WILHITE Cap CO - 1901 - Philippines - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

The family of Capt. C. O. Wilhite are in receipt of the following letter from him written at Manila, where he is stenographer for the Philippine commission:

“Manila, P. I., Feb. 25, 1901—Dear Folks—As there is another mail going to the states on the 1st of March, I take this occasion to drop you a few lines to let you know of my whereabouts and general condition. I am in the same room, eat at the same place and work in the same office as at my last writing. Nothing has occurred that would be of any interest to you, except the death by drowning of Sergt. Jesse C. Caplinger, which was a very regrettable affair, and made me feel very much grieved for a time. He was a good friend of mine and seeking a commission in the regular army. He was to appear for examination before the board of officers organized for that purpose, next month. He was drowned on the 17th and his body was recovered the 18th and buried the same day. In a place like this, one misses an old friend much more than in the states, where friends are so many. Of course I have found many friends here but not such as my old friends, such as ‘Cap’. He was much liked in the battery, by both officers and men, and his death cast quite a gloom over the entire battery. He made the best quartermaster sergeant the battery has had, at least since Caplinger joined it. His death is something of a mystery to everyone in the battery. A special friend of Caplinger, Corporal Colwell, and an old 158th Indiana man, told me all there was to know about the matter. He said that Caplinger had been very vigilant in breaking up the practice of gambling among the natives at a small market just above the battery barracks on the Pasig River, on which stream the barracks are also located, and that he sometimes made excursions up there after night even when not on duty. Some think that he made an excursion up there to see if there was a game in progress, and that on his way back someone struck him on the head and knocked or pushed him into the river. Of course this is only an imaginary supposition and was coined on the strength of the fact there was a bruise on the side of his head. But even the fact of a bruise is not a certainty, it being a rumor that no one in the battery seemed to verify with any degree of certainty. He was not a man addicted to the excessive indulgence in intoxicants, and no one can believe that he fell in on his way to the market, if he went there, though no one seems to know where he was. Just before tattoo or the night roll call, the sergeant of the guard saw him just outside the Sally Porte, or outer entrance, but when the sergeant made his check roll call after taps he was missing from his bunk. One of the sentinels claims to have seen a man sitting in the ‘closet,’ (which is over the river and one end unprotected) with his head resting on his hands as though asleep or in deep thought, and a member of the 4th infantry claims to have seen a man in a like position about the same time and sitting in the same place, but neither knew who the man was. In the edge of the river at this point the water is waist deep, and the bed slopes downward so rapidly that in going eight or ten feet further out it is considerably over a man’s head. It was said that he could not swim. When found he wore his brown uniform, (which has loops on the trousers to pass a belt through like bicycle pants) the belt was not fastened but hung loose in these loops, his coat was unbuttoned as was also two of his shirt buttons. For this reason he is supposed to be the man seen by the sentry and the 4th infantry man. It is supposed that he arose in his sleepy condition after sitting there awhile and accidentally walked off the landing into the river, and the bed being so steep here, after falling in he made a sort of a dive, caused by the fall, which carried him into deep water, and being unable to swim was drowned. I did not see him before he was buried. In fact, he was buried before I knew of his death. He is the first Crawfordsville boy who has met his death in the Philippines.”