Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1901 — Philippine Letter. [ARTICLE]

Philippine Letter.

from ?• w - Reed, to his brother Frank, of Parr, and was handed The Democrat for publication,] San Juan, Deßocßoc, (Province of Bataogas) P. I, Dec. 39, 1900. Dear Brother Frank:— Your ever welcome letter of recent date just received, was glad to hear from yon, and to know that you are well, and getting along so nicely at school. I am enjoying the best of health and seeing msiny strange sights and queer people. It is awfully hot over here, ana a great many of the boys have been sick with the malarial fever. It rains here nearly every day, and the roads are the worst I ever saw; I have had to swim my horse a quarter of a mile, several different times since I have been here. I have not seen a white woman since T left the U. S. A., and that was about six months ago. Our troop has had two fights since we landed here ind we have been called “to arms” at all hours of the night, several different times. On our last trip from Left, a good sized town of about 50,000 inhabitants where we go after our mail every two or three weeks, we were ambushed by the insurgents when within about 10 miles of this place. Lefi is about 22 miles from here. The Fillipinos poured three heavy volleys into us before we were given the order to dismount, then we laid flat upon the ground and fired back and forth for an boor or more; finding we could not rout them out of the thick brush where they lay concealed, our lieutenant gave the order to charge, and with a good old American yell we went for them. But they couldn’t think of standing for that sort of thing, but broke cover, and scattered and disappeared in the thick brush like a flock of sheep. We killed five of them, and captured six prisoners and six horses; the umy loss we sustained in this engagement was one horse. If they had been, as good shots as we they could have killed all of us, but they are the poorest shots I ever saw. They were lying in wait <or us along the roadside, concealed, and when we came along began to give it to us, but all their bullets whizzed harmlessly over our heads, except one and it merely grazed a soldier’s thigh. Our Troop got quite a write-up in the Manilla papers, it covers a column and a half and is all about the brave deeds t roop “D” did down at the Bay, I will tell you all about it: On the night before Thanksgiving, about two o’clock in the morn, we were all started out of oursleep by the call to arms. We hustled on our clothes, saddled up our horses and rode six miles through a down-pour of rain over the worst road you ever did see, to the Bay, to try and re-capture a boatload of commissaries that belonged to us, but when she was seen pulling into the mouth of the river for this place, the insurgents went out in small boats and captured the crew of fen men aboard of he', and started to sail out to sea with her again. Some of our men that were placed on sentry duty saw them and came up to the barracks and gave the alarm. It was a small sailing vessel, and they would have gotten clean away from us, only the wind went down and left them stranded about a mile from shore. When we got to the scene of action, we had to cross over to the right bank of the river in order to follow that coast around which would bring us nearer to the schooner. The only way we had to get across was by swimming our horses, as we had no boat of any kind and no time to look for any, as we did not know at what moment the wind might spiing up and they would ‘get awav from us, so we bolted right in and sm-.m for it. The liver was broad and deep, as the tide had run in, and we had lots of trouble in getting to the opposite shore, but we reached it at last in safety and started up the bank in the direction the vessel lay. When we got opposite the vessel we started to swim our horses out, and wade as far as we could, but some of the *x>ys found an old boat, that had no paddles. Our troop commander told us to use the huts of our carbines for oars and the other fellows had rigged up a kind of raft, and with these old boats crammed full of soldiers we started for the schooner. It was beginning to get a little light by this time, aud we could see forms upon the deck of the vessel, so the order was given to fire, we all had carbines and pistols so we began to blaze away. Pretty soon the niggers began to pile out of that vessel in a hurry and to scramble into small boats and pull for the other shore. We continued to give it to them until they gained the opposite bank, where they p.unged into the brush, and were lost to our view. When we recovered the small boats one of them was riddled with bullets, and we learned afterwards from a friendly native that we killed six natives and wounded several more. It was so dark we could not see them plainly or we would undoubtedly have gotten them all. When we got back t 9 the large boat we found everything on it all right except, they had broken into some of our rations and eaten them, and one of the poor sailors was pretty badly beaten. He was black and blue all over from the whippin? they had given him. I guess they wanted him to help sail the vessel and he refused. After leaving a strong guard on the ship we started back here with our horses, and of course we had to get back on the other side of the river again and we rode in to swim it. Each one of us had a belt with a hundred rounds of ammunition in it, and a heavy Colts’ army revolver hung around our waists, and that is what caused all the trouble. The tide had now begun to run out, the water seemed to have a strong under current to it, and the horses begun to flounder, and threw several of the boys off into the water, and part of them could not swim, and those that could had all they could do to take care of themselves, as they were loaded down with ammunition and had all their clothes on. Four or five began to call for help at once and all those who could swim good or were still on their horse* went immediately to their rescue. All were saved Except one poor fellow, aud he sank out of sight and never came up. We found his body two days later, tossed up by the waves, two miles or more along the shore of the Bay. His name was Gloloncfci, a baker by trade, andlived in Chicago. But such are the fortunes of war. The Filipinos claimed they would continue to right if McKinlty is elected, until they are all killed or captured, and as he is elected, I guess we will have several more fights with them. There is a report circulating around now that all the forces over here will concentrate and make a clean sweep of the Island. You spoke of me saving money, well I think I have done pretty well, I have saoo with the U. 8. Government nt 4 per interest, and I can't touch that or anyone else until my 3 years are up, and

from now on I intend to deposit every cent I make. I am still troop barber and make SSO or S6O per month. I did make more until we went into active service, but now some of the fellows let their beards grow. I want to have six or eight hundred dollars when I quit soldiering and maybe a thousand. Won’t that be all right? Well, Frank, I believe this is ail for this time. Give my respects and love to all of the folks and tell them I hope they have had a merry Xmas, and I wish them a prosperous New Year. It took your letter two months to reach me. We had a big Xmas dinner, and the boys are making preparations for a nice New Year’s dinner. We can get all kinds of tropical fruits here, just for the gathering. There are bananas, oranges, lemons, chocolate, cocoanuts, figs, grape fruit, .and many others in abundance. Well, I must close, with love to one and all, I am as ever, your brother. Daniel W. Reed, Troop "D" Ist. U. S. Cav. At nearly three score and ten Mrs. Glen Humphrey was fighting against odds when the grip attacked herjbut she took Dr. Miles’ Nervine, and now her neighbors in Wareham, Mass., remark on how well she is looking.