its right was partially in the open, while the other two organizations of the brigade were entirely so.

During the day an officer rode over to my regiment, stated that he was Major Bell of the division staff, and desired that I should furnish him with a non-commissioned officer and a few other men in order that he might ascertain something as to the location of the insurgent trenches covering the town of Caloocan, on our front. At this I bristled up somewhat and announced that if there was any scouting to be done in advance of my regiment I could do it myself or have it done. Upon being assured by Major Bell that he was acting under orders of the division commander, I yielded the point, but I fear not with very good grace. Thus, rather inauspiciously, began my acquaintance with my excellent friend, the present Major-General J. F. Bell, who was destined because of his exceptional services in the suppression of the Philippine insurrection to rise within a few years to the highest rank now attainable in our army. I suppose that General Bell has by this time entirely forgotten the incident described. Later in the campaign that officer had at his disposal for scouting purposes a picked body of men, and did some most astonishing things in the way of penetrating the enemy's lines and bringing back information as to the location of his trenches. The non-commissioned officer that I directed to report to Major Bell on this occasion was Corporal Arthur M. Ferguson, a man whose soldierly qualities and daring were eventually to win him the Medal of Honor and a commission in the volunteer service, and afterward in the regular army. We shall hear more of him later in connection with the passage of the Rio Grande at Calumpit. Of course, whatever information Major Bell obtained on this reconnaissance was transmitted to the division commander. I was desirous of learning something on my own hook, and later in the day took a few men and crawled with them into the dense woods in front of the left of the regiment, working gradually around to the right until we were within a few hundred yards of the trenches just south of the Caloocan church. The country here was comparatively open, and we could see that the Filipinos were working with feverish haste in improving their de

fenses. Being so close, the temptation to stir them up with a fusillade was very great, but it would never do, as we might be cut off before we could fall back on our lines.

I had established regimental head-quarters about two hundred yards to the rear of our trenches, just to the right of the Caloocan wagon-road, which cut the regiment's line at right angles about one-third of the distance from its right to its left. As night came on the men were instructed to lie down and get what sleep they could behind the low shelter that they had constructed, a number from each company being detailed to remain on look-out in order to give warning of any attempt to rush our line. It was not thought best to have men on outpost in the woods on our front, as in case of a sudden attack they would mask the fire of the regiment, or possibly be sacrificed before they could retire to its line. So far as firing was concerned, we had a quiet day of it, but nightfall brought trouble. The regimental staff officers with myself and a few orderlies had just spread out our blankets and were preparing to lie down, when a lively rattle of fire opened up in the direction of the enemy's lines, and bullets began striking about us and whistling overhead. I was of the opinion that it was a mere spurt and would die down, but nevertheless rose and walked over to the trench, where I was joined by Major Metcalf. The firing increased in volume, and apparently was not coming from the enemy's trenches, which were eight hundred yards on our front, but rather from a point about half-way to them. None of our men were asleep yet, and some of them began to reply without orders.

There was some delay in finding a trumpeter to blow "Cease firing," and in the meantime one of our men was hit, and gave a shriek that was heard almost the length of the regiment. In an instant the men were beyond control. As the firing on our front increased they thought a charge was coming, and, kneeling behind the low shelter, worked their old Springfields for all they were worth. It was a form of panic, but not half so bad as bolting to the rear. The men were in as close a line as they could be and work their rifles, and they crammed cartridges into them and fired as rapidly as possible. The roar was deafening, while the rapid spurts of flame along the whole

line made in the darkness a show of fireworks that was not to be despised. The dense blanket of smoke, added to the gloom, made it impossible to see anything. We soon had every trumpeter in the regiment blowing "Cease firing," but in some cases blows and kicks had to be resorted to in order to bring the men to their senses. As our fire died down enough for one to be able to make himself heard, the officers began to open the vials of their wrath on their respective companies, while I, having to "cuss" twelve companies instead of one, was quite overcome by my efforts. But the insurgent fire had absolutely ceased, the enemy having stirred up more of a hornets' nest than he had bargained for.

