THE CROSSING OF THE RIO GRANDE RIVER
"For gracious' sake, what did we want to retreat for?" demanded Ben,
as soon as the command halted and Major Morris had come within
speaking distance. The young captain had been at the very front of the
firing line, and had seen that complete victory was only the work of a
quarter of an hour or less.
"Orders from general headquarters," replied the major, in a low tone.
"I fancy the staff is pretty angry, too," he added.
"We could have whipped them with ease."
"So we could, captain, but--" And Major Morris finished with a shrug
of his shoulders which meant a good deal.
"I don't believe General Otis would have given such an order had he
been here to see what was going on," continued Ben, earnestly.
"Well, we're ordered back to Angat, and that is all there is to it.
The army must have supplies, you know."
"Hang the supplies!" muttered Gilmore, but under his breath. "We can
get all the supplies we want as we go along." And Ben was rather
inclined to agree with him.
There was no help, however, for the turn in the situation; and with
crestfallen faces the soldiers moved still further back and went into
temporary camp. Only a few had suffered, and the wounded ones were
promptly cared for by the hospital corps.
"And how do you feel?" asked Gilbert, as he came up to see Ben. "Does
the wound hurt still?"
"It itches, that's all," answered Ben. "But this retreat--"
"Makes one feel sore all over, doesn't it?" finished the young
Southerner. "I must say I don't understand it at all. If we are going
to round up any of these rebels, we can't do it by falling back and
waiting for supplies."
Impatient as they were, however, the troops had to wait for two days
before another movement was made. During this time supplies were
hurried forward in large quantities, that there might be no more
delays in the future.
In the meantime the troops under General MacArthur were by no means
idle. They consisted of two brigades, that of General Hale on the
right wing, and that of General Wheaton on the left wing. Of these
troops the first advance was by some men of the Fourth Cavalry, who
went forward to reconnoitre the enemy's position near Quingua. The
start was made during the early morning, and before long the
insurgents opened a heavy fire which the Americans returned with
difficulty, as the rebels were well concealed by the tall grass and
their intrenchments. To aid the cavalry a number of other troops were
hurried forward, also several field-pieces; and in the end the
Filipinos were forced from their position, with a heavy loss. In this
battle the Americans lost six killed and forty wounded. Among the
killed was Colonel Stotsenburg, commanding the First Nebraska
Volunteers, who, after most gallantly leading his men, was shot down
in the final rush upon the enemy's earthworks.
From Quingua the whole of General Hale's brigade moved down the
Quingua River to Pulilan. Here no resistance was encountered, and
after a brief rest the brigade pushed on toward Logundi. That town
was not yet reached when the advance guard reported a breastwork
across the main road, running to the river on the west and into the
jungle on the east.
"Never mind, we'll go ahead anyhow!" shouted the soldiers of the
Nebraska regiment; and go ahead they did, with the South Dakota and
Iowa troops beside them, and several guns of the Sixth Artillery
protecting their advance. The fight at the earthworks was a fierce
one, some of the Filipinos refusing to surrender even when they knew
they were beaten; and as a consequence many of them were slain whose
lives might otherwise have been spared to them.
A short distance to the northwest of Logundi, the Quingua and the
Bagbag rivers join in flowing into the Calumpit. The railroad crosses
the Bagbag but a short distance away, and at this point General Hale's
command reunited with that of General Wheaton, which had come up along
the tracks from Malolos without difficulty. General Wheaton had with
him the troops from Montana and Kansas, some Utah artillery, and one
or two other commands, along with two armored cars, fitted out with
Gatling and Hotchkiss guns and six-pounders.
It was soon discovered that the rebels had built strong breastworks in
a semicircle along the north bank of the Bagbag and the western bank
of the Calumpit Rivers, and had injured the railroad track for a
distance of several hundred yards, and also the bridge spanning the
river. As the approach to both rivers was largely an open one, how to
dislodge the Filipinos became a serious problem.
"Forward with the armored cars!" was the cry, and they were rushed
ahead as far as the torn-up condition of the railroad tracks admitted.
A cannonading lasting for half an hour followed, in which one of the
batteries on the highway also took part. The aim of the gunners was
good, and soon the insurgents were seen to be pouring from the
trenches, which were getting too hot to hold them. Yet a fair number
held their ground, and when the troops on foot advanced they opened a
blistering fire which laid not a few Americans low. But the victory
was ours, and soon the followers of Old Glory were wading or swimming
the river, while the engineering corps set to work to repair the
damage done to railroad and bridge, so that the armored and baggage
cars might pass through.
The cry was now, "On to Calumpit!" which town lies on the Calumpit
River, and is divided into two parts by another stream, called the Rio
Grande. It was found that the insurgents had practically deserted the
lower half of the town, but had intrenchments on the upper bank of the
Rio Grande which were even more formidable than those taken on the
Bagbag. Here the rebels had also a Maxim and other guns, and it seemed
as if for once the advance of the Americans was thoroughly blocked.
