B B STOUT, M 1ST TENN, MARCH 20 1899
1899mar17
ILOILO LETTER
ILOILO, P.I. March 17.
The insurgents showed a disposition to fight yesterday, and our company was sent out to aid the 18th in a little fight, and they got into firing line just at dark. The boys say that it was the hottest scrap they have been into, the bullets flew thicker and faster around them than ever before. I was on duty at the barracks, and after the boys returned and reported I was glad that I was not with them, for they waded water from knee to chin deep and were the muddiest fellows you ever saw.
The insurgents are getting so they can shoot better and use what guns they have a good deal better than they could when the fun began.
Capt. Clark came in a while ago asked our boys if we had a blacking brush; we had it, but it is the first time we have needed that kind of a machine since we have been here; we are not putting on much style at Iloilo. The boys are lying around tonight resting. Tudor is deeply immersed in a magazine four months old.
1899mar20
March 20 - We received mail today, and I got your letter of January 24, and I assure you it was a most welcome arrival.
We are fast holding what we have taken and are waiting for more troops; we can hold what we have all right, but we can't hold this place and go out to the mountains, but if they don't surrender soon, there will be troops here from Manila and then --- .
We are enjoying life well to be right in firing distance of the enemy; they slip up close to our out posts and fire, and then we fire, and they retreat. In the battle mentioned two men were killed in the 18th infantry and twelve wounded, while the enemy lost about 500. Dead insurgents were hauled off the field in carts next day.
A private in Co. F., preached last night and I suppose it was the first Protestant services held here for some time, it was a lonesome affair, as there was not a "piece of calico" large enough for a pocket handkerchief in or around the barracks, and you know that it takes "calico" to make a fellow interested in church.
When we are out on post our meals are brought to us, we have biscuit every meal now. My little stripes keep me out of a good deal of extra work, and I don't have to go on duty near so often. We have not been paid since January 1, and don't expect to be until May. We are anticipating a good time when we get out into the country. We are better satisfied since the insurgents got to fighting, although we did not enlist to fight insurgents, it would have been too bad to come 11,000 miles to fight and then get no scrap.
Your son,
B. B. STOUT
Co. M, 1st Reg. Tenn Vol.
Crittenden press., June 01, 1899, Page 1
