The guns dashed up the road and swung into action on the bridge. The forces then began an advance up the road, running twenty and thirty yards at a time, supported by the infantry from Tennessee. After a half hour of sharp fighting the Tagalans fled before the cannister and shrapnel of the big guns and the bullets of the Tennesseeans, and thus the hills as far as the Deposito were won. Meanwhile, a battalion of Tennesseeans had deployed out to the left and taken the Deposito, and the two guns were moved to this point.
The Tennesseans left the Nebraskans in charge of the Deposito and disappeared off to the right. Late that night Lieutenant Webb and the fatigued warriors of Santa Mesa joined Lieutenant Gibbs at the Deposito, where they bivouacked with the prospect on the morrow of an advance upon the pumping station, four miles beyond.
The movement upon the pumping station was not easily accomplished; there were several sharp skirmishes on the way. Though the power of the insurgents seemed to have been broken on the previous day, there were some in whom the spirit of resistance was not entirely extinguished and they contested the march of the Americans with vigor. When the move was made on the morning of the 6th the artillery was under the personal command of Major Young. A straggling line of infantry deployed on either side of the road and with the artillery in the rear the forward movement began. Scarcely half a mile from the Deposito the moving column encountered a small body of Tagalans, who opened fire. Once more the angry guns pealed forth in menacing thunder and the terror-stricken natives retreated for the kind shelter of the bamboo thickets beyond. Two similar skirmishes happened farther up the road. About a mile and a half from the Deposito the mutilated body of Dr. Harry A. Young was found lying by the side of a ventilator. Some distance back the body of his horse had been discovered. Major Young was the first to locate this gory evidence, which mutely told the tragic story of the end of Dr. Young. All the clothing had been rent from the body, a bullet hole was in his forehead, and a bolo wound from the elbow of the left arm to the waist told the tragic story of how he died. The supposition is that the Doctor was surprised on his way to the Deposito, where he had an appointment with Major Young, and took the wrong road, which led him to a grim death in the Tagalan territory. A few minutes later, while the body was being conveyed to Manila, the Major calmly commanded his men in a rush with the enemy, in which eighty of them were killed. This exhibition of splendid courage was ever after an inspiration to the Utahn when he felt like being disheartened.
Gradually the uncoiled infantry line pushed back the recalcitrant natives, and late in the morning the heights above the beautiful Mariquina valley were reached. Here the artillery was placed in position, and, with the Mariquina Church steeple as a target, the town was bombarded. Now and then a shuddering shrapnel was sent shrieking after fugitive bands of Tagalans, who made all haste for the protecting shelter of the mountain on the opposite side of the valley.
From that place they were content to look with dismay upon the death-dealing monsters which frowned from the hill above the bulwarks.
When the first platoon of Battery A, under Captain Wedgewood, sped out into the gloom on the night of the 4th it took up a position in the Balic Balic road near the Cemetario de Sampaloe. All night long the two guns were under a straggling fire from the Filipinos, who at this place held Blockhouse No. 5, about 300 yards to our front, and a diminutive stone church which was located off to the right of our position. The section two gun was placed inside the Cemetario, but that of section one remained outside, where it was exposed to the enemy's fire.
At 3 a.m. from two points the Malays centered a vicious fusilade upon the artillery, which remained inactive owing to the obscurity of the Tagalan line of defense. No. 1 gun was moved back about 100 yards to a more sheltered station by the cemetery. Just as the first streaks of dawn appeared in the east the two guns blazed toward the blockhouse and the small church, in which were a large number of natives. Simultaneously the Colorado infantry swung into position and with a withering fire slowly advanced upon the enemy. Several well-directed shells sent the Filipinos flying from the blockhouse and a few more accurately trained shots annihilated the little church. As the Tagalans moved from their cover they fell many deep before the blasting volleys of the invincible Coloradoans.
As the natives fled from the church, the artillery turned its attention to Blockhouse No. 4, 1700 yards distant, and while the South Dakotans made a wonderful charge they demolished this wooden bulwark. Next the big guns were ordered to shatter Blockhouse No. 6, but before they could be brought into play against this point the insurgents had disappeared into the woods with the swift-moving Colorado infantrymen hard on their track. On the 6th the platoon was moved to a position left of Blockhouse No. 7. On this part of the line it remained until March 23rd, when it was ordered to Caloocan to take part in the fierce engagement at that point when the whole line charged the enemy's works on March 25th.
The damage inflicted on the natives of Sampaloe was very considerable. Over a hundred bodies were buried there and in many a battered form could be seen that ripping course of a shrapnel. General Hale personally praised the work of Sergeants Emil Johnson and W.E. Kneass, who were in immediate charge of the two rifles.
The guns of Battery B took a position on the left of the line to the south of Caloocan on the night of the war alarm. Second Lieutenant Seaman went out on the Caloocan road with one 3.2 gun. Major Grant left the Cuartel with three 3.2-inch guns, and after leaving one at Bilibid Prison took the remaining two up the rugged Bulum Bugan road as far as Lazaro Hospital. Emplacements were made under a spattering fire from the enemy at this point, facing the Chinese Hospital and the Binondo Cemetery, in both of which places the Tagalans were strongly lodged. Only an occasional shot blazed towards the enemy during the night, but from a commanding position the artillery fire began at dawn with destructive and terrifying results. Besides driving the sturdily-intrenched Tagalans back, the Utah attack entirely covered the simultaneous advance of the Tenth Pennsylvania and South Dakota infantry.