Manila'
Dec. 19.--Major General Henry W. Lawton has been shot and killed at San
Mateo. He was standing in front of his troops, was shot in the breast and
died immediately.
General
Lawton left here Monday night, having returned from his northern
operations Saturday. to lead an expedition through Mariquina Valley, which
has been an insurgent stronghold throughout the war. The valley has
several times been invaded. but never held by the Americans. General
Geronimo was supposed to have there the largest organized force north of
Manila, and General Otis wished to garrison Mariquina.
The
night was one of the worst of the season. A terrific rain had begun and is
still continuing.
Accompanied
by his staff and Troop I, Fourth Cavalry, General Lawton set out at 9
o'clock in advance of the main force, consisting of the Eleventh Cavalry
and one battalion each of the Twentieth and Twenty-seventh Infantry, which
started from La Loma at midnight. With a small escort he led the way
through an almost pathless country, a distance of fifteen miles over hills
and through canebrakes and deep mud, the horses climbing the rocks and
sliding down the hills. Before daybreak the command had reached the head
of the valley.
San
Mateo was attacked at 8 o'clock, and a three hours' fight ensued. This
resulted in but few casualties on the American side, apart from the death
of General Lawton, but the attack was difficult because of the natural
defenses of the town.
General
Lawton was walking along the firing line within 300 yards of a small
sharpshooters' trench, conspicuous in the big white helmet he always wore
and a light yellow raincoat. He was also easily distinguishable because of
his commanding stature.
The
sharpshooters directed several close shots which clipped the grass near
by. His staff officer called General Lawton's attention to the danger he
was in, but he only laughed. with his usual contempt for bullets.
Suddenly
he exclaimed:
"I am shot!" clinched his hands in a desperate effort to stand
erect, and fell into the arms of a staff officer.
Orderlies
rushed across the field for surgeons, who dashed up immediately, but their
efforts were useless.
The
body was taken to a clump of bushes and laid on a stretcher, the familiar
white helmet covering the face of the dead General.
Almost
at this moment the cheers of the American troops rushing into San Mateo
were mingling with the rifle volleys.
After
the fight, six stalwart cavalry men forded the river to the town. carrying
the litter on their shoulders, the staff preceding with the colors and a
cavalry escort following.
The
troops filed bareheaded through the building, where the body was laid, and
many a tear fell from the eyes of men who had long followed the intrepid
Lawton. The entire command was stricken with grief, as though each man had
suffered a personal loss.
Owing
to the condition of the country, which is impassable so far as vehicles
are concerned, the remains could not be brought to Manila to-day. Mrs.
Lawton and the children are living in a Government residence, formerly
occupied by a Spanish General.
San
Mateo lies between a high mountain behind and a broad, shallow stream in
front, with wide sandbars, which the insurgent trenches and the buildings
command. The Americans were compelled to ford the river under fire.
It
was while they were lying in the rice fields and volleying across
preparatory to passing the stream that General Lawton was shot. All except
the officers were behind cover. A staff officer was wounded about the same
time and one other officer and seven men were wounded.
After
three hours' shooting the Filipinos were dispersed into the mountains.
Colonel Lockett took command when General Lawton fell.
HAD
JUST BEEN PROMOTED.
Washington,
Dec. 19. -- The President's first intimation of the loss of General Lawton
was given him by the Associated Press. The dispatch bringing the news was
sent to the White House while the Cabinet meeting was in progress and was
immediately sent to the Cabinet room, where it was received with
expressions of sorrow and regret.
It
was learned at the War Department that instructions had been received last
night from the President to prepare General Lawton's commission as a
Brigadier General in the regular army, to fill one of the existing
vacancies and the Adjutant General's clerks were at work on the commission
when the information of the General's death was conveyed to the
department.
IN
THE CIVIL WAR.
General
Lawton was born in Toledo, O., and appointed to the army from Indiana. He
won his commission in the army by signal gallantry during the war between
the States.
General
Lawton was known as a good fighter and a soldier of experience and
ability. He served in the Union Army throughout the Civil War, having
entered the service as Sergeant of Company E, Ninth Indiana Volunteer
Infantry, in April. 1861. He was breveted Colonel for gallant and
meritorious services during the war.
He
entered the regular establishment in July. 1866, as Second Lieutenant of
the Forty-first Infantry (negro) and remained with that branch of the army
until January, 1871. In September, 1888, he was appointed Inspector
General, with the rank of Major.
At
the opening of the war with Spain, President McKinley appointed him
Brigadier of Volunteers and assigned him to the command of a division of
the Fifth Army Corps commanded by General Shafter.
AGAINST
THE INDIANS.
A
correspondent writing of General Lawton in the war with Geronimo
said: Lawton reminds me always of Scott's Norman Baron, Front de
Boeuf. He has better morals, of course, as well as a very pretty taste in
red wines and red birds. but he is as big as the giant slain by Richard of
the Lion Heart, is as direct in his methods, and in personal or general
combat every bit as savage. There is plenty of the primal man in him. What
he thinks he says. He has a strong sense of justice, but his temper is
terrific, and he is not gentle. He requires of subordinates the utmost
endeavor, and gets it. He asks no one to do work that he is not competent
and willing to do himself. Naturally a leader, he goes first. and the more
difficult or desperate the undertaking the faster he goes. Upon the gray
granite slab which covers the bones of a Confederate officer who sleeps on
the magnolia-petaled uplands of Louisiana is an inscription:
"'He
never told his men to go on.'
"That will do for Lawton when he dies.'
"His capacity to go without food, drink or sleep is seemingly
unlimited. 'Macumazahn' the Lulus called Quartermain -- the one who has
his eyes open,'
"Macumazahn Lawton will keep them open for a week at a stretch, when
necessary, and then walk, talk, eat. drink or fight a dozen men to a
standstill. He has lived a life of peril and hardship. His only rule of
hygiene is a tub in the morning. He has taken no sort of care of himself.
Yet so splendidly was he endowed by nature that there is no perceptible
weakening of his forces."
The
name of Lawton came to be dreaded by the Indians. He was to them the
typical and dreaded Anglo-Saxon fighter.
TOWERED
AMONG THEM.
A
correspondent describing Lawton in the Indian war of the seventies said:
"He
stood on the Government reservation at San Antonio surrounded by the
tawny, savage band of Apaches whom he had hunted off their feet. Near him,
taciturn but of kindly visage, stood young Chief Naches, almost as tall as
he. In a tent close by lay Geronimo, the medicine man, groaning from a
surplusage of fresh beef eaten raw. The squat figures of the hereditary
enemies of the whites grouped about him came only to his shoulder. He
towered among them, stern, powerful, dominant -- incarnation of the spirit
of the white man.
"Clad
in a faded, dirty fatigue jacket, a greasy flannel shirt of gray, trousers
so soiled that the stripe down the leg was barely visible, broken boots
and a disreputable sombrero that shaded the harsh features, burned almost
to blackness, he was every inch a soldier and a man.
"For
the tenth time Geronimo's band had jumped the San Carlos Reservation. As
usual, troops were started upon a perilous chase. For days they followed
the trail over a country that the Almighty made in wrath. Further
and further -- into the vast solitudes they toiled. They lived upon
animals no wilder than the men they were pursuing and scarcely more wild
than they. The horses long since had been left behind. The cavalrymen were
on foot, with Lawton at their head, his teeth hard set.
"'We'll
walk them down," he told his Sergeant, when the mountains were
reached. He did walk them down.
"It
was General Miles who had selected Lawton for the task of whipping these
Apaches. He followed them night and day with a grim persistence that would
not be gainsaid. He nullified the power of the tribe for evil and forever
broke their formidable resistance. It was this service which called Lawton
from the West and landed him in the Inspector General's office in
Washington, with much official prestige, a fair salary and little to
do."
WON
AT EL CANEY.
The
inaction of Washington life chafed him; and the chance of hostilities with
Spain found him eagerly preferring requests for assignment to service. The
opportunity was offered him. At Tampa, Lawton was the first man named by
Shafter to assist him.
As
Brigadier General of Volunteers he was given command
of a division, and in that command stormed El Caney. In all of the
fighting of that terrific day he was up to the firing line, saying little,
but pacing slowly up and down.
He
was one of the three commissioners appointed by General Shafter to arrange
with Toral the terms of capitulation, and after the fall of Santiago he
policed the city. Lawton's idea of policing a place of the kind was very
simple.
"The
regulations are so and so," he would say, "and you have your
gun. If anybody violates the regulations use the gun."
IN
THE PHILIPPINES.
General
Lawton sailed for the Philippine islands on the transport Grant, January
19, 1899.
His
distinguished services in the Philippines are recent history. He received
a special message of thanks from President McKinley after his capture of
San Isidro. On his arrival at Manila he relieved General Anderson in
command of the regular troops. He captured Santa Cruz, at the extreme end
of the lake, near Manila, April 10. This place which was a Filipino
stronghold, fell into the hands of General Lawton's expedition after some
sharp fighting, which formed one of the most interesting battles of the
war. General Lawton and his staff accompanied the troops, sometimes
leading charges in Indian-fighting tactics, which eventually resulted in
the complete rout of the insurgents.
The
General's next hard fighting took place in his attack on San Rafael, where
the American troops were met with a heavy fire from a large number of
insurgents, who were concealed in the jungle on all sides. Only the
adoption by General Lawton of the tactics followed in Indian fighting the
United States, every man for himself, saved the division from great loss.
As usual, General Lawton was at the head his line with his staff. After
the capture of San Isidro by General Lawton, President McKinley sent him
the following dispatch:
"Otis.
Manila: Convey to General Law and the gallant men of his command
congratulations on the successful operations during the past month,
resulting in the capture this morning of San Isidro.
"WILLIAM MCKINLEY."
DEFENSE
OF MANILA.
It
was announced June 1 that General Lawton had been placed in command of
defense of Manila and the troops forming the line around that city. Early
in October, General Lawton was engaged in dispersing the insurgents and
cutting off the communication maintained by them between Bacoor and Imus,
by means of the road between those places. He was successful in clearing
the country of Filipinos, and was several times under fire. He then pushed
northward. captured a number of towns and drove the insurgents everywhere
before him.
General
Lawton and General Young arrived at Arayal October 19 with a force of
about 3,000 men. He next made his headquarters at Cabanatuan and took an
active part in dispersing the insurgent bands in different parts of the
country.
About
the middle of November the whereabouts of General Lawton and Gene Young,
on account of the rapidity of their movements, became almost as mysterious
as that of Aguinaldo. General Lawton's troops suffered considerable
hardship in a series of energetic movements. Numbers of the soldiers and
even some of the officers were described as marching ahead, half
naked, their clothes being torn to shred getting through the jungles;
hundreds of them were barefooted, and all of them were living on any sort
of provisions. Bread was rare and native meat and bananas were the
staples. The General was at Tayug on Dcember 1, his troops having captured
large quantities of insurgents supplies. Later he returned to Manila, and
started December 18 to capture San Mateo, where he was a and killed.
HIS
OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE
REPUBLIC
SPECIAL.
Fort Wayne, Ind., Dec. 19. -- The news the death of General Henry W. Laton
caused great sorrow among the old soldiers of this city, where he began
his career a soldier more than a quarter of a century ago. At the time of
his death, General Lawton was a member of Fort Wayne Odd Fellows, and
Masonic lodges and Sion S. Bass Post, G. A. R. The old soldiers had
arranged to present a sword to him on behalf of Indiana citizens and a big
sum of money was raised. A. S. Covell of Sion S. Bass Post wrote to
General Lawton last summer and advised him of the intentions of his
comrades and requested an autobiographic real sketch of his life, inasmuch
as there was no authentic history of his early life. Late in September the
following reply received:
"My
father resided in Fort Wayne, Ind. long before I was born, he having come
to Indiana at the time of the building of the Wabash and Erie Canal. I was
born, however. on the 17th day of March, 1843, at Manhattan in the State
of Ohio. Manhattan, now a suburb of Toledo, is the point which the canal
entered Lake Erie. Later my parents resided in Maumee City' 0., and
it is there my first recollections began. I attended the primary
schools at that place, and at the age of 7 years my father to California.
and I, with my mother, moved to Lorain County, Ohio. Two years
later, my father having returned from California, I went with him to the
West, remaining something more than a year in Iowa and about one year in
Missouri.
In
1853 my father returned to Fort Wayne, and I entered the Fort Wayne
Episcopal College as a student. Since that time Fort Wayne has been my
home. I remained at college until the breaking out of the war, in April.
1861, when I enlisted in a company organized by Captain W. P. Segur, which
became part of the Ninth Indiana Volunteers. At the close of my term of
service in that regiment, I returned to Fort Wayne and immediately
re-enlisted with Captain O. D. Hurd, whose company became part of the Thirtieth
Indiana Volunteers.
"At
the close of the war I returned to Fort Wayne
as Colonel of that regiment and entered the office of Nine & Taylor to
read law. In the summer of 1866 I left this office to take a law course at
Harvard University at Cambridge, Mass. I was a student at that institution
when I received an appointment in the regular army, which I accepted. I
was a citizen of Fort Wayne at the time of reaching my majority. I have
never wavered in my allegiance to the State of Indiana and have never for
a mo-
Continued
on Page Two
Also,
"Famous Americans Eulogize Lawton"
From
the St. Louis Republic, December 20, 1899
