USA > Nebraska > The first Nebraska in camp and field, by first Nebraska boys > Part 3
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temporary heart disease cansed by cats and birds. However. the night passed withont other inci- dent, and the next morning we had many a langh over our nervousness.
In a few days we commenced to do ontpost anty, spending our spare time in exploring the country and visiting whatever places of interest there were, or in amnsing ourselves by talking to the natives, who squatted in a row along on guard lines, for we would not let them come inside.
It was in doing this outpost work that the Nebraska regiment (and others, too) did much for which it will never get any credit at home. It was marching, sleeping, walking gnard in the mud and rain, and the outposts were in the zone of all the overfire from the trenches, so that we got the benefit of the fire directed, not only at the Amer- icans, but at the insurgents as well, and that no more men were killed is simply another proof of that providential protection which followed the Americans all during this war.
Many amusing things happened on these trips to the country; amusing incidents there, but under other circumstances, narrow escapes. It is a little peculiar that men will laugh at others when they come near getting killed, but it is a fortunate part of our makeup; it is probably put in us by the Creator to help us to better bear those dangers to which this life is liable, by keeping men from brooding. During the first experience of a certain company in outpost duty, and before they had yet heard the peculiar whistle of the Mauser, a member of the company was standing by a stone walt around an open well, talking to the native who owned the place. Suddenly the ripping sonnd of a volley came from the trenches
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some 700 or 800 yards away. The native instantly dropped behind the wall, which was abont three feet high, at the same time motioning to the sol- dier to do the same, but he, wishing to show the native how brave an American soldier was, simply smiled and remained standing. Before that smile got fairly settled over his features a Manser bullet passed close to his head and imbedded itself in a free behind him, and the soldier smiled no more, but went down so fast that he left his hat in the air, where it still was when he looked up. A group of soldiers near by, cooking a chicken which they had "bought," saw the incident and laughed uproarionsly, and for days they chaffed him about lwing "brave."
Not long after that another fellow went into the bamboo house used as headquarters, to get some hard tack. The house was elevated on poles about six feet above the ground, the means of as- cent being by a ladder. As he stopped to pick up his haversack a buffet passed through the side of the house just above his bent back. He fell on the floor, rolled to the door and down the ladder, forgetting his haversack and hard tack, nor would he go back after them. He was the victim of nu- merciful chafting for days afterward. The after- noon of that same day a sergeant had found a little piece of rag, and was going to clean his gon with it. He was standing with his back to a small thatched house, talking to a group around him, and was just telling them about the Inxury of a rag to clean a gun when a piece of a shell clipped off the top of a stone wall across the road and took off the top of the building against which he was leaning. He never finished that sentence, but fell on his back, throwing his gun one way
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and ramrod another. This furnished amusement for the group, who, by the way, were also lying down.
This place was used afterwards as a per- manent headquarters for outposts It was a little village called Pasay; where was sitnated the conntry house of the captain-general of the Phil- ippines. The other posts were situated along two different roads from Pasay, back into the country. These roads had to be patroled every hour and a report made to headquarters, and sometimes, very often, in fact, this was dangerons, because the main road was parallel to the trenches. One day a patrol, started from post 6 to headquarters, stepped in just behind a mounted Filipino officer. They plodded along through the mud for awhile, neither probably thinking of the other, until a bright idea came into the head of the American. He closed up behind the unsuspecting Filipino, and as they approached headquarters, threw his rifle into the hotlow of his left arm, with his right thumb on the hammer. The first guard he met looked surprised and asked in a low tone "A prisoner," but the joker simply nodded his head and passed on. When they came to Pasay all the soldiers crowded into the streets, asking questions, but receiving no answer. After pas- sing half way through the village, the Filipino rode up to the side of the street and threw his bridle rein to another Filipino, and the soldier turned to the left amid a shower of imprecations from his fooled comrades, who now saw the joke.
