The troops remained for several days inactive at Malolos to recuperate after the rigors of the long march. During this time the two guns commanded by Lieutenant Gibbs at Caloocan were brought to Malolos by rail, and Captain Wedgewood took charge of them, while Lieutenant Gibbs returned to the two platoons stationed at the waterworks.
On April 7th a reconnoitering expedition went out to investigate the enemy's position to the east of Quingua in the vicinity of Bag Bag. Major Bell commanded the party, which consisted of a troop of the Fourth Cavalry, a Hotchkiss revolving cannon and one Hotchkiss mountain gun, in charge of John A. Anderson. They found a place where the river could be forded and discovered that the insurgents were strongly intrenched on the banks of the Bag Bag river. The country at this time was heavily timbered and the party was able to return unnoticed by the enemy.
A severe battle occurred on April 23rd as the forces closed in on Quingua. A reconnoitering party of cavalry encountered a large body of insurgents and the fire was so withering that Major Bell was forced to retire. Reinforcements of infantry were promptly called for and soon the Nebraskans moved forward to the fray. The fight lasted several hours, and the infantry and cavalry were forced to endure a heavy fire out in the open from a long line of Filipinos intrenchments hidden in a line of underbrush and trees. It was during this engagement that the gallant Stotsenberg was killed while rallying his men for the charge over the open. The artillery did not arrive until 11 o'clock, when two rifles, one from each battery under Captain Wedgewood and Lieutenant Critchlow came to the front and as usual soon ended the argument. Private D.J. Davis of Battery A was shot through the fleshy part of the leg, and while standing twenty yards behind the piece Captain Wedgewood was wounded in the hand and stomach by a flying piece of copper from the defective gun breech. The artillery occupied a position at one hundred yards range during this stubbornly fought engagement. The guns were partially sheltered by the foliage of a clump of trees to the left of the Pulilan road and the Nebraska infantry. Firing from the artillery was plainly effective, and after forty-five minutes of continual bombardment the insurgents retired over the Pulilan road toward Bag Bag.
During this engagement Lieutenant Fleming of the Sixth United States Artillery arrived from Malolos with one of his own and a Battery B gun, manned by a Utah detachment, and did valuable service at a one-thousand-yard range. As the natives retreated in columns they afforded a conspicuous target and bursting shrapnel tore large holes in the retiring lines. Private Abplanalp of Battery B, one of the drivers, was shot through the hand and arm while in the rear of the firing line.
This was considered to be as fierce a fight as that in which the rough riders won their way to glory at Las Guasimas. At that point three regiments were engaged and there were seventy casualties. At Quingua there were only five hundred Americans against a large body of insurgents and sixty of these were killed or wounded. General Gregoria del Pilar, the dashing young Filipino leader, who had previously visited General Otis for the purpose of arranging terms of peace, commanded the dusky warriors at this place. Though he was forced to retreat he took upon himself the credit of killing Colonel Stotsenberg, and afterwards boasted that he had slain one thousand Americans in the engagement.
The next morning Lieutenant Fleming with two big rifles and a Hotchkiss revolving cannon, in charge of Gunner Corporal M.C. Jensen, forded the Quingua river, a tributary of the Rio Chico, which in turn draws its waters from the Rio Grande de Pampanga, at Calumpit. The remainder of the artillery, consisting of a platoon of Battery A, under Lieutenant Naylor, and one gun under Lieutenant Critchlow, went on down the Pulilan road toward Bag Bag. There was a sharp encounter on this road, during which a body of the enemy about a thousand yards to the right attempted a flank movement, but a few shots from the big guns and the Hotchkiss forced them to change their course. The guns directly under Major Young on the other side of the river became involved about three hundred yards south of the enemy's long low line of earthworks at Bag Rag. Their intrenchments occupied the strip of land at the junction of the Rio Chico and the Bag Bag rivers. When a reconnoitering party visited this place on April 7th the plain surrounding the Bag Bag was covered with bamboo and underbrush, but now all the plain was as clean and level as if it had been swept by a cyclone. Thus the intrenched Malays had cleared a spot which commanded the plains for miles around.
Infantry and artillery advanced from both sides of the Quingua—Hale with Fleming on the other side and Wheaton with Utah to the south. Soon the artillery was engaged on the Pulilan road, 225 yards from the enemy. At this time the infantry force was fifty yards in the rear, where it was masked from the enemy but could render no important assistance. The fire from the Tagalan intrenchments was murderous. While the artillery fire was as rapid as possible at least two responsive volleys came from the intrenchments after each shot. Private Max Madison fell, killed instantly, early in the action; Private Frederick Bumiller received a fatal wound through the hips. Two other cannoneers were hit in their attire by glance balls and all three of the big guns were cut with Mausers. In Lieutenant Critchlow's single detachment of eight men five were struck—two killed and one seriously wounded. Wheaton's line meanwhile bore in from the left and the artillery swung forward with the line until they were almost on the opposite bank from the enemy. The armored train, equipped with Gatlings revolving cannon, pulled up at this point and turned loose its armament upon the enemy at a 200-yard range. The insurgents stubbornly fell back under the terrific fire.
On the opposite bank Corporal Jensen and his crew, sixty yards from the enemy's position, were ripping the low intrenchments with the revolving cannon. His position was perilous and his gallant fight soon ended. He was pierced through the stomach with a bullet and on the next day died from the wound. Lieutenant Fleming, in his report to the chief of artillery, says of him: "I desire especially to mention Corporal M.C. Jensen for gallantry in this action. His fearlessness undoubtedly cost him his life." He also recommends in this report that Corporal Jensen be awarded a certificate of merit.
Calumpit is a city which the insurgents looked upon as invulnerable. Its huts and stone bridges are on both sides of the Rio Grande de Pampanga—the broadest and longest river in Luzon. It was here a few months before that the insurgents captured many thousand Spanish prisoners with all their arms, and they were prepared to vigorously contest the advance of the American troops.
The guns of Utah and the two big rifles of Lieutenant Fleming were on the south side of the Bag Bag, and it is only a mile from here to the Filipino stronghold. The advance began early on the morning of the 27th. A platoon under Lieutenant Naylor, who had been in charge of Battery A pieces since the wounding of Captain Wedgewood, one gun under Lieutenant Critchlow, Fleming's two guns and a Hotchkiss in charge of Corporal Bjarnson were pushed by hand over a bridge hastily constructed over the waters of the Bag Bag. The clattering din of the infantry could soon be heard in altercation with the insurgents at the front. The insurgents, behind intrenchments, were sending volleys fast into the Americans from the north bank of the Pampanga. It was observed that the long bridge had been partially destroyed and the rails torn from the track for several hundred yards. The heavy iron beams of the bridge were placed above the two lines of intrenchments. Iron rails supported the ponderous beams, and between them was formed a long slot for Filipino rifles.