Scribner's Magazine ...

brisk fight was going on with a couple of trenches to our right. I did not at the time know just what troops were involved, but could see a field-piece in action right on the bank of the river, firing on a trench across the stream, and could hear the tap, tap, tap of the Colt automatic. There were also a number of infantrymen. These latter had been engaged in the fight for some time, but we had not known it, being engaged with our own affairs farther to the left. Our three companies farther down the stream had completely mastered the fire in the trenches opposite them, but could not cross. I went over to where the artillery and the automatic were in action, and at this time Company D of my regiment, Captain Orwig, came up to take a hand in the fracas. Still a little further up was a company of the Tenth Pennsylvania of Hale's brigade that Major Bell, who was in command at this point, had brought over from beyond the railroad. In the meantime a raft was noticed moored to the opposite bank of the stream, about eighty yards below the trench that was fighting Major Bell's detachment. It would be necessary to swim the stream to get it, and I called for volunteers to do the work. Lieutenant Hardy, Trumpeter Barshfield, Corporal Drysdale (now a second lieutenant in the Seventeenth Infantry), and Privates Huntsman and Willey stripped off their clothing and plunged over the bank into the stream. They swam across, got the raft, and towed it to our side. It was a gallant piece of work well done. During this time the field-piece, the Colt gun, and Company D were pounding the near-by trench with great vigor, while the Pennsylvania company was handling another trench a little farther up-stream.

As soon as the raft reached our side I got on it with Lieutenant Hopkins and twenty-one men of Company C, and we poled it to the other bank. After sending out patrols to the front in order to give warning of a possible counter attack from any force that might be concealed in the vicinity, we gave our attention to the trench opposite the artillery, it being the nearest. But upon reaching it we found that the men in it had already raised the white flag and had signified to those across the river their desire to surrender. This was not on account of our crossing, but because of the

fact that the gun was literally tearing their shelter to pieces, while the small-arms fire made escape from it impossible. As we came in the lower end of the trench a lieutenant and a private of the Tenth Pennsylvania, whose names are unknown to me, came in at the other end, they having crossed the stream by swimming a short distance above. We found in the trench twenty-four killed, and took thirty-four prisoners, of whom twelve were very badly wounded. We broke up and threw into the river thirty-one rifles and about four thousand pounds of ammunition. The prisoners were brought across the river on the raft and a canoe that had been found. Among the dead found here was one man who had in his chest, in a space that could be covered by one hand, five holes made by the little six millimetre bullets of the Colt automatic. Ensign Davis had served this gun in the open at a distance of about a hundred feet.

After we were all back in the United States some of the patriots of my regiment and those of the Tenth Pennsylvania tried to engage in a bloody newspaper war over the question as to who had crossed the river first, the men of one regiment or the other. I doubt if anybody could say to a certainty, as the two crossings were made from points that were not in view of each other, and probably no one man saw them both. It was a matter of absolutely no importance, as the two enterprises were independently carried on, and either would have succeeded alone.

Company D of the Twentieth Kansas had had one man killed at this point. Those of us who had crossed the river now went to the two trenches that our three companies farther to the left had overcome. The occupants had fled, taking their wounded with them, but had left a number of dead that we did not take the trouble to count.

I now hoped that I would be allowed to ferry the whole regiment across on the raft, a task that would have taken an hour or so, but was directed by the brigade commander to recross with the men that I had. For some time afterward I believed that if I could have had my way we could have rendered valuable service by marching up the stream on its north side, rolling up the insurgents in the trenches on that bank. I

have subsequently learned that there was on our front a narrow but deep lagoon that would materially have interfered with such an operation. We might easily have been involved alone in a very nasty fight, so that I have no doubt that the wisest thing was done.

We remained on the south bank for some time, awaiting orders that depended on developments on other parts of the field. In the meantime the First South Dakota, of Hale's brigade, had after a very severe fight forced the passage at another point above the bridge. This affair, carried out under the direction of the commander of that regiment, Colonel A. S. Frost, was about as stiff as anything that occurred in the Philippines, the regiment in question losing seven killed, including three officers, and having about twenty-five wounded. It was totally

independent of the crossing effected by my own regiment farther down the stream, neither operation having any effect on the other or being aided by it. About four o'clock the brigade commander directed me to cross the railroad bridge with the regiment and deploy on the left of the Third Artillery. So we formed column of fours and set out.

