s and then the hose was
cut; every one caught in this act was shot down on the spot. Six or
seven were thus punished that night. It was an exciting time and looked
as if Manila would be burned in spite of all our efforts to save her.
The Twenty-third Regiment did guard duty all night on the west side of
the city. The enemy, failing to burn Manila, fired a little bamboo
village outside; the bursting bamboos could be easily heard by us. The
noise was just like that of guns and the Filipinos took advantage of
this noise to shoot at us in the city. They would get behind the light
of the burning village and when an American could be seen in the light
of the burning houses in Manila he was shot at. This was kept up all
night. Our great trouble was to distinguish between the noise of the
bursting bamboos and the report of a Mauser rifle. The noise of bursting
bamboos could be heard three and four miles, some of them not much
unlike a six-inch gun, and the reports from a burning bamboo village was
almost a reproduction of a battle and would last several hours.

After guarding the burning district of the city all night we returned to
guard duty at the hospital. Orders were received to march to the firing
line at San Pedro Macati. We marched there on the first day of March and
stayed till the tenth. We were in trenches at the front; our provisions
were more than half a mile at the rear and details were made out each
day to bring up provisions to the men in the works. These details were
fired at in going and coming by the Filipinos, but their fire was
ineffective, owing to their distance from us, until the detail neared
the trenches, where the distance was not so great, and it was very
dangerous. Some were wounded.

A man behind the works could not get out for a few minutes' exercise
without being fired at, and if he did not get under cover soon they
would get him. I have seen many men shot that way; they thought the
Filipinos could not shoot. I have seen some fine marksmen among them.
They could do some good shooting until they became excited and fled for
some place of safety.

I have seen squads of Filipinos come near our trenches and open fire on
us. A squad of Americans with their arms would jump out of the trenches
and start towards them and they would soon disappear like so many
frightened deer. I was in a squad of soldiers who ran three Filipinos
for two miles. They were shot at several times, but got away.

We were out