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52 ARMY I September 2013 The Phil ippine

National Archives

By LTC Thomas D. Morgan uring the Spanish-American War, the Philippines fell to then-Com - U.S. Army retired modore George Dewey in the quick and decisive Battle of Manila Bay in May 1898. Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States fDor $20 million at the Treaty of Paris later that year. Filipino independence lead - ers had been at war for independence from Spain before Dewey’s arrival. The Above, U.S. troops rest in a trailside camp chief revolutionary leader was Emilio Aguinaldo, who was in exile in Hong on the Philippine Island of Mindanao. Opposite, clockwise from top left: U.S. Kong. Dewey brought him back to the Philippines, and Aguinaldo set up a local ships pound the Spanish fleet in the 1898 Battle of Manila Bay; President William government centered south of Manila Bay at Cavite. Aguinaldo’s revolution McKinley called for the “benevolent assim - ilation” of the Philippines; place names was political, not social, and his role was symbolic, not military. He did not appear in Spanish on an 1899 political announce a military strategy until later. In addition, the U.S. government map of the islands; the capture of Emilio Aguinaldo led to the fall of the First Philip - brought in troops to occupy parts of the Philippines and start what President pine Republic. Aguinaldo designed the national flag (center). William McKinley called benevolent assimilation of the Philippines.

September 2013 I ARMY 53 U.S. forces use trenches to battle Filipino insurgents. Relations deteriorated as it grew clear that the United States would keep the Philippines rather than grant the islands independence.

he Spanish-American War was initially fought by Civil War generals who were pushing the mandatory retirement age Tof 64, by the small Regular Army that had just finished “winning the West,” and by volunteer and state militia units. The units had regimental designations and were brigaded together under brigadier generals. Once in the Philippines, three regiments of troops were grouped under divisional organizations for administration, lo - gistics and decentralized control. The U.S. regi - ments were much like today’s modular brigades —they had limited artillery, signal, intelligence and logistical support. Training for a Philippine deployment was s simple: The troops were collected at assembly e v i h c

locations and were issued tropical-style uni - r A

l forms (khaki trousers, wool/flannel shirts, a n o i t

wrap-around leggings or cavalry boots as ap - a propriate) and new Krag-Jørgensen rifles with N smokeless cartridges to replace the old Civil War Spring - in a battle between Aguinaldo’s troops and U.S. forces. fields. After a quick trip to a firing range to zero their rifles, Aguinaldo’s forces were defeated, and U.S. soldiers marched they boarded transports for the 30-plus-day voyage to the into the interior of Luzon, splitting the Philippine army into Philippines. northern and southern factions. On the Luzon plains, many The officers were a storied lot. Many—such as Generals of Aguinaldo’s soldiers were killed, and he lost most of the Wesley Merritt, Elwell S. Otis, Arthur MacArthur (Douglas’ modern weapons and ammunition that he had captured father), Samuel B.M. Young and Adna R. Chaffee—had from the Spanish. been “boy” colonels and generals during the Civil War and After this, U.S. forces developed a strategy that had three company grade officers for as long as 20 years after that, parts: fighting Indians in the West before achieving high rank I Benevolent assimilation was continued in order to again in the Spanish-American War. show the Filipinos that Americans were there to help them. MG Merritt’s VIII Corps, composed of 11,000 men, ar - With the Treaty of Paris in December 1898, the war with rived in Manila after Commodore Dewey’s victory in Spain was over and Aguinaldo announced in February Manila Bay; and in December 1898, President McKinley fi - 1899 that the conflict had become a war for independence. nally revealed his plan to annex the Philippine Islands un - The United States called it an insurrection, however, for der benevolent assimilation. When Merritt went back to the two reasons: First, the Philippines was now a U.S. territory; States to retire, President McKinley appointed his deputy second, most of the U.S. forces now in the country were Na - corps commander, MG Otis, to be his military commander tional Guard and militia, which the Constitution allows to in the Philippines. Otis was a highly competent Civil War deploy only to deal with insurrections. veteran and a Harvard-educated lawyer. He cleaned up I The United States imposed a naval blockade that pre - filthy, disease-ridden Manila and established good govern - vented Aguinaldo from shifting his troops from island to is - ment to replace the Spanish corruption, but that did not re - land and from receiving supplies. solve the Philippine independence issue. Aguinaldo put to - I U.S. forces moved north along the main railroad in the gether a Philippine government and created an Army of country between Manila and Lingayen Gulf on the main is - Liberation for the archipelago. land of Luzon to force Aguinaldo to fight a decisive battle. Relations between Filipino and U.S. forces became tense. U.S. forces chased Aguinaldo but had trouble catching On February 4, 1899, a disturbance outside Manila resulted up with his lightly clad, bolo-armed soldiers. The American troops faced challenges such as disease and fatigue. Sol - LTC Thomas D. Morgan , USA Ret., is a West Point graduate, diers could not carry heavy loads without collapsing, and former field artilleryman, Vietnam War veteran and military even their rifles were a burden. Soon, almost half the troops historian. His articles have been published in ARMY and other were out of action. Finally, in the fall of 1899, after regroup - professional military periodicals. ing and resting, the U.S. forces continued pursuing

