Every time we thought a fight was on hand and we would see some
fun with the Filipinos. Whenever we got them started to running, which
most always was easily done, then the fun was on. We were sent out a
great many times to guard some town from the enemy's torch.

Company "E," of the Twenty-third, was detailed to guard the first
reserve hospital in Manila and was on duty ten days. The officers feared
that enough of the enemy would slip through the lines to enter the
hospital and commit many depredations and kill the wounded Americans, so
we were detailed to guard it and walk the streets and hold up every
vehicle of the Filipinos and search them for arms and ammunition. This
holding up and searching gave the sentries all they wanted to do. All
the time we were there on duty we could not leave without permission. We
laid about in the hot sun in the day time and at night on the ground.
Some of the soldiers pulled grass and made beds to sleep on the side of
the streets.

The only thing to help pass the time while on this duty was to go
through the hospital and look at the wounded, some with arms off, others
with a leg gone, while there were men wounded in almost every imaginable
way to be living. Some would get well when it looked almost impossible
for them to recover. I have seen thirty to forty wounded piled in a box
car and sent into Manila, where they were put on a boat and carried up
the Pasig river to the hospital. They were taken from the boat and put
in a cold place till the doctor puts them on the operating table and
handles them like a butcher handling a beef. Almost every day women and
children were brought in with burned hands and feet, the Filipinos
burning every town which they thought was about to be captured, and the
women and children suffered; doubtless, many were burned to death.

Fire is a dangerous resort of the Filipino. About one hundred got
through the lines into Manila and made an effort to burn the city, but
the promptness of the Americans saved it, only five blocks being burned.
The soldiers were kept busy guarding the negroes and keeping them away
from the buildings. Big stores were burning and the fire department was
too poor to save them; the proprietors told the soldiers to go in and
get anything they wanted.

While the fire department was doing all it could to save the city and
sneaking Filipinos were hindering the department all they could by
cutting the hose. They would assemble in crowd