
[eyersick, for whom the local camp
named, received the wound from
-hich he died on February 10, the
rst member of the Montana regi-
lent to meet death In action. e. L..
kinner, also a member of / COM
any, and still a well known resident
{ this city, was wounded in this ac-
Death of Fred Hall
Following the establishment of
lie lines, nothing of Importance oc-
during the next few days, the
of Caloocan, on the 10th, being
Ie next important engagement, and
lie Lewistown company again suf-
red a fatality in the death of Fred
lick Hall in the advance on Calico
IN. Hall had been assigned from |
,mpany to duty with the First Mon
ma band, but at the outset OF hos
lities the band was assigned to ac-
duty with the regiment"
--O-
noa xrTHrEDC ADE AT uTORK