A little instance will show the American love of causing somebody trouble, and also illustrate the regard (or disregard) of the private for the non-commissioned officer, which so surprised the
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Filipinos. A patrol came up to report one night and asked the sentry for the sergeant of the post. "Over there on that rice sled, asleep, " he said. The private walked over and kicked him in the ribs, saying, "Get up, qnick." The sergeant awoke with a start, looked startled and inquired, "What's the matter." The other said, "Oh! nothing. only I wanted to tell you that everything is all right on post 4." What the sergeant said can be imagined, but he took it good naturedly and went to sleep again.
Some days afterwards part of a company was on outpost at another place. They had been there a day and a night, digging entrenchments in the day time, and trying to sleep on the earth- en floor of an old church at night, with swarms of mosquitos buzzing around their heads, and were expecting relief about nine o'clock. A fel- low who had been trying to sleep, came out of the church early in the morning and met a friend just coming from the lookout, and said. "There is not a thing here to eat, and even after we march back to camp you know what we will get-pancakes Now just around this house are two young chickens, and I am hungry, how are yon?" Well now, if any old soldier happens to see this be will know that the other fellow refused to go after those chickens. They went around to take a look, anyway, and saw the chickens. They chased them through a hedge several times, and around the house, and ont of the trees, but could not get near them. Finally the chickens ran out on a dike which separated two rice fields, and stopped. Thinking that he had them sure, one of the boys crept along until he got pretty close, took out his bayonet and threw it at them,
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and his aim was good too, but the fowls simply hopped into the air and tet the bayonet go under them into a ditch full of water. He then let the game go and went after his bayonet. But after wading around waist deep in the water, and ex- amining all the grass in vain, he called a native to help him, and he could not find it. Just then the bugle sounded assembly, and he had to rush away. When he got to camp he remembered that the next day was inspection day, and be must. have a bayonet or give some good reason for the loss of his. The way out of it was clear. He jnst went over to the next company and "bor- rowed" one that was hanging ontside a tent. The next morning he heard what the other fellow bad to say about the man who "stole" his bayonet, and also heard him say how he was going to get another. We will venture to say that the man who nitimately lost a bayonet, with no court of appeal, was the last man in the last regiment in camp-the Wyoming.
The first thing we did on reaching camp after a trip like this, was to cat-sometimes, then sleep a few hours. After that we would either lounge around camp, or go down to the beach to look for shells, or possibly scour the country looking for fuel. Scouting parties were also sent out over the surrounding country. One of these one day went into the insurgent trenches up toward Ma- nila, where the insurgents had an old six-pound cannon which Dewey had given them. It had been mounted by building a platform, upon which it had been raised. above the works. They were firing it for the first time that day. Nobody knew a thing about it, but all were trying to learn. One loaded it amid much talking, and then all bnt one
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ran away a short distance to await the report. When it exploded there was great yelling and cheering, and hundreds of eyes peeped over the breastworks expecting to see the whole Spanish force flying in the air. Instead, the ball struck about fifty yards in front of the gun and rolled a short distance. Then they tried it again, but with very little more success. The next day the Spaniards, probably having had a good langh, with a well directed shot broke it to pieces. This was the Filipino's last experiment with artillery until after they had begun fighting us.
We had not been in camp many days before we were obliged to raise our beds on account of the swampy nature of the ground and the conse- quent liability to contract malaria. There were plenty of bamboo beds for sale, and these we bonght and put our tents upon them. A bed wide enough for two was just the right size for a tent.
Our rations here rnn short, because of the high surf which prevented onr landing anything from the ships For two weeks we lived on pan- cakes made of flour and swamp water. And then the way they were cooked! We positively know of a fellow who was nearly drowned as a result of eating one. He was foolish enough to go bath- ing immediately after eating it, and of course he sank like lead; timely aid, however saved him. Another fellow stumbled and felt in the company street just after finishing his dinner, and conld not get up alone. There were a few chickens around camp, but they were game cocks, and to tough to eat -as we discovered.
