Show TAKING j A MORO FOE FORTRESS n FRESS 11 1 1 15 OUR TROOPS MAKE SHORT WORK OF THE DEFENSES in a letter to the new york sun the correspondent of that paper in the phi thus describes the taking of a moro stronghold the moro fort at baciu the strong hold of the sultan of the baciu dis brict of the lake country in the interior of the island of mindanao tell fell into the hands of the american troops after a sharp engagement which be gan in the forenoon of oct I 1 this fort was built somewhat differently from fort apatan which was tal en on may 2 1902 after a hard battle in which the casualties to the united states officers and enlisted men were heavy in the construction of apatan reliance was placed upon many deep trenches about the walls of the fort to retard the advance of an enemy at macalu instead ot of inese great trenches an additional wall was erect ed about the tort fort and the outer wall seemed as strong as the inner when pershing a column of 0 tour four companies ot of the twenty seventh in fantry under capt philipps the twenty fifth battery under command ol 01 capt mcnair troop A cavalry in charge ot of mangum and the engineering corps under capt morrow surrounded stIr rounded this fort it was seen that it could not be car ried by assault without considerable loss therefore siege operations were begun the high walls were covered with the usual shrubbery so that the enemy could shoot at us to advantage with out gut being seen the occasional puffs of smoke on the wall however lo 10 bated the position of the moro marks men and a volley from our lines would quickly respond to every shot the artillery did very effective work in sending solid shot through these great walls of earth bamboo stone and sandbars and damage was done but an effective entrance could not be broken through the walls the ar tillery also maintained a hot shrapnel fire and many shells burst di erectly inside the fort the companies of infantry held their line with the fort surrounded from the forenoon of oct I 1 until the next morning keeping up a constant return fire on the fort As in the march against tan last april and may the column in approaching madu had come across many small forts and stockades of the enemy along the line of march from C camp am p vicars but these places were captured without any trouble As at loring and G company attempted to storm the place not knowing that there were two walls private nolan was sl ot in the head capt per shing wisely recalled the company and the siege of the fort was contin aed the natives were well prepared for a siege they had an abundance of rice in stock they had a v well ot water in inside S ide the fort they h bad re moved the napa from the roofs ot of their shacks so that fire brands could not be used to advantage the little gate opening into the fort could hard ly be seen so well was it protected with thorny bamboo stuff the de fences availed little against the american attack As tor for the walls on which the moros moms placed so much reliance some ot of the solid shot of the battery passed through alt tour four walls coming out beyond the shot left wreckage in their path inside the tort fort but the walls were not materially damaged everything was pret ty well torn up inside the tort fort by the shrapnel and it is a bonder monder how the moros held out as long as they i did lid the pride ot of the sultan of macalu was in his la he did not want these guns to tall fall into the hands of the hated americans when he real zed that the tort fort must fall he had he the la buried in the earth in e I 1 lantaka in position the fort they were very quickly found after the americans got in the manner of using the la was similar to the apatan style they were mounted on pivots and fired through embrasures down on the shore of the lal e the natives had a stone barricade with la in it having expected the american col aunill to land there to attack macul but the column marched around the pola and the beach fort was not ot of much assistance to the moro tort fort these forts torts ot of the moros usually fly a red flag attached to a bamboo pole the moros has at macai some homemade devices tor for war one ot of which though it seemed ridiculous was much more effective than one would have supposed it consisted of a hollowed tube of wood arranged vertically in a base block the base block was set in stone and earth powder Is placed in the tube and then sun baked clay balls when the powder is ignited the clay balls are ar e discharged in the air the clay shot are calculated to tall fall upon the heads of the toe foe in III the apatan fight I 1 saw one man put out of action by getting hit bit in the face with a stone apparently shot from one of these wooden guns while another man was wounded in the ankle and a third in the back in the macalu battle no one was hurt by these missiles toward daylight on oct 2 after we hau been on the alert all night the yells ot of the moros ceased and the firing discontinued gradually many of the inmates of the fort had been picked off by our marksmen and the few remaining concluded to escape through an underground passage to an outpost in the country apatan the moros continued to tall fall back from these weaker forts to make a stand at one of their strong holds macalu proved to be the strongest and best equipped tort fort of them all and the moros of the madu district were assembled therein upon our arrival and I 1 ept up their end of the battle with constant yelling and occasional shooting with mantakas la or metal moro cannon shotguns tons ac the sultan of baciu had long defied american authority his tribes men had shot into our camps cut telegraph wires attacked outposts and engineering parties at work and had boasted of it and finally bad had invited the americans to come and try to get him he supposed his fort im pregnable the spanish troops had never taken it 71 A during luring the engagement the tall grass possibly a handful got out in this way the americans easily took th the a tort fort at daybreak and then began to clear the jungle an infantry and cavalry skirmish line went through the grass private mcbeth was attacked and badly by a native before the latter was killed A number of other moros were caught in this manner possibly all that were in the fort although it Is thought that a few got away |