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Victorious 1899 philippines battle

New York Times
March 26, 1899
Page 1
Victorious Battle in the Philippines
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Aguinaldo's Rebel Army Flanked and Cornered.
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Fierce Jungle Fighting
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Towns and Railroads Captured by United States Troops.
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Advance on Malolos
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McArthur's Division Sweeps the Country North of the Pasig-Losses on Both Sides.
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MANILA, March 25. - A great battle has been fought today, resulting in a signal and sweeping victory for the American troops. The fighting is still in progress, but the Filipinos are fast retreating.
The American loss is at this time conservatively estimated at 26 killed and 160 wounded. The loss of the enemy was heavier than during any previous engagement.
Gen. Mac Arthur’s division, consisting of the brigades or Gen, or Gen Harrison Gray Otis, Gen Hale, and Gen Hall, supplemented by Gen. Wheaton’s brigade, advanced at daylight and cut the enemy’s forces in two.
The captured the towns of Novaliches on the left, and San Francisco del Monte and Mariquina on the right, clearing the rebel trenches in front of the line north from the river to Caloocan.
They also secured possession of the railroad, practically cornering the flower of Aguinaldo’s army at Malabon and in the foothills at Singalon, twenty mile apart. Thr troops engaged were the third artillery, as infantry: the Montana, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Oregon Volunteers, the Third, Fourth, Seventeenth, and Twenty-second regulars, the Utah Artillery Battalion , and Twenty-third regulars.
Elaborate preparations were made for the movement. Gen. Wheaton’s brigades were placed in the rear, and Gen Harrison Gray Otis’s and Gen. Hall’s were massed behind Gen. Hale’s.


ADVANACED ON THE ENEMY
Under the cover of darkness Gen Harrison Gray Otis and Gen Hale’s brigades left their trenches, and advanced close upon the enemy’s line without being detected, Gen Wheaton and Gen. Hall’s brigades occupying the vacated positions. At 4 o’clock the American troops breakfasted, and the Filipinos, noticing the campfires, their buglers called to arms.
Upon this occasion the rebels adopted the American tactics of holding their fire until the attackers were about 1000 yards distant. The rebels also fired lower than usual. But the Americans fired volleys with terrible effect, and then rushed forward, cheering and carrying everything before them.
Once through, Gen, Mac Arthur’s division was swing to the left, driving the rebels away on all sides.
Gem. Wheaton’s brigade, in accordance with instructions, remained in the trenches. Before joining in the movement at noon, Gen Wheaton’s troops developed a strong opposition between Malabon and the Rive Tuhliahan.
The brigades commanded by Gen. Harrison Gray Otis and Gen. Hale advanced on Novaliches and Pelo, strongly in trenched towns.
In the meantime Gen. Hall’s brigade swept the country clear to the water worksand the foothills and Singalon, capturing San Francisco del Monte and Mariquina.
Late in the afternoon the Montana regiment and the Third Artillery had crossed the Tuliahan River, going in a northwesterly direction toward Pelo, and Gen. Harrison Gray Otis and Gen Hale’s brigade’s posistion to attack either Novaliches or five miles of Pelo.
Gen Hall’s brigade moved to Banlac , protecting Gen. Hales right, Meeting with stron opposition.
The Oregon regiment and part of the Utah Battery, under Lieut. Gibbs held the extreme left.


SEVERE ATTACKS AT MALABON
The entrenchments nearest to Malabon suffered the most severe attacks, including crossfire from the insurgents massed at Malabon.
The Montana regiments, near Balintanac, came upon a blockhouse disguised as a leper hospital, across the river, after marching through the jungle. Four men were killed and seventeen were wounded at this place.
Gen Mac Arthur’s artillery was hampered by the thickness of the jungle. Gen. Mac Arthur, Gen Hale, and their staffs were frequently under a galling fire, and upon one occasion all of their officers, expecting the generals, dismounted, being overcome by the heat. There were many prostrations during the day.
The movement of the American troops today swept the insurgents back toward Malabon. Gen Harrison Gray Otis brigade is still in front of Laloma, where there is a stretch of a mile of rough, open country. The insurgent trenches in the edge of the woods are four feet deep and furnish a good head cover. The American troops advanced on the double quick, yelling fiercely, and occasionally dropping in the grass and firing by volley.
The natives stood until the Americans were within 200 yards of their position and then broke and ran for the woods. About thirty of them were killed in the outskirts and seventy on the roads.
The Montana and Kansas troops met the hottest resistance in a strip from which the rebels have greatly worried the Americans recently during the night.
Ninety Minutes after the start at 6 o’clock the front for a distance of three miles to the north had been cleared. Gen. Hale’s brigade had simultaneously swept in a nothr westerly direction. Routing the enemy and burning the town id San Francisco del Monte and the a number of scattered huts.
The line was the opposite Novaliches, the artillery advancing along a good road from laloma to Nocaliches, the wagons carrying pontoons, telegraph supplies, and ammunition, following. The infantry moved in splendid order.

WOUNDED AMERICANS COURAGE
Smoke from the burning huts marked the line of the American advance. Ambulances and horse litters, led by Chinese, brought in the wounded among who were a few Filipinos. The Americans who were wounded endured their injuries bravely, one group which had been brought into the hospital singing Comrades
The Pennsylvania troops took nine prisoners among them a great naked captain of the Macabee tribe and one Japanese. All the prisoners were greatly terrified, expecting to be executed immediately.



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