The Balangiga massacre occurred in 1901 during the Philippine-American War. Around 500 Filipino civilians and guerrillas from Balangiga, Samar launched a surprise attack on the 74 American soldiers stationed in the town, killing around 48. In retaliation, the American general ordered the killing of all males over 10 years old on the island of Samar, leading to many civilian deaths. The bells of Balangiga church, taken by Americans after the attack, remain a point of contention between the Philippines and US.

1. • The American Occupation
With the assurance of the Americans’ promise to free the country, General Aguinaldo, a
municipal mayor and the commander of the Philippine forces, declared the Philippine
independence on June 12, 1898. He confirmed the establishment of Philippine Republic on
January 23, 1899 with himself as president.
The Spanish rule in the islands ended when Spain and the United States signed the treaty of Paris
on December 10, 1898. It was an agreement between the two countries to pass the possession of
the Philippines to the United States in exchange of $20 million. Not being able to consult the
Filipinos, this arrogant settlement resulted to a new resistance and battle for freedom.
By the time the treaty of Paris was ratified, conflict between Filipino forces and Americans had
broken out due to strong resistance of the Filipinos against the US sovereignty over the islands
and the uncertain grant of independence. Aguinaldo led the revolutionary movement and fought
the Americans for two years. His capture in March 1901 ended the resistance and gave the US a
clear course on setting out their colonial establishment in the country. William Howard Taft was
the one chosen to handle the position of presidency and at the same time as chief justice.
The invasion of the Americans moved the Filipinos to a more unfamiliar authority. English was
chosen to be the official language of instruction in businesses and schools, the economy
flourished and the country’s economy begun relying on the US. Under the supremacy of
Governor Taft, systems were regulated in most districts. New government organizations were
established along with the general establishments of schools and other related institutions.
Construction of roads, highways, and ports were prioritized to consolidate more business all over
the country.
Despite the growth of industrialization, the Filipinos never gave up their desire for independence.
In early 1900’s Filipinos were given the opportunity to participate in politics. This gave them the
chance to hold positions in the government and express themselves more liberally. It was during
the proclamation of Manuel L. Quezon in 1935 as the president of the Philippine Commonwealth
under the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 that assured the Filipinos of freedom and self reliance.
This act however, didn’t fully grant the country of complete autonomy. The US, under what they
called the transition period, retained power on national defense and foreign affairs before
granting the Philippines its absolute independence. This transition period took ten years more.
• American Occupation of the Philippines: 1898-1912
James H. Blount served in the American forces that occupied the Philippines during the Spanish-
American War of 1898, and later as a judge in the islands, and should know whereof he speaks.
He begins by a narrative about E. Spencer Pratt, then the consul-general in Hong Kong. Pratt had
sought to please his superiors in Washington by informing them about his efforts to establish
cordial relations with the Filipino leaders in exile. He informs them about his meeting with the
Filipino expatriates in Singapore with regard to the American intentions on the Philippines. At
that time, the U.S. was looking for the Filipino revolutionary leaders' assistance in the inevitable

2. war to take the Philippines from Spanish rule. Obviously believing that the U.S. government at
that time wanted only to defeat Spain and liberate the Philippines, Pratt, although making no
pretensions he could speak for the government, said things that were taken as assurances by the
Filipino of America’s noble intentions. A letter from Secretary Day dashed his hopes: the U.S.
did not recognize the Filipino revolutionaries, considering them only as “discontented and
rebellious subjects”. As history went, after Dewey blasted the decrepit Spanish navy in Manila
Bay, Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines, rallied his forces, and drove the Spaniards right
inside the walls of Manila where they holed in. Whenever Aguinaldo pressed Dewey about
American designs towards the archipelago, Dewey would give a vague answer. He could not
afford to displease Aguinaldo while awaiting the arrival of American troops. The Filipinos
declared their independence on June 12, 1898 and invited the Americans to witness the grand
spectacle of inaugurating the first Philippine republic. The United States did not recognize the
fledgling government. When the American soldiers finally arrived, the signal to take Manila was
given, but the Filipinos were not allowed to take part in the surrender rites: the double cross had
begun. Spain felt it would be more honourable to surrender to the Americans than to the barefoot
Filipino soldiers. In the Treaty of Paris that December, the United States ceded the Islands to
Spain at a cost of twenty million dollars. The Treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate by a narrow
margin. Relations between the two allies quickly soured, and in February, 1899, hostilities
erupted between them. The Filipinos were no match against the disciplined Americans in pitched
battle: the kill ratio was 16:1. Most of the natives who did not know how to shoot removed the
front sight of their rifles; consequently, their aim was too high and they fired over the heads of
the Americanos. They shifted to guerrilla warfare and a scorched earth policy. Aguinaldo, the
Philippine President, ran his government on foot as he fled to the mountains.
The Americans found it impossible to distinguish friend from foe since every Filipino in the
countrysides carried a bolo (machete) in his waist: in the daytime he could be a peaceful farmer,
at night, he could be part of a bolo squad lying in ambush for the Americans. Due to the public
uproar over news that the troops were having a hard time, the policy-makers in Washington
downplayed the reports, claiming that only a small faction of the insurgents loyal to Aguinaldo
were making trouble, that a great majority of the Filipinos desired peace and accepted American
rule, that the peace campaign was nothing more than mopping up operations, etc. The military
government soon gave way to a civil government while fighting raged on. To prevent the native
population from supporting the guerrillas, they were herded inside concentration camps or
prohibited from leaving their villages while search- and-destroy operations were conducted
against the insurgents. Due to this practice (a precursor of the practice of “hamletting” against
the Vietcong), hundreds of thousands of civilians died from starvation and disease. There was the
so-called “water torture” which were applied against suspects. Atrocities were allegedly
committed by both sides. Aguinaldo was later captured through a ruse planned by Col. Frederick
Funston. A dispatch from Aguinaldo had fallen into the hands of the Americans. Deciphered, it
revealed that the President was somewhere in the mountains of Palanan, Isabela, a distant
province near the Pacific ocean. He was asking for some 200 additional bodyguards. Funston’s
plan was simple: a group of Macabebes (Filipino hirelings loyal to Spain who had shifted

