The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 14, 1899, Page 17

apd L (nAg-Hng, / LY A SCRATCH SIR,, S LAY AN rid churc under 1t itself witk the hospitals the i, drt g back down fr to thir nila ar Among he native homes. re the peo with to our Ar they all 1en. ns were meanor in force erics permitted pow were you indicated by suburbs s roughly 8 sund the ) the north to old Fort San sion, faced the and south of the ccond division, did ded the first brigade of th to biock house 12 in front Pa The 3 in- east they the /e knew front re skillfu Krupp guns, side of in of block house 11 bore Manila and the score d the south shore of the insurgent line of supply rters of General between headq heir , and this, line, when the turned them on the morning of Sunday, nded for an hour with obstinate determination EN £ 1 e ta 1 D I 1 firing ¢ ! « g 1 I in brie 2 ¥ f Sar sht by s n, eight ¥ \a nsurg « 1 I villages 1t ir 1 divisions. 1 1 1 - t M before, that se 1 its neck and ir tracks. Twer were wounded the orde ind 1 shall never forget f th the long constraint, nd then, crouching like iist deep through th conspicuous 1 bound he up the ind that he must to reach F speak, of us barely s could ith “It’s men go in w d his face, scraped his It was h maiden fi cheek bone and t, too, but a composed. That was Captain ington two battalions of S south of Santa Ana road, and embankment on which it ran, were « intrenchments to the north of it us from a redoubt close to v the east end of Santa Ana. The stone bridge emed to be the in for shivered gla s and splinter tone from the p N tw ountain Hotchkiss squarely in the the in who sant ha rready my. A S dy, but in no wise n ‘the next campai I handling of th Artillery and the rouching b 3 in the rice and th Idaho & A\t the gun; and Sixth rapid v * insurgents lurk dr were W ) it for the lion strode M L veterar ajor ward ‘onnville had served a private war the rebellion. He had later spent long vear ¢ 1 s a private and non-commissioned officer He at one time carrie usket in the company then commanded by capta NOW ral Anderson, under whose orders he again found himsel he came as a 1 r to Manii He was probably he olde 1 the div he cer nly was in the de—but no dut g0 wearisome or exacting that he did not ; out his share of it to the uttermost. The men looked upon ireh, but honored him for his devotion to every detail work. I think, now, that the brave old fellow must have become some- what deaf. He had misunderstood an order I gave him when report- ing to me for instructions as field officer of the day a fortnight be- fore the fight. This had led to my writing out his orders the next— and last time he reported for the same purpose and the veteran of his s soldier had taken th hin in connection with a mild reproof T ha for allow ) be withdraw very much made up teers at the da its maide h as the f 1 and I was an old gular ume running to m A skirmish 1 spitting three the fire ept i from t. It had been all planned that > across and deploved for the from > south—that Capta Fortson, cor igtons, should ford the Concordia ¢ from ind most formidabl f the re fully singular mound risi from the midst the works major were the words of the in front of the Norweg 1 Consul’'s house that stood close to the stream thr hundr the road) and charge everything into the river ia. was to suppert on the right, Fortson on his left, but he never stopped to inquire. Bagerly he answered “All right, sir, and hastened to the head of his men. Bagerly he led them over the field and, in his es rness, got mixed as to the Consul's houss and passed behind, instead of in front of it, so that it took ten minutes to straighten him out, but then with cheers and volleys the lines rushed in Just as the center of the Idahos reached a little clump of tre and shrubbery half way the plain they were greeted b sudden and furious volle rered them. In an ins McConnville leaped to the front, waving his sword over his he and shouting to his men, “Come on! Come on, Idaho!” and then, : he turned and led the rush into the shrubbery, a shot square in the breast and down he went. Even then, the orward with the line, but the wound was mortal, and presently the brave old fellow realized that he had but an hour or two to live. T never saw him ag: The order received from 4 on the nta Ana recad was his last and the letter had 'n to obey i ve insurgents he strove to crawl to ay dead about the Krupp in the middle redoubt, where, side by side, California and Idaho leaped in to the capture. and a dozen lay strewn over the field in front of where the honored I r fell. ‘The big redoubt on the mound to his left was lit Hemmed in between McC. back the fle yodies of the and 1 river mericanos’” the nts. unable to beat raised the hite soldiers to reach t work. The e minutes and followed by tives ran for the stream. but there was ¢ ed face as they bore him off the 1d dashing 1 then shot - of musketry w ttering smile on McConnville's first the sumed for thr shots field Everything had been swept to the river. bth th s and the rgents grand whee All the! the main line de its Ana from the south, ) the left and, yunded up” the insurgents who s along the bank, Captain Cunningh of the First Californ ght sight of a hig “casco” or barge crammed with the enemy ling”” over to the opposite shore. In less than no time he had his company lined up behind the convent inclosure through which they had fought their way and opened fire. In five minutes up nt the white flag across the stream and, under cover of the rifles of a whole battalion by this time ranged alonz the bank. Cunning over, found t insurgent captain and five men dead. sev ally and seventeen prisoners. .d out its plan of battle ard work in front of the slightly wounded, and made the whole de But while the first brigade had without appreciable check there wa Fourteenth Infantry (regulars) of Ovenshine’s (second) brigade farther to the rig Here in the thick woods the insurgents had thrown up breas and possessed themselves of block house 14— once oceupied by our men, but later abandoned because of the length of the line and the small number of troops to defend it. Both in front of the first and second brigade, but especially in front of the first at Santa Ana bridge, the same condition of affairs was found to exist. The insurgent officers had taught their men to believe that the Americans were cowards who dare not figsht—who would probably run if a ked and would certainly recoil before ed stand. For weeks th nners—officers and men—would c out to the bridge, T our sentries whet the s s they drov our se Manila even easier victims than the ir dash and spirit when assaulting inday morning ir obstinate defense, fc while hen our lin an_only hearsay of the Fou tlars, but nd has v da- ion t, checked r irited by its lying do shelter. One its hest 1 enant Mitchell i n their midst, when Lieut an Ohio ¥ years cut of West Point ed upon to report to com- manding officer In brief words the battalion ch ave him orders t house must be ta at on and I want you to do it.” M one of the “quiete young ows in the vice o went off without a word > story comes to me that he should call for volunte , and he did. The house a fe yards a the bristling block heads. It was crammed w and the only way to r it was ight road with mboo and underbrush on side. was a lane of death and the soldiers knew it Only five men responded to the call these five Miles all tilt they ¢l lead that greeted but could not dropped in their tracks, but Mil such dauntless courage and fe ached the block hous arged thr orm of hissing stop themn the daring fiv s darted on and the Filipinos, amz arful of their fate when the Ameri- me scurrying down from the upper made h afr they were id it might be fired and they be burned 2 ibly they were awed by the prospect of hand to hand fight with g fellows who were proof against their Mausers, but down they came and out they went—the 1 Filipino rushing from the back door as Miles, revolver in hand, sprang the front. It w and one of the bravest, pluckiest things a desperate chanc of the day. But here is another that calls for the medal of honor. if I un- and it t The military telegraph line, before the battle an, extended on our front to block 11, close to the Santa hrid The officers of th ps followed up the move- ments of the brigade and stretch their wires far to the front. But the line ran through the village of Paco—a nest of insurgents out of uniform, therefore ail the more dar co church was found to be a stronghold of the rascals e d dozens of the villagers’ houses proved to be onl i sins in the garb of peace—the white, every Of the Fili Of cou it v not long before chur s innum were in flames and the lurki hunted out, but the huge stone tower of Paco church n and there, safe sheltered until we could smash it with ar anatical to the last a party of perhaps half a dozen insurgents kept up an incessant fire on Americans whose duties compelled m to cross Paco bridge on the one line of communication betwee: nta Ana and the city. Toward 11 o’clock— at the telegraph pole in front of the church and not two hundied vards from it the wire was clipped, and a young signal officer, - Lieutenant Charles E. Kilbourne inging back to find the break, was saluted by a volley. y from th for God's sak velEa om the shelter of the v I ere trying from the tower. “Ride for your life, by full speed and hending low was made of better stuff. Swept away, at first he regained Jr., > soldiers, to answer 1! shouted some over their horsemen who dashed pomm sut Kilbourne 1s > excited rush of the stampeded riders ¢, reined him about, rode deliberately back to Paco, dismounted at that identical pole, climbed the very top in the face of a galling fire that clipped a secc wire while he was repairing the first, calmly, pluckily, skillfully ended both wires in plain sight of half a dozen officers and a score of men sheltered’ by the walls up and down the blazing Calle Real. Then mounted and rode on ahout his other business If that wasn't pluck and heroism I'm no judge of either.