many boasts of their prowess and skill in taking human life, and
one of their proudest feats is to sever the head from the body with
a single blow. Our men in the Philippines who are on detached duty,
or who for any cause are away from their commands, are frequently
attacked by these men.

As a rule, bolomen do not carry rifles, although many carry revolvers
when they can get them. Their work is to kill at short range. With
the stealth of a cat they slip up on their victim, strike him a deadly
blow, and then beat a quick retreat to their own lines.

Many of the insurgent officers and soldiers carry bolos, but the
genuine bolomen are an organized body belonging to Aguinaldo's army,
who have as distinct a work to do as the different branches of our own
service. Their work is solely to surprise the unsuspecting outpost,
officer or soldier, to dispatch him and run away before the deed has
been discovered.

Their feats are commonly committed in the darkness of the night Then
their cat-like tread serves them well. Stealing noiselessly along
through banana groves and bamboo thickets, cane-fields and cogonales,
they approach within a few feet of their intended victim and lie for
a few moments watching him as a snake eyes a defenseless bird.

During the months of June and July, 1899, my regiment was doing duty
at San Fernando, about forty miles from Manila. The companies of the
regiment took turns on outpost, going on this duty every fourth day
and being in reserve on the outpost line the day preceding that on
which they went on post. This gave the companies two nights in houses
in town and two on the line out of every four.

My company did duty on what was known as the north line, extending
from San Fernando a full mile toward Angeles. The entire distance was
an almost impenetrable jungle of bamboo and banana trees, intertwined
and interwoven with vines, thorn-bushes, and many other forms of
tropical growth.

To the front was an immense cane-field, with a "paddy-field"
beyond. The cane was from five to seven feet high. Along this deep
fringe of bamboo and matted undergrowth, and near the edge next to
the cane-field, our pickets, or Cossack posts, as they are properly
called, were stationed at distances ranging from one hundred and fifty
to two hundred and fifty yards apart, one corporal and six privates
at each post.

On the tenth of July my company went out in reserve, and early in
the morning relieved the company the