Heavy firing at 4 a.m. awakened me. The advance upon Paranaque had begun. The line of the U.S. Army was in sight on the hills to the S.E. and the rebels made a very poor stand, altho’ they were in splendid trenches. Five thousand rebels in our front left their trenches –and while some of them got away south to Batangas, others were driven by the gunboats on the lake– to Paranaque. We went thro’ their trenches clear to the “tree.” They are simply wonderful –shrapnel-proof– all loopholed, and some of them are double-deckers, where two lines of fire could be directed to us –one above the other. Had we attacked them from the front they would have slaughtered us. But they are gone now. This is the last big bunch left now close to Manila. And this may, perhaps, let us have less work. It was a grand sight to see the army from the hills.
Alfred Burton Welch
(September 26, 1874 — June 30, 1945). Served with Company D, 1st Washington Volunteer Infantry in the Philippines, April 30, 1898 to November 1, 1899.
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