The Balangiga Massacre 1901 Samar, Philippines

Balangiga Massacre

The "Balangiga massacre" was an incident in 1901 during the Philippine-American War where many American soldiers were killed in a surprise guerilla attack in the town of Balangiga on Samar island. This incident was described as the United States Army's worst defeat since the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. For Filipinos, the attack is regarded as one of the bravest acts in the war.

The subsequent retaliation by American troops resulted in the killing of thousands of Filipinos on Samar, the majority of whom were civilians. The heavy-handed reprisal earned a court-martial for Gen. Jake "Howling Wilderness" Smith, who had ordered the killing of everyone ten years old and over. Reprimanded but not formally punished, Smith was forced into retirement from the Army because of his conduct.

The attack and the subsequent retaliation remains one of the longest-running and most controversial issues between the Philippines and the United States. Conflicting records from both American and Filipino historians have muddled the issue. Demands for the return of the bells of the church at Balangiga, taken by Americans as war booty and collectively known as the Balangiga Bells,

remain an outstanding issue of contention related to the war. One church bell remains in the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment at their base in South Korea,

while two others are on a former base of the 11th Infantry Regiment at Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

According to some nationalist Filipino historians, the true "Balangiga massacre" was the subsequent American retaliation against the Samar population.

Attack

On August 11, 1901, Company C, 9th U. S. Infantry Regiment, arrived in Balangiga—the third largest town on the southern coast of Samar island—to close its port and prevent supplies reaching Filipino forces in the interior. Philippine Brigadier General Vicente Lukban had instructed the village leaders to pretend to be friendly initially, then attack the Americans at a strategic moment. Relations between the soldiers and the townspeople appeared to be amicable at first. However, tensions increased because of the villager's opposition to the puritanical ideals of the Americans, who insisted that the native young women dress modestly (as opposed to wearing the customary revealing native sarongs). The village chief complied with the request. Later, the company commander, Captain Thomas W. Connell ordered the rounding up of able-bodied townsmen to clean the town, ridding the village of trash and dead animals that were contributing to disease. It is also claimed that a private soldier had raped a young village girl, although no reference makes mention of this.  Equally unfounded is the claim that Connell ordered the destruction of all of the food stored in the town to prevent its falling into the hands of the Filipino forces, and fearing they would starve in the coming rainy season, the townspeople decided to attack the U.S. Army garrison.    At 6:45 a.m., on September 28 1901, the villagers made their move. Native men dressed as grieving women carried coffins into the church, claiming the coffins contained the bodies of children who had perished from cholera. However the coffins actually contained large bolo machetes which the villagers would use in the attack. After killing the few armed military sentries, the Balangiga police chief, Valeriano Abanador, gave the signal to attack. About 200 native men, women, and children armed with bolos or axes burst out of concealment and caught the unarmed Americans by surprise.  The garrison was at breakfast, with their rifles stacked in the municipal hall some twenty yards away. Most of the soldiers were hacked to death with the heavy bolos before they could reach their firearms. Captain Connell led a few men into the street before he was encircled and cut down. The few soldiers who escaped the main attack fought with kitchen utensils, steak knives, and chairs. One private even fought off many of the attackers with a baseball bat before he too was overwhelmed. A handful of surviving soldiers, many wounded, managed to secure their weapons and hold back their attackers. Few in number, they managed to evacuate the post by boat.  Upon discovering they had left the flag (flying at half staff because of the assassination of U.S. President William McKinley), three soldiers braved the natives to recover the colors. One was killed; the other two reached the boat with the flag intact. Most of the wounded died on the boat prior to reaching a safe landing. Of the original 78 men in Company C, 54 were killed or missing, 20 were severely wounded, and only 4 escaped unscathed. The villagers captured about 100 rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. An estimated 20 to 25 of the guerillas had died in the massacre. The next day, a boat carrying several American troops returned to find the natives had abandoned the scene, and the bodies of their comrades had been mutilated. Bodies had been decapitated, boiled, hacked, stripped, and extremities removed. Some wounded survivors had been buried alive up to their heads, which were then covered with sugar and devoured by ants. Even the company dog's eyes were gouged out and replaced with stones.

Retaliation

The consequence of the surprise attack and ensuing mutilation was a brutal retaliation against all of the inhabitants of Samar Island by the U.S. Army occupation forces. The day after the attack, two 9th Infantry companies, with some of the Company C survivors, went to Balangiga aboard a commandeered coastal steamer, the S.S. Pittsburg. They found the town abandoned. They buried what was left of the American dead and set fire to the town.

General Jacob H. Smith's infamous order "KILL EVERYONE OVER TEN" was the caption in the New York Journal cartoon on May 5, 1902. The Old Glory draped an American shield on which a vulture replaced the bald eagle. The bottom caption exclaimed, "Criminals Because They Were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines."

General Jacob H. Smith instructed Major Littleton "Tony" Waller, commanding officer of the Marines assigned to clean up the island of Samar, what methods he was to use: "I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn the better it will please me." He directed that Samar be converted into a "howling wilderness." All Filipinos who did not surrender and were capable of carrying arms were to be shot, and this meant anyone over ten years of age. Because of this order, he became known as Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith. What followed was a sustained and widespread massacre of Filipino civilians. The basic elements of Smith's policy were brutal. Food and trade to Samar were cut off to starve the revolutionaries into submission. He instructed his officers to regard all Filipinos as enemies and treat them accordingly, unless they showed conclusively that they were friendly by actions such as providing information on the location of revolutionaries or arms, working as guides or spies, or trying actively to obtain the surrender of guerrillas in the field. He gave his subordinates carte blanche authority in the application of General Order 100. (Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 General Orders No. 100, in brief, authorized the shooting on sight of all persons not in uniform acting as soldiers and those committing, or seeking to commit, sabotage.) Smith's strategy on Samar involved the use of widespread destruction to force the inhabitants to cease supporting the guerrillas and turn to the Americans from fear and starvation. He used his troops in sweeps of the interior in search for guerrilla bands and in attempts to capture Philippine General Vicente Lukban, but he did nothing to prevent contact between the guerrillas and the townspeople. American columns marched across the island, destroying homes and shooting people and draft animals. Littleton Waller, for example, reported that in an eleven-day span his men burned 255 dwellings, shot 13 carabaos and killed 39 people. Other officers reported similar activities. As the Judge Advocate General of the army observed, only the good sense and restraint of the majority of Smith's subordinates prevented a complete reign of terror in Samar. Still, the abuses were sufficient to outrage anti-Imperialist groups in the United States when they became known near the end of March 1902. After receiving his orders from Smith, Waller issued his own written orders to his men regarding their conduct, that they were to seize and destroy, and matters of similar nature. Toward the end, he wrote, "We have also to avenge our late comrades in North China, the murdered men of the Ninth U.S. Infantry." This added more to the rage. The Chinese and the Filipinos were, to him, of the same nature, stock, and even ideology. There was no difference among "Asiatics." Waller was later accused of ordering the execution of eleven Philippine guides because, during a long march, they had found edible roots and had allegedly conspired to keep this knowledge from the famished American troops.

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