When we did get onr rations they consisted mostly of canned beef and hard tack. Oh! that beef and that hard tack. If the reader wishes to
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know what the beef was like, he can mannfacture a very good substitute by entting some string into pieces about three inches long, tieing them into a bundle, and then dipping the bundle into some salty. grayish liquid. This is "horse meat," and taken with hard tack makes a meal fit for a king -if he wants to commit suicide. We heard a First Nebraskan deseribing hard tack one evening to an audience. He said that it was fresh, and as palatable as bread, but he was an officer and did not have to eat it all the time as we did. Many of the boys fairly detested the stuff, and could only eat it by soaking it in coffee. We can do no better than quote a poem written by a boy in Manila abont this same hard tack:
THE OLD ARMY HARD TACK,
How dear to my heart are the war-time momentoes, I've cherished in memory of sorrows and joys,
In the days when I tramped through the streets of Manila, And splashed through the mud with the rest of the boys.
I've a rusty old knife I never will part with, An old campaign hat, a jacket of bine,
A battered canteen, and a haversack holding Some squares of the hard tack we all had to chew. Chorus-The iron-bound hard tack, The mould-covered hard tack, The old army hard tack we all had to chew.
There was hard tack from wars of the past genera- tion, Which remained unconsumed till this late Spanish war; "Tis rumored that some which defied mastication
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Were marked "Civil War," or the stamp "B. C." bore.
What a triumph this is for the skill of the baker; Indestructible product, defying time's tooth;
But it could not resist the assaults of our grinders, The grinders we had in the days of onr youth.
Chorns-There was 1812 hard tack, And '62 hard tack, The old army hard tack we ate in our youth.
Oh, youth can make feasts of the coarsest of viands,
And never again shall we veterans feel
Sneh a zest in our lives as we felt in this late war, When hard tack sufficed to create a square meal.
And tho' we may dine at more sumptuous tables, We'd gladly exchange all the dainties they yield For the hearty enjoyment and youthful digestion That seasoned the hard tack we ate in the field.
Chorus-The bullet-proof hard tack, The petrified hard tack, The old army hard tack we ate in the field. - Fred Blake, Utah Battery, U.S. V.
Some of the things which we did for our amusement may be learned from the following inci- dent: One night some of us were awakened by the sound of loud talking in one of the companies. A couple of the boys said that the two in the next tent had pulled their tent down, and they were returning the compliment, while the other boys were protesting that they were innocent. It leaked ont in the morning that the first two had pulled their own tent down on themselves, and then blamed it on the others, for an excuse to pull theirs down. But the officer of the day came around too soon and made them fix their tent up
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again. But they were bent on having some fun anyway, so as soon as the officer went away they went to a tent where two of their friends were sleeping soundly, and poured sand on the face of one. He awoke with a start, sat up and looked at his tent-mate, thinking that he did it. Seeing him asleep and innocent, he lay down again and closed his eyes. The tormentors then put some on the other fellow's face, and he went through the same motions, only seeing the first one awake he accused him of doing it. They then lay there accusing one another, each telling what he thought of anybody that would disturb a sleeping person, till they got pretty warm, but a chuckle outside gave the joke away and they went to sleep, with a few remarks to the fellows out- side.
A casnal reader may be led to believe from the foregoing that camp life was all pleasure, but it was far otherwise. Much of the time we were marching in mud and water from ankle deep to waist deep, with no change of clothing, and sleep- ing in the rain with nothing over us, and a poncho under us, for more disease came from the ground than from the air. And then there was drill, when not on outpost dnty. Oh! those drills-two in the morning, marching through sand and pea- nut fields, and underbrush, and brambles, chasing an imaginary foe until we could chase no longer, and the vertical sun pouring down upon us all the while. Then usually a dress parade in the even- ing finished onr day's work.
Our water we got by digging two or three feet into the sand and sinking a barrel, into which the water oozed. It was rather black and evil looking, but was better when boiled -we should
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say more wholesome -- it was not better, because it had that taste to describe which is impossible.