54 ARMY I September 2013 counter guerrilla threats and acts of terrorism. GO 100 gave commanders the option to punish civilian supporters of guer - rilla forces. Guerrillas would be granted protection as legiti - mate combatants only if they wore uniforms and were part of an organized, larger traditional army; those who did not were to be treated as criminals rather than soldiers. How GO 100 was interpreted and implemented was in many ways both commendable and reprehensible. Concen - tration camps were established, and aggressive policies of food and property destruction were used. When MG Adna R. Chaffee succeeded MG Arthur MacArthur Jr. as military com - mander in the Philippines, he believed that the Army had been too lenient, and he prescribed harsh measures for Batan - gas Province in southern Luzon and the island of Samar. What gave the U.S. forces their edge was not their num - bers but their effectiveness. The Filipinos could not stand up to the U.S. artillery, machine guns or heavily armored gunboats. The open-order tactics developed in the Army in 1891 proved effective in rice paddies and jungles, and a highly effective amphibious capability was crucial to paci - s s e r fying the coastal regions. U.S. forces fought the war with g n o state volunteers, the Regular Army and U.S. volunteers, C f o who were especially good infantry soldiers. y r a r

b The Philippine War became a difficult and controversial i L war by 1899; today we would call it a Phase IV military An 1899 lithograph illustrates the harsh measures campaign. The counterinsurgency program in the Philip - that were taken against Aguinaldo and his guerrillas. pines is interesting when juxtaposed with the recent U.S. surges in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military personnel from Aguinaldo to Luzon, where he dispersed his army and be - the top down had both political and military duties. The came a fugitive in the mountains of that island. U.S. forces United States turned increasingly to using Filipinos to had also swept the insurrectionists all the way into south - fight the insurrection. The Macabebe Scouts were used by ern Luzon and the Visayan Islands and had established al - BG Frederick N. Funston in March 1901 to finally capture most 500 garrisons throughout the Philippines. Aguinaldo. A group of U.S. soldiers pretended to be cap - Aguinaldo then announced that guerrilla warfare would tives of the scouts, who were dressed in Philippine army be his strategy. As it is today, waging conventional warfare uniforms. Once Funston and his “captors” entered is much easier than suppressing guerrilla warfare. In March Aguinaldo’s camp, they immediately fell upon Aguinaldo 1900, MG Otis created four departments/military regions and his guards and quickly overwhelmed them. In April, in the Philippines: Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, the Aguinaldo swore allegiance to the United States. Visayan Islands, and Mindanao and Jolo. Each military re - The capture of Aguinaldo resulted in the decline and gion was commanded by a general officer, and most of the eventual fall of the First Philippine Republic. Gen. Miguel stateside Regular Army and militia regiments were sent to Malvar took over leadership of the Philippine Republic and the Philippines on an annual rotational basis. As many as continued the war in the Batangas region of South Luzon. 70,000 U.S. troops were in the Philippines during the war BG James F. Bell adopted severe tactics against the remain - years (1899–1902), but the average was about 40,000. Of ing guerrillas, forcing civilians to live in concentration those, about half were unavailable for combat because of camps, using “water cure” interrogation techniques, and illness, travel and detached duty. implementing a scorched earth policy of destruction of homes and crops that took a heavy toll on the Filipino revo - ecause there was no decisive outcome following lutionaries. Finally, Malvar surrendered on April 13, 1902. months of initial battlefield victories, a policy of The Philippine War ended in July, when President Theodore chastisement was developed using General Order Roosevelt declared the “insurrection” over. The military (BGO) 100, originally published in 1863 for the Civil War as “In - government was terminated, and President Roosevelt, who structions for the Government of Armies of the United States had succeeded to the Presidency upon the assassination of in the Field.” GO 100 forbade looting, torture, needless de - McKinley, proclaimed a full and complete pardon and struction and disproportionate reprisals against the popula - amnesty for all people in the Philippines who had partici - tion. Known as the Lieber Code for its author, the German- pated in the conflict. Although the war was officially over, American jurist and political philosopher Francis Lieber, it some quasi-religious groups called pulajanes still fought recognized that harsh measures would be necessary to against U.S. forces in Samar and other parts of Moroland.

