Philippine-American War, Nov. 5th, 1901: From Balangiga to Camp Connell
America’s Response to the Balangiga Encounter
America’s activity in the first years of the 20th century is a mystery to many. When I first became aware of the Philippine-American War, I assumed it to be an anomaly in the USA’s past: Something not just unusual, but also entirely disconnected from the America before and after it — the America I’ve grown up in today. I was mistaken…
I’ve previously summarized the The Balangiga Encounter (click here) on September 28th, 1901. After unexpected combat in the town of Balangiga, a handful of low-ranking soldiers fled over water to the American-occupied town of Basey. US Army General Adna Chaffee telegrammed Washington, D.C. with a cursory report. Newspapers across the States printed Chaffee’s report in frontpage stories the next day:
“Twenty-four of the 9th Regiment, United States Infantry — eleven wounded — have just arrived from Balangiga. Remainder company killed. Insurgents secured all company supplies and all rifles, except twelve. Company was attacked during breakfast, morning September 28; company seventy-two strong; officers, Thomas W. Connelly [sic], captain; Edward A. Bumpus, first lieutenant, and Dr. R.S. Griswold, major, surgeon, escaped.” CHAFFEE
Though Chaffee’s report was thin, American newspapers immediately had a story to tell out of it.
The General’s telegram was either misinformed or misinterpreted regarding the fate of the officers. Capt. Connell (not Connelly, as the Tribune printed it) was chased out the window of his quarters in Balangiga’s Church… 20 feet off the ground. He was mobbed by men with bolos (machetes) in the plaza below. 1st Lt. Bumpus had been killed in his chair eating breakfast and Dr. Griswold in his bed. The rebels marked the officers as high-priority targets; the next objective was the guns. Not only to turn the tide of the battle, but of the war — The Philippine resistance armies relied on capturing rifles and ammunition from Spanish and American forces. The bolo, a daily tool for jungle life, was their primary weapon. Thus their name “bolo men” in American newspapers.
In the 3rd week of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency (after the assassination of William McKinley), the United States of America deployed additional American soldiers, marines, and sailors from San Francisco to Manila, and from Manila to Samar. General Robert P. Hughes is commander of the US Army’s Department of the Visayas. Heneral Vicente Lukban is commander of the Philippine resistance on Samar.
20th
OCTOBER, 1901
Major Littleton Tazewell Waller departs Cavite (in Manila Bay) for Samar in command of a battalion of 300 US Marines in 4 companies.
24th
OCTOBER, 1901
Maj. Waller reports to his commanding officer, Brigadier General Jacob Hurd Smith, accompanied by Rear Admiral Fred Rogers.
WALLER’S ORDERS: To take control of a 600 square mile area from Basey on the southwest coast of Samar to Hernani on the southeast
The explicit details of Maj. L.T. Waller’s orders from “Hell-Roarin’ Jakey” Smith are not known — the written copy of them was reportedly misplaced. Adm. Rogers later testified that he had stepped away from the conversation at a certain point.
25th
OCTOBER, 1901
Major Waller arrives in Basey, Samar. Most of the survivors of 9th Infantry Company C continue to recuperate here; a few of them have been transferred to the hospital at Tacloban, Leyte on the other side of San Juanico Strait. Waller merges his marine units with soldiers previously commanded by Captain Bookmiller in Basey.
From Basey, Maj. Waller dispatches Captain DD Porter, with Companies F & H of the 11th US Infantry to Balangiga, Samar. A month earlier, on September 29th, Col. Russey had responded to the site of the Balangiga Massacre with Companies L & K of the 11th. There they had buried the deceased of Company C, including Captain Connell, in the plaza. F & H Co’s burned the municipal hall (Company C’s former barracks), and the Church of San Lorenzo the Martyr. Their orders from Brigadier General Hughes had been to “get a command together strong enough to make a desert of Balangiga and that corner of Samar without endangering your own dominion,” (Borrinaga, 2003, p13).
An unknown number of local baptism and marriage records were burned with the church, including those of my great-grandparents on my mother’s side.
In the ashes of the Catholic Church of San Lorenzo, F & H Companies of the 11th found a 16th century cannon and 3 church bells. The “Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field”, also known as General Orders, №100 stipulated:
§34
As a general rule, the property belonging to churches, to hospitals, or other establishments of an exclusively charitable character, to establishments of education, or foundations for the promotion of knowledge, whether public schools, universities, academies of learning or observatories, museums of the fine arts, or of a scientific character — such property is not to be considered public property in the sense of paragraph 31; but it may be taxed or used when the public service may require it.
General Order №100 was written in 1863 under the presidential administration of Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.
Nonetheless, the 11th and 9th Regiments took the bells and the cannon from Balangiga. A member of the 9th US Infantry Regiment (the same regiment as the defeated Company C) sent one bell to New York, where it was photographed with several members of C Company. The Balangiga Bells remained in American possession for 118 years.
26 th to 31st
OCTOBER, 1901
In the final days of October, U.S. Army and Marine Corps forces under General Smith and Major Waller established their fortifications and their policies on the island of Samar. The general visited Balangiga personally and had the USS Vicksburg and Frolic bombard it with artillery (even though it had already been cleared out and occupied by Americans at least twice).
USMC and US Army companies followed their Captains (and local Waray Filipino guides) up rivers and mountain trails in search of hideouts and rice caches.
One of the towns raided and ruined under Waller’s command was the town of Quinapondan, Eastern Samar (Couttie, 2014).