As one ascends the Marilao at this point the stream makes a considerable turn to the north until opposite the town of Marilao, whence its course is easterly. Therefore, though we were right on the stream, and near the railroad, we were nearly a mile from the bridge. As we drew near we were met by the adjutant-general of the division who informed me as to the situation, and stated that General MacArthur desired that I make all possible haste in ex

The prisioners were brought across the river on the raft and a canoe that had been found.-Page 176.

tending the existing line to the left. Hale's brigade and the Third Artillery of our own brigade were already across and in line of battle, awaiting the movement of a body of some thousands of the enemy, who could be seen coming up and deploying across the fields to the north, with the evident intention of making an attack before all the division could cross the stream. From the south bank we could see the enemy's line, which appeared to be about two miles long, and quite heavy, while behind it were troops in reserve. The ties had been removed from the bridge, making crossing it a very slow operation, but we made the greatest haste possible. The orderlies of the mounted officers managed to get their horses across by swimming them.

We had just begun the crossing, the men picking their way gingerly over the stringers, when the whole Filipino line opened fire on the troops deployed on the north bank, the distance being about twelve hundred yards. As the firing line of our troops was not more than a hundred yards in advance of the bridge, those of us on the structure naturally got our share of the bullets. The men were very quiet, and apparently somewhat nervous, as they knew that a man badly hit while on the bridge would in all probability fall into the stream. One man was killed in the crossing, and a few wounded. All of our troops that were in line were replying vigorously, the men lying close to the ground. Under such a fire it would have been folly to have held the regiment in such an exposed position until it could be properly formed. I had crossed the bridge at the head of the regiment, and found that my faithful orderly, Caldwell, had my dripping horse awaiting me, and so mounted and conducted the first few men as fast as they could run along a road which ran a few yards in rear of the prostrate and silent men of the Third Artillery, working their Krags for all they were worth, and directed them to continue the line of that organization to the left. Every man as he cleared the bridge leaped down the embankment and followed suit. It was a method of deployment not laid down in any drill book, but worked beautifully.

Just after leaving the railroad embankment I had passed two gray-haired sergeants of the Third Artillery, lying within a few feet of each other, still and calm in death,

their faces as placid as if they were only asleep, and had a hurried glimpse of General MacArthur and his staff, standing near the right of the Third Artillery's line. As our right began to hook onto the left of the Third Artillery a number of the men greeted us with cheers, and cries of "Good for Kansas." It was not that they were in a pinch, but because a strong friendship had grown up between the two regiments. They were, however, naturally glad to see their exposed flank covered.

The fire of the Filipinos was of such a volume that we were pretty well satisfied that they were going to crowd the attack and come to close quarters with us. Even above the roar of firing we could hear that they were yelling. Only two battalions of my regiment were able to get on the firing line, owing to a lagoon that ran at almost right angles to the line, so that one had to be held in reserve. It was now getting dusk, and the flashes of the enemy's rifles could be made out in the gathering darkness. The field that we were in was perfectly dry, and the bullets from the Mausers striking in it flicked up innumerable little spots of dust, just like the effect of big drops of rain in a dusty road at the beginning of a shower. Much as I had to think about, there went through my mind those words of Kipling, "the bullets kicking up the dust spots on the green." How bullets could make dust spots on green turf, however, I leave for the poet to explain.

I do not know just how long the fight lasted, probably half an hour after we had got on the line. It stopped as suddenly as it had begun. What had occurred, though we did not know it at the time, was that Colonel Stotsenburg with his fine regiment, the First Nebraska, forming the extreme right of Hale's brigade, had in the gathering dusk moved forward quietly, and turned the Filipino left, rolling it up and inflicting heavy loss, thus making it necessary for the enemy's whole line to fall back. As the Filipino right rested on lagoons it could not have been turned. The troops bivouacked in line of battle, and lay down to sleep where they had fought. During the day, besides its wounded who recovered, the Twentieth Kansas had lost Cook Scherrer and Privates Carroll, Hatfield, Keeny, and Wahl, killed or mortally wounded.