User talk:Wtmitchell/Work1

Italic textHi, I'm working on a history of the 1st North Dakota Volunteers in the Philippines (my grandpa's regiment) and have a good source for your query about Pvt. William Grayson. It's in the battle report of 2nd Lt. Burt Wheedon, who was in charge of the 1st Nebraska outpost that was involved that night. The source is downloadable from Google Books as a pdf. It's Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899. Part II. (The Report is in three parts and is also found in House Documents for the 56th Congress). Lt. Wheedon's report appears on page 464. Other reports of that incident going up the chain of command see the so-called facts changing in each report. See the reports of 1st. Nebraska's Col. Stotsenberg, Gen. Arthur MacArthur, and General E.S. Otis. I myself wonder where Grayson's first-person version(s) first appears. I believe it may be in Edwin Wildman's book, Aguinaldo, which was published in 1900. Wildman was the American Consul in the Philippines before the war. He returned to the U.S. at the end of 1899. Grayson's account appears in Aguinaldo and according to Wildman was based on an interview. Whether it was his interview or someone else's he does not say.

In my book I show the evolution of the "facts" regarding this incident. Good luck.

John Durand