3. allegiance to the Americans) would be disguised as revolutionaries. Funston and his men would
act as their prisoners. Once in sight of Aguinaldo, they would fall upon him and catch everybody
by surprise. The plan worked, to everyone’s disbelief. Blount’s work is significant in that it
corroborates the Filipino nationalists’ version of Philippine history, depicting the Philippine
revolution as one continuous struggle against Spain and later against America. It exposes the
colonial design upon the Philippines long before the first shot was fired by Dewey’s armada in
Manila Bay.
The Philippine-American War
On February 4, 1899, an American soldier, Private William Grayson, shot a Filipino soldier at the bridge of San
Juan, Manila. The fatal shot was followed by an immediate U.S. offensive on the Filipino lines. This marked the
beginning of the Philippine-American War, which lasted for three years until the establishment of the civilian
colonial government of Governor-General William Howard Taft on July 4, 1902. The timing of the San Juan
incident is suspect since it happened only two days before the U.S. Congress was scheduled to ratify the Treaty of
Paris on February 6, 1899. Under the treaty, Spain officially ceded the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the
United States in exchange for $20 million. Since the U.S. Congress, like the American public, was evenly split
between the anti-imperialists and pro-annexationists, the treaty was expected to experience rough sailing when
submitted to the Chamber for ratification. The San Juan incident and the outbreak of the Philippine American War
tilted sentiment in favor of acquiring the Philippines, and thus the treaty was ratified by the U.S. Congress.
• The Balangiga Massacre
The brutality of the war was best exemplified by the Balangiga Massacre. In August 1901, Balangiga was a small
seaside village of 200 nipa houses in Samar, Visayas. The US Army 9th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. army was
sent to the town to establish a garrison and assist in the pacification of the Visayan Islands. Upon arrival, the
American soldierrs took over the affairs of the town and forcibly occupied some of the local huts. All male residents,
eighteen years and above, were ordered to leave their families to clear the surrounding forests that were suspected to
be the refuge of guerrillas. At night, these men were hauled into open wooden pens unsuitable for lodging. To
aggravate matters, an American even raped a village lass.
Finally, on September 28, 1901, while all 74 American soldiers were eating their breakfast, they were suddenly
attacked by the townsfolk, resulting in 54 deaths and 18 wounded. So grisly were the deaths that it was prominently
played up in the news. Survivors recounted how the night before there was a procession of women followed by baby
coffins. The women turned out to be men and the coffins contained rifles. At 6:30 a.m., the bells of Balangiga were
rung, signaling the attack of 400 men led by the highest town official.
The deaths of the Americans resulted in a punitive expedition and a reign of terror. General Jake Smith ordered the
American soldiers to "kill and burn", to shoot down anybody capable of carrying arms including boys over ten years
old." When the smoke had cleared, Samar had been turned into a "howling wilderness." The American forces
completed the pillaged by taking the two Balangiga church bells and a rare 1557 cannon as war booty and shipping
them to Wyoming. Almost a hundred years after the Balangiga incident, the current Philippine government is
making representations to retrieve these national treasures.
•
• Balangiga massacre
The Balangiga massacre[5] was an incident in 1901 in the town of the same name during the
Philippine-American War. It initially referred to the killing of about 48 members of the US 9th
Infantry by the townspeople allegedly augmented by guerrillas in the town of Balangiga on
Samar island during an attack on September 28 of that year. In the 1960s Filipino nationalists