56 ARMY I September 2013 Photographed just as they lay down their weapons, a group of Filipino insur - gents prepares to surrender. The Philip - pine War finally ended in July 1902.

on April 27, and military rule on the is - land ended. The longest and most bru - tal pacification campaign of the Philip - pine War had ended. Samar cast a pall over the Army’s achievements and for generations was seen by the public as s e typifying the Philippine War. v i h c r * * * A l a The Philippine War can lay claim to n o i t

a being one of the most successful coun - N terinsurgency campaigns in American The island of Samar, located to the east of Leyte by a nar - history. The counterinsurgency efforts involved the “carrot row channel of water in the Visayan Islands, was the last place and stick” approach. The Army was the “stick,” and the where insurrectionists put up major resistance during the U.S.-inspired civil government was the “carrot” once a Philippine War. The insurrectionist leader there was Gen. Vi - province was pacified, but sometimes, fear proved to be a cente Lukban, one of the original island presidentes appointed greater motivator than kindness. by Emilio Aguinaldo when he declared the First Philippine The impact of the Philippine War looms large in U.S. his - Republic in 1899. Lukban was resourceful and effective. tory, but it is sometimes called the unknown or forgotten The military governor of the Philippines at that time, MG war because it has been overshadowed by the “splendid lit - Chaffee, sent BG Jacob H. Smith to pacify the island. Smith tle” Spanish-American War and World War I. The United was another Civil War veteran who had been somewhat of States emerged as a global power, and by 1918 it held the a hero, but he was unethical and had used government balance that would win World War I. It also led to the funds to invest for his own business purposes. Court-mar - United States being pulled into other military interventions tialed in 1885 for “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gen - over the years and being committed to a global presence tleman,” he was censured, but he was allowed to remain in with its military force as the “stick.” ( the Army. Throughout his career, however, he had been care - less with government funds and had been in trouble many times. Due to some quirk of fate in the War Department, he had been promoted to brigadier general to speed his retire - ment, but instead he was sent to the Philippines to command a brigade in the Visayan Islands. When one of his units was attacked by insurgents in its garrison at Balangiga, Samar, nearly 50 officers and men were killed, partly because of their own carelessness. BG Smith decreed that all Filipino males over the age of 10 were to be killed and that the island was to become a “howling wilderness.” Eventually court-martialed for that and other misdeeds, even though a copy of his infamous order was never found, he was finally retired. During this period, Samar also became notorious for ac - tions taken by U.S. marines to avenge the Balangiga mas - sacre. A marine major, Littleton W.T. Waller, led an ill-ad - s

vised march across the island, and his men executed 11 s e r g

Filipino porters on his expedition for supposed treachery. n o C

He was also court-martialed but basically was acquitted be - f o

y r

cause of a jurisdictional matter between the Army and the a r b i

Marine Corps. L Finally, on February 18, 1902, a patrol of Filipino scouts MG Adna R. Chaffee became military governor and captured Lukban. The last of Samar’s guerrillas surrendered commander of U.S. forces in the Philippines in 1901.

September 2013 I ARMY 57