Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1936-02-20

bray shirt, blouse, trousers without
leggings and very much shined
shoes. / put on my belt and TAX
| ing my gun hurried out and took
my place in line and then realized
something was wrong.
Each one wore dark blue wool
shirt with the sleeves cut off at the
elbow, no blouse, trousers laced
down with leggings and old shoes
and hats. AS "Snozzle" says WAS
| mortified?" but then came the
quiet command of Lieutenant III.
"Count Fours, Right Face, Column
Left, March, and away we went.
We halted at the edge of the viii
lage, again faced to company front
and then came the command
Load" 1t was the first time.
knew the motions, l knew / must
fill the magazine from my belt, put
one cartridge in the chamber and
close and lock the piece. Well, |
came to the position Of Load
with the others and began trying to
get small shell from my belt by
pulling on the top of it. split my
finger nail and had about succeeded
in loosening one shell when the
lieutenant said sharply, whats
the trouble there, sergeant? See
what's wrong" The sergeant quick
ly reached over and finished load
ing my rife from his own belt and
locked it, The lieutenant said
Sergeant is that piece locked?'
and upon the sergeant's assurance
that it was we faced to the right
and moving off in a column Of twos
at route step, we followed the road
for perhaps a half mile to where a
native guide was waiting, and then
cut off at an angle through the jun
gle following a trail that only ma
tive could see in the darkness of the
forest After proceeding in this
manner for about a mile the trail
became narrow and indefinite,
necessitating moving slowly in sin
gle file, distance between files be-
ing just enough to enable each SOL
der to keep in touch with the man
in front; absolute quiet was main
tanned outside of low voiced COM
mands passed back at times to
avoid certain bad places in the
trail Once the detail slowed up
and the man in front Of me turned
his head to pass back some word to
me when suddenly he disappeared
ping sound, and surprised grunt
seemingly way down below and a
little to the right, not being able to
see the ravine he had fallen into,
butalso knowing / must not lose the
column in front of me | moved
cautiously around to the left, pass
ing word back to the remaining
files to avoid the ravine, and that
one man had fallen into it.
We halted at the edge of clear
ing and were preparing to move on
over to the road when suddenly
bangl bang! a scattering volley of
shots went whistling over our
heads, fired from behind the wall
on the road, but with their usual
poor craftsmanship the natives had
fired too high and no one was hurt.
We Immediately deployed along the
edge of the forest, and, taking
cover, returned the fire, but the ma
tives swarmed like ants across the
wall and dropping into the tall
grass, came crawling toward us in
true Indian style, and from their
large number it looked rather ser
ious for our little detail. 1t was hot
and furious for few moments, the
natives seemed unusually well arm
ed, and in addition to some sort of
rife each one had the usual long
curly bolo.
We were firing more slowly now,
keeping under cover and only
shooting as we would catch a
glimpse of snaky form in the high
grass, when suddenly there was a
commotion among them, a startled
yell, and to our surprise they broke
and started back for the wall, and
as they crossed it we poured in a
deadly fire, being better able to ac-
count for our craftsmanship with
the need for cover being over; then
we heard mounted detachment
coming down the road at a gallop,
they swept into view and, as we
ceased firing they jumped their
horses over the wall on the other
tives as far as it was possible to go
on account of the dense under
growth of the forest.
They took several prisoners, sui
len individuals, and as usual, not a
rife among them; how they always
managed to get rid of them before
they were captured was always a
mystery. The mounted detachment
was headed by our own captain, ac-
companied by lieutenant from
c., the post for which the captain
had started the day before. 1t
seems that the captain accompanied
only by an orderly had started out
late in the afternoon to the village
of c., and when almost there had
noticed what appeared to be evi-
dence Of new trail having been
cut from the road back through the
jungle; they both dismounted and
the captain leaving his horse with
the orderly started to investigate.
He had crossed the wall and had
only taken a step or two when they
were fired upon from the jungle.
The captains horse reared and