Salt Lake Tribune | 1904-05-22 | Page 1 | Gen. Funston Makes a Statement

GEN. FUNSTON MAKES A STATEMENT PORTLAND. Or., May 21. The Ore-gonlan Ore-gonlan will tomorrow print the following follow-ing account of the swimming of the Bag-Bag by Gen. Funston at Calumplt, Philippine Islands, April 26, 1899, and the swimming of the Rio Grande the day following by two soldiers of tho Kansas regiment. It Is probably the first time that the correct version has ever been published. 'A body of some -1000 Filipinos who were on the far side of the Rio Grande had been harassing the American forces. On April 2G, 1S99, Gen. Funston, accompanied by a skirmish party, swum the Bag-Bag, a small sluggish stream about 100 feet wide, which Is tributary to the Rio Grande. This act has been confused with and magnified into the swimming of the Rio Grande the following day, April 27, by two soldiers sol-diers from the Kansas regiment, which preceded the routing of the 4000 Filipinos Fili-pinos by forty-five American soldiers. "These soldiers carried a line with them with which they drew across a heavier one. To the latter a raft was fastened and drawn across. When forty-five soldiers and Geh. Funston had been ferried over the detachment routed the Filipinos." Gen. Funston concluded: "It Is true 1 swam the Bag-Bag, but the event was of no Importance. The swimming of the Rio Grande by the Kansas men was an entirely different event. Tho Rio Grande is a stream fully half a mile wide with a current running seven knots an hour, and to have swum it would have been a physical Impossibility Impossibil-ity for me. The whole trouble has been occasioned, I suppose, by confusing tho two streams, and the proximity of the events. I am glad to present the facts as they are and clear the matter, up."