At first our sick report was not large, but it soon commenced to grow, as fevers and other camp diseases began to attack us. One night a fellow was called up about 11 o'clock to stay with a friend who was sick. When he went to his friend's tent he was alarmed to find him on his knees with his head on the ground, and almost unable to talk for pain in his stomach. He tried to get the sick man to bed but could not. By this time he heard groans from all over the company. Becoming alarmed, he went for the doctor and by the time he arrived nearly everybody was suffering with cramps. The doctor stayed most of the night, but the only way he could stop the pain was by hypodermic injections, but he could not discover the cause of the sickness. The only thing that the boys had eaten was canned salmon, no fruit or anything bought from the natives. The next morning at roll call there were but nine to answer to their names. The cause of the sickness still remains a mystery .
The army, we must not forget to say, is the greatest ulace on earth for rumors. It is worse than a censored cable office. There were contin- mally rumors flying about-plausible rumors, foolish rumors, and all kinds of rumors. We could not understand why we were not taking Ma- nila, and nearly every soldier explained it by some rumor he had heard. The principal one was that peace had been declared and the islands sold to England; so that we would only have to march in- to Manila, stay there a few weeks and then start for home. But alas! how idle aro rumors.
On the night of the 31st of July, a lovely moon-
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light night, such as one sees only in the tropics, we were awakened by something, we knew not what. Lying in our tents we heard a noise like the flapping of a large piece of cloth in the wind, interspersed at regular intervals with a sound like the ripping of a huge seam. Many of ns got up and listened, looking toward our trenches, which were held that night by the 10th Pennsyl- vania regiment. We soon realized that a battle, and a hard one, was in progress. While we were standing listening the notes of "mess call" rang ont over the camp from the bagle of some excited bugler who was trying to blow "call to arms." Laughing at the ludicrous mistake, we hastily put on our belts, snatched our rifles and fell in. After forming the regiment, men were sent to the tents with orders to throw everything ont of the haversacks and bring them to the men in ranks. In the meantime some Pennsylvania men had come for ammunition with the news that their friends in the trenches had nearly exhausted theirs. While we were standing there it com- menced to rain, or rather ponr. Of course that stopped the battle, and after we had gotten thor- oughly soaked, were ordered to go to our tents, but to not take off onr clothes. The tents had been left open in our haste, and when we got back our blankets and the inside of the tents were soaking wet. Nevertheless, we crawled in and went to sleep. In the morning we saw all our trinkets that were in the haversacks piled on the ground, and of course ruined by the rain -- one paper, little cases of needles and thread, and what was the worst of all, our testaments.
On Tuesday, August 2, onr turn came. That day the Nebraskans were in the trenches, six
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companies of Nebraskans and four of the 18th U. S. Infantry; the rest of our regiment holding the outposts to the right and left, except K, which was at Americuban, behind the regiment. We marched up, about two miles, through the mind and water, and ditches in rice fields, in a pouring rain. When we arrived the outlook was not cheering. The trenches were a black bank of dirt, with a wide, shallow ditch of water be- hind Water above and water below-a pleasant prospect. It was raining quite hard with occas- sional downpour's lasting from ten to fifteen min- mes. A few found some little pieces of board which they used for seats. They looked the nic- ture of desolation, sitting humped up in a ball in the rain, and it would have been laughable under other cirenmstances.
There were two buildings in the trenches, their fronts forming part of the line. One was an old church, literally riddled with bullets and shells, and the other was a bamboo hut, built above the ground about three feet. Under this building, and in the other, a few sought shelter, but there had to be enongh along the line to watch. Back abont fifty yards were a few de- sorted huts, in one of which a cook built a fire to make some coffee. At either end of the trench and running perpendicular to it was a row of trees, with an open rice field between, over which we conld see the Spanish trenches, about 300 yards distant. In these trees, and doubtless also in the grass of the rice fields, sharpshooters were concealed, who kept annoying us continually with their persistent fire, their smokeless powder and the slight noise of their rifles making it impossi- ble to locate them. If a fellow raised his head
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above the works, a bullet came along saying "heads down." A fellow starting to go back to the houses behind said "See me walk like a man" meaning straight up He had not taken many steps before a Mauser bullet came singing ctose to his head, and he went down like a flash. He went the rest of the distant crouchingly, amid the laughter of his friends.
