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Chapter 8 Back to Manila and Home In May 1901, orders came for the battery to return to Manila. When we marched away, a large contingent of British officers, including General Gaselee,1 the commander, rode several miles with us. Colonel Wint,2 who commanded the column of artillery and cavalry, did not want the men to visit the Chinese towns. He camped several miles from Tientsin, thinking it too far for the men to walk to the city. He then rode off to town, followed by his second in command. During the night, many men of the battery and the cavalry went absent without leave to see the old city; all returned before morning. When we boarded the ship off Taku, the Chinese crew refused to work. Our soldiers had to handle all of the cargo and the horses. Again, there were no accommodations for cooking or sleeping, so officers and men lived on canned goods with a little coffee and slept on deck or in the hold. The ship was so hot for the horses that we took the risk of bringing them on deck in relays to get fresh air and to cool off. At Manila, we were lightered on cascoes and returned to our old camp in the Agricultural Grounds. As there was no prospect of coming home, all were much depressed. Then, suddenly, an order came for the battery to return to San Francisco on the Pak Ling, a fast tea ship, as a guard for some hundred prisoners. Only the personnel were to go on board, leaving horses, guns, and equipment behind. Captain Reilly had always said that he would not have a married lieutenant in his battery. All of us lieutenants were engaged, but his death and the prospect of promotion to be captains changed the inhibition for us. I had never mentioned Miss Mordecai to the others . As soon as the order came, I hastened to the cable office and sent her a message as to the probable date of our arrival in San Francisco. While the Pak Ling was a beautiful, fast ship, she had been used only as a horse transport and had no space for passengers. We preempted empty horse stalls for our camp beds and served food on deck. The trip was comfortable. As we passed Corregidor at night and saw the lights of Manila grow fainter, I wondered how I had 62 THE WAY OF DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY endured so much hardship and privation. We followed the great circle route, but we did not see the sun during the twelve-day voyage because of thick fog. Before going to China, I grew a beard, as the men had done. In China, I shaved all but a moustache. The day before reaching San Francisco, I shaved my moustache, much to the disgust of my friends. I wanted Miss Mordecai to see me as she remembered me. Returning soldiers were a common sight in San Francisco, and no one paid attention to the landing of Reilly’s Battery. As soon as we had gone into the cantonments at the Presidio on June 30, I took a train for Benicia and arrived as the Mordecai family was at dinner . She was standing on the porch at the top of the steps when I alighted from the express wagon that took me from the station. Much of the rest need not be told. That evening, I told General Mordecai that I wanted to marry his daughter, and he had little option, though he had no objection. She went to visit friends in San Francisco during the time the battery remained, and I saw much of her. Mr. Winfield Jones gave us a lovely dinner. After I informed my old friends, the young ladies whom I had known scratched me off their lists. I bought an engagement ring, which her father jestingly called a great extravagance. She fixed August 14 for the wedding, without realizing that it was the anniversary of the capture of Peking. Without consultation, Lieutenant McCloskey’s fiancée in Pittsburg fixed the same day for their wedding. Lieutenant Burgess’s fiancée in San Francisco fixed July 15 for their wedding. Lieutenant Hall had to wait a little longer. Thus, Reilly’s lieutenants disqualified themselves for his battery. When the battery was ordered to Fort Walla Walla, Washington , all the lieutenants, except me, went on leave. Captain Ridgway and I, with a skeleton...

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