Numerous good positions along the south bank of the river were held by
our troops, but it looked as if they could not get over the stream
without a tremendous loss of life.
It is said that the opportunity makes the man, and in this instance
the saying proved a true one. With the soldiers under General Wheaton
were the Twentieth Kansas Volunteers, who had already made a record
for themselves at Malolos and elsewhere, as related in a previous
volume of this series. They were commanded by Colonel Frederick
Funston, a man comparatively young in years and small in stature, but
one who was daring to the last degree, and who had seen much of
fighting and hardships during his adventurous existence. In Cuba,
Funston had fought most valiantly under Garcia for Cuban liberty long
before any interference by the United States.
To Colonel, afterward Brigadier General, Funston belongs the honor of
the passage of the Rio Grande, for it was he who planned what was
done, and he and a score of his fighting Kansans who carried it out.
The daring of the scheme is one which will live long in American
history.
As before mentioned, the bridge was partly broken, but enough
remained for the passage of soldiers who could climb from one iron
cross-section to another. At first it was hoped that a body might go
over the bridge in the dark, raise a great commotion, and cause
the Filipinos a panic. This scheme was tried, but it failed; for the
enemy was on strict guard, and would have shot down the men as
rapidly as they appeared on the bridge.
Colonel Funston then proposed to go down the river bank for a
considerable distance, build rafts, and, by means of a stout rope,
ferry some of the best of his men across the stream in the dark. The
landing of the men was to be covered by the heaviest possible fire
from the American side, and, as soon as they were safe ashore, the
Kansas soldiers were to secure some position where they might enfilade
the enemy's trenches, that is, fire through them from one end, so
that the Filipinos might no longer find them safe. In the meantime
more troops were to come over with all possible speed.
On the way down the stream the Kansas soldiers demolished several
huts, selecting the best of the timber with which to build their
rafts. The moon was under a cloud, and it looked as if they might get
across the river without serious trouble.
But as the crowd were constructing their rafts and getting their ferry
rope ready for use, the moon came out brightly; and very soon the
insurgents became suspicious and fired on the Americans, who were
forced to retreat to the nearest shelter. The firing kept up the
greater part of two hours, and at last the plan to cross over that
night was abandoned.
But the Kansas colonel and his gallant men had determined to be the
first into the enemy's camp, and once again they went to the spot
previously selected, but this time in the broad daylight, when they
might clearly see the shore opposite. No insurgents were in sight;
and, after having made three rafts all right and tight, the rope was
brought forth, and two men, named White and Trembly, were asked to
carry it across the stream. The soldiers plunged into the water
without delay, being watched by hundreds of their comrades left
behind. The men were without their uniforms or weapons of any kind.
Slowly the pair swam the turbulent waters of the stream, and hardly
had they gotten fifty feet from shore when the rebels opened fire upon
them, at first a few scattering shots and then a perfect volley. That
the swimmers escaped is little short of a miracle. But they remained
untouched, and, gaining the opposite bank, they ran forward and tied
the rope's end to a tree-stump. In the meantime two other soldiers
started over the Rio Grande in a dugout, but this upset and let the
men into the water, and they had to swim as had the others. But they
landed with their guns intact, and at once opened fire at the nearest
natives that showed themselves.
All this had happened with great rapidity, and now the first raft was
coming across the river, loaded with Kansas soldiers officered by
Colonel Funston himself. The raft became the target for the hottest
kind of fire, and as the ferrying had to be done by the soldiers
pulling along the rope stretched from shore to shore, the passage was
as slow as it was dangerous. But the soldiers on the craft went over
in safety, and soon more followed, until over fifty were on the beach
fronting the enemy's intrenchments. Then, with a wild yelling, to give
the rebels the impression that a large body had come over, they pushed
forward to enfilade the enemy's trenches as first proposed.
But now another difficulty arose. There was a small stream flowing
into the Rio Grande near this spot, and this had to be crossed before
the fire of the Americans could be made effective. How to get across
was a problem, as the insurgents had a machine gun trained on the
spot. This worked for a while and then stopped; and in the lull
Colonel Funston secured a rowboat and went over with some of his men,
and the others soon followed.
The Filipinos were now thoroughly frightened, for the Americans were
making a great outcry down by the railroad bridge, and they imagined
that they were to be attacked from several points at once. Some
started to run, and as soon as Colonel Funston's men began to rain
their bullets into the long trenches, more followed, until the enemy
was in a panic. Then the Americans began to cross the bridge and
stream in great numbers, and the Filipinos, although reenforced by a
body of Macabebes just at this time, could not make an effective
stand. Calumpit was left behind, and a running fight ensued which
ended at Apalit, when a violent tropical thunderstorm put an end to
the day's operations. It was thought that the rebels' headquarters
would be found at Apalit; but this had, at the last moment, been
removed to San Isidro, toward which General Lawton was now advancing.