What had occurred was that several hundred of them had advanced from their trenches to a point where there was good natural cover, whence they had started a fire-fight which they were doubtless glad to cease. It was in no sense an attempt to take our line by a rush, but that was what the men had feared. The regiment expended about twenty-five thousand rounds of ammunition in this piece of foolishness, but it was the last performance of that kind, involving any considerable number of men, that we had during the campaign. One of the insurgents wounded in this affair was the Filipino major, Hilario Tal Placido, who, captured more than a year later in Nueva Ecija province while I was in command there, became an "Americanista," and accompanied me on the expedition that brought in his old chief, Emilio Aguinaldo. Hilario, after I had come to know him, assured me that this experience cured him of any further desire to assist in unnecessarily stirring up the Americans just to see what they would do, and that he felt lucky in getting out of it with nothing worse than a big bullet through one of his lungs.

The next day while visiting La Loma church I took occasion to express to General MacArthur, who had his head-quarters there, my regret that the regiment had got into such a panic, but was assured by him that it was nothing to feel badly about, as it is a very common experience of troops until they have been under fire a few times. As a matter of fact, very few regiments in the Philippines escaped going through the same thing during the process of getting used to being under fire.

During the afternoon of the day following this incident, it being very quiet, I rather unwisely sent word to Mrs. Funston, in Manila, telling her that if she wished she could come out to the lines for a short visit, as it would give her an opportunity to see something of troops in the field, and we could have a brief chat. But in the meantime Captain Christy, who was officer of the day and was patrolling in front of the regiment with a few men, became involved in a sharp fight at about two hundred yards range with some hundred and fifty of the enemy, who had advanced from their trenches and were behind a dike, probably the same one from which they had fired on us during the night. I went out into the woods to investigate, and found that the redoubtable Christy had bitten off considerably more than he could masticate. He had only a few men, but they were fairly well sheltered and were having a hard fight, being so deeply involved that it was going to be a problem to get them out. I crouched down with the men for a few moments in order to decide what to do, and finally, by having them cease fire suddenly and then spring to their feet and make a dash by the right flank to some "dead" ground, stopped the fight. Going back to my head-quarters, behind the regiment's line, I found that Mrs. Funston had arrived, escorted by my orderly and Major Metcalf's. She had ridden in a caromata, a Filipino vehicle distantly related to the one-horse buggy, it being driven by one of the soldiers while the other rode along on horseback and acted as escort. The party had arrived during the skirmish in the woods, and as quite a few bullets were flying overhead, Mrs. Funston was sheltered for a time behind a portion of the Filipino earthwork that we had assaulted and carried two days before. Realizing that another fight was liaable to break out at any moment, she went back to the city after a brief stay.

The hope that the Filipinos who had been stirred up by Captain Christy would desist, now that they were being let alone, proved an illusory one, as they kept up a slow fire on that portion of our trench nearest to them. Deeming it necessary once for all to break up this form of amusement, and fearing that it might continue throughout the night, I sent a staff officer to explain the situation to the brigade commander and re

quested leave to administer the necessary castigation. The desired permission was granted, but I was cautioned not to attempt any pursuit after the force annoying us had been dislodged, as it was feared that such action might bring on a general engagement, thus interfering with the plans of the division commander. Three companies were considered more than sufficient to do the work, and their commanders were directed to hold them in readiness. It was not known how far into the woods the enemy's right flank extended, and an attempt to turn his left would have exposed us to fire from the trenches near Caloocan, so that a frontal attack was decided upon as giving the greatest chance to inflict heavy loss.

Major Metcalf was to assist me in leading the attack. At the word of command the three companies rose to their feet and fixed bayonets. Leaping over the trench, the start was quickly made. Our right was directly opposite the enemy's left, but it developed that our left considerably over

lapped his right. For the first hundred yards the woods screened our movements, but when we broke into the open at a distance of three hundred yards from the dike we could see that it was fairly alive with the straw hats of the Filipinos, and they opened on us as rapidly as they could fire. Our men, perfectly steady, did not reply until ordered to a few seconds later, and when they did they fairly combed the top of that dike with bullets. We were advancing at a walk and it was point-blank range, and our fire so disconcerted the enemy that though they plied their rifles with great vigor, they were not exposing themselves enough to get any sort of good aim. They were armed entirely with Mausers so that they had no smoke to interfere with them, while our Springfields produced the usual prairie-fire effect. What little wind there was, however, served to drive the smoke behind instead of ahead of us, so that we were not so much troubled by it as ordinarily.

The men were under perfect control, and while somewhat excited, were attending to