The natives came in from four sides. The outposts waited in the old Filipino intrenchments and on some parts of the line the attacked Tagalans were allowed to approach within 200 yards. Most of the guns, when the fight began were located close to MacArthur's headquarters, but they were soon on all parts of the line. When the attack by the Filipinos began the gun under command of Lieutenant Naylor was on its way to the outposts. It had been the custom to take the gun there just before dawn and bring it back immediately after darkness came. The advancing Filipinos began firing before the gun was in position. Corporal Hanson was in charge at the time, and the rifle was at once rushed to the emplacement. Word came at the same hour to Lieutenant Naylor, who was officer of the outpost, and he went through a heavy fire down the road leading to the intrenchment. When he arrived there the Filipinos were within three hundred and fifty yards and were advancing over the rice ridges at a rapid gait. The Lieutenant had a shell sent into the approaching insurgents, who seemed astounded to find that the artillery occupied such an advanced position. When nine shells had been sent into their line, the Filipinos gradually drew back and were not seen any more on this part of the line during the fight.
PREPARING FOR AN ENGAGEMENT.
The Seventeenth and Twenty-second Infantry were the support on this end of the line, which faced to the north.
On the west, east and part of the north line were the Kansas and Montana infantry. It was to this point that the two guns of Lieutenant Gibbs were moved when the firing began, and here the guns inflicted severe damage on the islanders. Another gun of Battery B was also placed near this part of the line under Lieutenant Hines, but it was unnecessary from this position to use the artillery.
This fight was the first time the American soldiers during the whole campaign had repulsed an attack from behind intrenchments, and they laid back and smiled as the black men approached and then passed out some volleys that made the whole advancing line reel. When the Tagalans began to retreat under the awakened storm, the Americans followed, and as the Filipinos recoiled from one regiment they were broken against another. A company of the Twentieth Infantry located near Santo Tomas was almost cut off by the advancing column of the enemy, and a company of the Montana men was sent to its assistance. The fight lasted nearly two hours and the Filipino loss amounted to several hundred. The only casualty on the American side was a slight wound received by a Montana man, which shows clearly what the Americans could do in a contest with a black man under conditions more or less equal. Colonel Funston stated afterwards that a shell from one of Lieutenant Gibbs's guns had killed fifteen Filipinos.
The burying of dead Filipinos the next day was a tragic sight. Sixty-four were engulfed in one trench. They were brought up in caribou carts, and the American pulled them off with ropes and deposited them in the common grave.
There was another fight on the 22nd, but the Filipinos seemed to have lost their dash and courage of a few days before, and on this occasion the artillery was not called out.
A few days later word came that the Utah battalion was ordered home, and on the 24th day of June the Utah men boarded the train for Manila and were carried away from the smoke of war and the darkly fought battlefields of the East.