“Sir:—The Department has received from the Secretary of State an engrossed and certified copy of a joint resolution of Congress, tendering the thanks of Congress to you, and the officers and men of the squadron under your command, for transmission to you, and herewith encloses the same.
“Accompanying the copy of the joint resolutions, the Department received a letter from the Secretary of State requesting that there be conveyed to you his high appreciation of your character as a naval officer, and of the good judgment and prudence you have shown in directing affairs since the date of your great achievement in destroying the Spanish fleet.
“This I take great pleasure in doing, and join most heartily on behalf of the Navy Department, as well as personally, in the commendation of the Secretary of State. Very respectfully,
“John D. Long, Secretary.
“Rear-Admiral George Dewey, U. S. N., Commander-in-Chief U. S. Naval Force, Asiatic Station.”
July 29. The transport steamer St. Paul, bearing the first battalion of North Dakota volunteers, the [pg 339]Minnesota and Colorado recruits, sailed from San Francisco for Manila.
July 31. The transports Indiana, Ohio, Valencia, Para, and Morgan City arrived at Cavite with American troops.
At 11.30, on the last night of July, the Spanish forces in Manila attacked the American lines. A typhoon had set in, rain was falling in torrents, and the blackness of the night was almost palpable. Three thousand Spaniards made a descent upon an entrenched line of not more than nine hundred Americans.
The Tenth Pennsylvania bore the brunt of the attack, and checked the Spanish advance until the Utah battery, the First California Volunteers, and two companies of the Third Artillery, fighting as infantry, could get up to strengthen the right of the line.
The Spaniards had, by a rush, gone 150 yards through and beyond the American right flank, when the regulars of the Third Artillery, armed as infantrymen, pushed them back in confusion, the Pennsylvanians and Utah battery aiding gallantly in the work.