Reminiscences and thrilling stories of the war by returned heroes . ove the enemy intothe town. The story ofthe day is graphically toldin the following extractfrom a letter written by astaff officer, who was veryactive in the advance, tohis wife, giving her anaccount of his personaldoings. It gives also a veryclear picture of the workdone by our men, of theway in which the city wasentered, and of the man-ner in which the insur-gents were dealt with. Itrecounts the observationsas well as the acts of atrained army officer, who,as aide to General Greene,was obliged to go over very much of the gro
Reminiscences and thrilling stories of the war by returned heroes . ove the enemy intothe town. The story ofthe day is graphically toldin the following extractfrom a letter written by astaff officer, who was veryactive in the advance, tohis wife, giving her anaccount of his personaldoings. It gives also a veryclear picture of the workdone by our men, of theway in which the city wasentered, and of the man-ner in which the insur-gents were dealt with. Itrecounts the observationsas well as the acts of atrained army officer, who,as aide to General Greene,was obliged to go over very much of the ground, and was therefore in posi-tion to see probably more of the days work than any other one man: Two days before I had made my reconnoissance of the position in ourfront and accurately located the cannon in the defences. One of them pointeddirectly up the beach on the edge of the bay, and this one we were unable tosee with glasses on the morning of the bombardment. As General Babcockwas wondering whether it was still there, I offered to go down and again re- 339. GENERAL WESLEY MERRITT 340 SURRENDER OF MANILA. connoitre the position to ascertain with certainty whether the cannon hadbeen removed. I started down the beach, concealing myself in the brush onthe way, and had approached nearly to the river, when the bombardmentsuddenly opened from the ships. All the shells fell short, and as they struckthe water they ricocheted and whistled over my head in such number that Iwas compelled to retreat about ioo yards in order to get out of the line offire. A slight lull then ensued in the firing, and I returned to my formerposition, not having had a chance to use my field-glasses while there first. A second time the ships opened fire, and the shells, again falling short,drove me from my position, but I returned a third time and finished the re-connoissance, then ran back to our trenches, reporting to General Babcockthat the gun had been removed. I also made this report to General Green
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherphiladelphiapaelli
