For long,
tedious weeks our soldiers had sweltered in muddy trenches, shot at
by an always invisible foe whom they were not allowed to attack. It
was anticipated that when the forward movement began, it would be
active. Close secrecy was maintained with regard to it. Captain
Hedworth Lambton, of the British cruiser _Powerful_, then lying
in Manila Bay, exacted a promise from me that I would tell him if
I found out when the advance was to begin, so that we might go to
Caloocan together and watch the fighting from the church tower,
which commanded a magnificent view of the field of operations.
I finally heard a fairly definite statement that our troops would
move the following morning. I rushed to General Otis's office and
after some parleying had it confirmed by him. It was then too late to
advise Lambton, and in fact I could not properly have done so, as the
information had been given me under pledge of secrecy. Accompanied
by my private secretary, Dr. P. L. Sherman, I hastened to Caloocan,
where we arrived just at dusk, having had to run the gantlet of
numerous inquisitive sentries _en route_.
We spent the night in the church, where General Wheaton and his staff
had their headquarters, and long before daylight were perched in
a convenient opening in its galvanized iron roof, made on a former
occasion by a shell from Dewey's fleet.
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