We ate our canned beef and hardtack sitting in the mnd, and quarreling for the largest share of the nasty stuff, which nobody wanted when he got it.
The afternoon was spent in strengthening the weak places in the trench, in making port holes, and in trying to get a little shelter from the rain.
In the evening the rain stopped, and the moon shone brightly in the intervals between the passing of the light, fleecy clouds. Pickets were stationed about fifty yards in front of the trenches and lookouts at the port holes. Everything was as still as death, not even an insect stirring. Our eyes and ears were strained to their utmost for the slighest motion or theslighest sound, and to our anxious eyes every bush was a man, and every tree was a regiment. Even the white fence posts in front of us gradually turned into Spandiards with Mausers, slowly creeping toward us. Not a breath of air was moving, and even the heavy breathing of a few who were brave enough to sleep, could be heard plainly. It seemed to be the stillness preceding a storm, a crisis seemed inevitable. We could not stand the nervons strain long, and as the time passed the stillness grew more oppressive, and the strain on our nerves still greater, till a single word would have brought six hundred men to their feet, and set
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six hundred hearts to fluttering. It was our first time to be face to face with the enemy, and we were green. We were not seasoned enough but what we thought of home so far away, and secretly wondered whether or not we would ever again see it. About 9:40, when the nervous strain had alinost reached breaking point, and it seemed that something must happen, it was suddenly snapped by three shots in quick succession from our pick- ets on the right. and then the pickets in front came tumbling over the works. In a second the whole right was engaged. the bang of the Spring- fields mingling with the pop of the Mausers and Krag Jorgensons, while the left with empty guns was nervously waiting the order to load and fire. There is no worse torture than to place a man under fire and not let him answer. If he can only shoot in the air, or yell, it relieves the tension.
Suddenly a shell burst with a teriffic crash just behind us. We think that our readers will believe us when say that onr hair stood up until it lifted our hats off our heads. One who has never heard a shell burst at night close to him can never ap- preciate our feelings. Then the left of the line got orders to fire, and instantly the whole trench was a flashing, thundering, incessant line of fire. Sometimes it would dwindle down to a bang-bang -bang, then flash up to the b-r-rr-r of rapid fire. At regular intervals could be heard the boom of the big gun from the Spanish line, then the shriek and bursting of the shell. If any reader of this thinks that the Spaniards had no gunners, a very few minutes there that night wond have shown him his error. Those shells and solid shot were everywhere-they burst above us and behind us, they struck the front of the works, and they
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clipped the top of it. Those gunners had the range so perfectly that the Utah boys with us did not dare to use their guns at all. It was beyond description. It was a hell turned loose, yet most of the boys were almost as cool as at rifle practise. One fellow whose gnu got hot, threw it into the water and while waiting for it to cool, rolled a cig- arette. He put it in his mouth, and while he was looking for a match, a shell burst a little ways behind him. He glanced up at it and said "I wish that had burst close enough for me to get a light" and went on looking for his match. Another fel- low was burned on the arm by a Mauser, and, while it was not serious, it hurt pretty badly, "I'm shot, I'm shot," he said, and then junpod np on the works and began to shoot as fast as he could load and fire, cursing the Spaniards all the while, till he was pulled down by his comrades.
Of course there were many escapes that bor- dered on the miraculous. It is sometimes a matter of wonder that persons can come so near to death and yet escape it. Just as one fellow pulled his gun out a port hole after firing, a Manser bullet passed through the hole and grazed his shoulder. An instant sooner it would have passed through his head. Poor fellow, he escaped death one way only to meet it in another and worse one; he after- wards died of disease in the hospital. A shell struck the bank just where two fellows were lying against it, with such force as to throw them back, but it did not explode. Another had the end of his bayonet and the strap of his gun shot off, but he was untouched, and several had their eyes filled with sand by flying bullets.
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