2019in April, I spent a couple hours hanging around Quinapondan Municipal Hall as well as its church while my mom sorted out some paperwork for a relative (the Municipal Hall had good AC!). My mother was baptized in that church. She tells me that her grandparents on her dad’s side likely lived in Quinapondan. Her dad and mom (my grandparents / lolo at lola / mga apuy) are buried in the Quinapondan cemetery.
Both Balangiga and Quinapondan were rebuilt, but my mother tells me that Balangiga had been the main town in the area before the war, while Quinapondan was made the central hub after the war.
After Quinapondan’s destruction, the next time Waller and his men entered the river, they “met concerted opposition for the first time,” (Couttie, 2014).
At least three rifles fired on the Marines from trenches on a nearby hill. The fire was concentrated at first then died to a sporadic single rifle, presumably as the Filipinos ran out of ammunition. Finally, Captain Porter charged the hill and the Filipinos retreated, leaving behind Krag cartridge cases. A Filipino was killed on the way to Quinapundan, which was still abandoned after its earlier destruction.
To smoke out and starve out the Philippine resistance, strict rules were imposed on the Samereños living peacefully in occupied towns. Samar is separated from Leyte to the southwest only by the narrow San Juanico Strait. While occupying the ports of Samar and destroying smaller settlements, Smith sought to block travel in the strait. Americans feared that General Lukban and the Samar guerilla force would never be starved out as long as they received aid from Leyte.
“All natives found passing between these two islands or afloat will be fired upon and killed.” ~General Order No. 29, October 27, 1901, cited by Couttie
1st to 4th
NOVEMBER, 1901
In these expeditions of pacification, some equipment looted from Company C was recovered from Filipino trenches and nipa huts. The objectives of the “pacification campaign” included recovery of stolen US Army property and retribution for the casualties at Balangiga.
A Bright November Morning…
I will never forget this experience. I had just been taken off the sick report on Sunday. A detachment went on a hike, with Second Lieutenant [Frank Halford] in charge. The first thing we got was wet feet in the rice fields; then a big hill to climb, and through the woods we discovered a lonely shack built near a lot of trees. An investigation was made by the picket, and the result was he found a knapsack, blanket, clothing, and the company chest. They all belonged to Company C. The boys divided the goods amongst themselves. We killed pigs, hens and cattle and destroyed the plantation, and then proceeded on our way as though nothing had happened. About a mile from this place we burned six fishing boats, a large pile of hemp, and we helped ourselves to the cocoanuts [sic]. It was getting late, so we returned on another trail. We discovered a shack of nipanipa between some cocoanuts trees, and a man jumped out of the window. Several shots were fired, but we never knew whether we hit him or not. In the house there was a crippled old man and a young girl, probably his daughter. She was sitting on the floor. The house was surrounded by guards; I was one of them. We found a soldier’s blue shirt, trousers, shoes, and a photo of a young man in civilian dress. There were also bloodstained bolas [sic, “bolos”]. Evidently they had been implicated in the massacre of Company C. When the boys saw these things, it made them mad, so they put the people to death and destroyed their place.
~Private John H. Clifford, USMC, “History of the Pioneer Marine Battalion,” (1916)
4th November, 1901
LAWS AGAINST TREASON, SEDITION, ETC. 0
§ 10. Until it has been officially proclaimed that a state of war or insurrection against the authority or sovereignty of the United States no longer exists in the Philippine Islands it shall be unlawful for any person to advocate orally, or by writing or printing or like methods, the independence of the Philippine Islands or their separation from the United States, whether by peaceable or forcible means, or to print, publish, or circulate any handbill, newspaper, or other publication advocating such independence or separation. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding two thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding one year.
…
§ 18. This act shall take effect on its passage. Enacted November 4, 1901.
5th
NOVEMBER, 1901
Major “Tony” Waller has fortified Balangiga and christened it Camp Connell. To build a new barracks, he has requisitioned cement, 18,000 bundles of nipa leaves, and 40 workers.
Back in Basey 25 miles west, two companies of marines begin an expedition upriver to locate the headquarters of General Vicente Lukban. This man’s capture is the highest-priority objective for Major Waller and Brigadier-General Jacob Smith in the Pacification of Samar.
to be continued…
I am the son of Filipina woman and an American marine. In this these histories I’m exploring how I came to be. Promise I’ll get to the brighter side of history soon!
SOURCES
Apostol, Gina. (2018). “Insurrecto.” Soho Press, Inc. Book.
Borrinaga, Rolando O. (2003). “The Balangiga Conflict Revisited.” New Day Publishers. Book.
Clifford, John H. (1916). “History of the Pioneer Marine Battalion.” Chronicle Job Print. Book.
https://www.loc.gov/item/16009660/
Couttie, Bob. (2004). Hang the Dogs: The True Tragic History of the Balangiga Massacre. New Day Publishers. Book.
https://bobcouttie.wordpress.com/
Couttie, Bob (2014). Hang the Dogs: The True Tragic History of the Balangiga Massacre. Universal Media. E-book.
https://www.amazon.com/Hang-Dogs-Tragic-Balangiga-Massacre-ebook/dp/B00HZN1UAY
Taylor, James. O (ed.) (1931). The Massacre of Balangiga: Being an Authentic Account by Several of the Few Survivors. McCarn Printing Co. Book.
Digitized by Google, Original from University of Wisconsin?
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89062156351&view=1up&seq=1&skin=2021
Shirmer, Daniel B. & Shalom, Stephen Rosskamm (eds.). (1987). The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance. South End Press. Book.
Zwick, Jim. “Confronting Imperialism: Essays on Mark Twain and the Anti-Imperialist League.” Infinity Publishing.com. 2013. Book.
