Project Gutenberg's A Soldier in the Philippines, by Needom N. Freeman

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Title: A Soldier in the Philippines

Author: Needom N. Freeman

Release Date: November 14, 2008 [EBook #27259]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A SOLDIER IN
THE PHILIPPINES

BY

N. N. FREEMAN

(PRIVATE, U.S.A.)

[Illustration]

F. TENNYSON NEELY CO.

114 Fifth Avenue
NEW YORK

96 Queen Street
LONDON

Copyright, 1901,
by
D. L. FREEMAN,
in the
United States
and
Great Britain.

Entered at
Stationers' Hall, London.

All Rights Reserved.

A SOLDIER IN THE PHILIPPINES.

CHAPTER I.

Needom Freeman, in the United States regular army during the years
1898-1900, was born in the quiet little country village of
Barrettsville, Dawson County, Ga., on the 25th of September, 1874.

Many things have been said and written of army life during the
Spanish-American war, but usually from the officers' point of view. As a
matter of fact the ideas of a private if spoken or written are
unbelieved simply because the prestige of office was not attached, and
receives but little credit.

The early part of my life was passed in and near the little village of
my birth. Working on the farm and attending the village school a few
months during the time when farming operations were suspended, consumed
about all my time. My father being a poor man with a large family and
unable to give his children the benefit of any advanced education, it
fell to my lot to receive but little instruction. I was the eighth child
in a family of thirteen--five sons and eight daughters.

Having attained the long awaited age of twenty-one, when most young men
are buoyant and full of hope and ambition, I turned my thoughts
westward, where I hoped to make my fortune. I gathered together my few
possessions and proceeded to Texas, arriving at Alvarad