4. applied it to the retaliatory measures taken on the island. This incident was described as the
United States Army's worst defeat since the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.[5][6][7]
Filipinos regard the attack as one of their bravest acts in the war.
There has been much heated discussion regarding the number of Filipino casualties, for which
there are no reliable documentary records. Gen. Jacob H. Smith, who ordered the killing of every
male over ten years old during the retaliatory campaign, was subject to court-martial for
"conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline". Reprimanded but not formally
punished, Smith was forced into retirement from the service because of his conduct.[8]
The attack and the subsequent retaliation remains one of the longest-running and most
controversial issues between the Philippines and the United States.[5] Conflicting records from
American and Filipino historians have confused the issue. Demands for the return of the bells of
the church at Balangiga, taken by the 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 Camp Red Cloud, South
Korea, while two others are on a former base of the 11th Infantry Regiment at F.E. 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 and guerrillas.[9] Interpretations
and retelling of the Balangiga incidents, the Samar pacification campaign and the Philippine-
American War have been heavily influenced by the writings of Filipino left-wing polemicist
Renato Constantino and also Filipino Marxist historian Teodoro Agoncillo, both strongly anti-
American.
Balangiga massacre
Part of Philippine-
American War
Gen. Jacob Smith and
his staff inspect the ruins
of Balangiga in October
1901, a few weeks after
the US retaliation by
Capt. Bookmiller and his
troops
Date September
28, 1901
Location Balangiga,
Samar,
Philippines
Result Filipino
victory
Belligerents
Filipino civilians[1] United

5. States
Commanders and
leaders
Valeriano Thomas
Abanador[1][2] W.
Eugenio Daza[3] Connell†
Units involved
Company
C 9th
Infantry
Regiment
Strength
500 civilian bolomen in 74 men
seven attack units[1][4]
Casualties and losses
28 killed 36 killed
22 wounded[1] 22
wounded
4 missing
8 died of
wounds[1]
• Prelude
In the summer of 1901 Brigadier General Robert P. Hughes, who commanded the Department of
the Visayas and was responsible for Samar, instigated an aggressive policy of food deprivation
and property destruction on the island.[10] The objective was to force the end of Filipino
resistance. Part of his strategy was to close three key ports on the southern coast, Basey,
Balangiga and Guiuan.
Samar was a major centre for the production of Manila hemp, the trade of which was financing
Filipino forces on the island. At the same time United States interests were eager to secure
control of the hemp trade, which was a vital material both for the United States Navy and
American agro-industries such as cotton.
On August 11, 1901,[11] Company C of the 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,[12] which at that time were under the command
of General Vicente Lukban. Lukban had been sent there in December 1898 to govern the island
on behalf of the First Philippine Republic under Emilio Aguinaldo.[13]
Photo of Company C, 9th US Infantry Regiment with Valeriano Abanador (standing, sixth from
right) taken in Balangiga. The provenance of the photograph is uncertain.
Relations between the soldiers and the townspeople were amicable for the first month of the
American presence in the town; indeed it was marked by extensive fraternization between the
two parties. This took the form of tuba drinking among the soldiers and male villagers, baseball
games and arnis demonstrations. However, tensions rose due to several reasons: Captain Thomas

6. W. Connell, commanding officer of the American unit in Balangiga, ordered the town cleaned up
in preparation for a visit by the U.S. Army's inspector-general. However, in complying with his
directive, the townspeople inadvertently cut down vegetation with food value, in violation of
Lukban's policies regarding food security. As a consequence, on September 18, 1901, around
400 guerrillas sent by Lukban appeared in the vicinity of Balangiga. They were to mete sanctions
upon the town officials and local residents for violating Lukban's orders regarding food security
and for fraternizing with the Americans. The threat was probably defused by Captain Eugenio
Daza, a staff member of Lukban's and the parish priest, Father Donato Guimbaolibot.[2]
A few days later, Connel had the town's male residents rounded up and detained for the purpose
of hastening his clean-up operations. Around 80 men were kept in two Sibley tents unfed
overnight. In addition, Connel had the men's bolos and the stored rice for their tables confiscated.
These events would have sufficiently insulted and angered the townspeople; and without the
sympathy of Lukban's guerrillas, the civilians were left to their own devices to plan their course
of action against the Americans.[2]
A few days before the attack, Valeriano Abanador, the town's police chief and Captain Eugenio
Daza met to plan the attack on the American unit.[3] To address the issue of sufficient manpower
to offset the Americans' advantage in firepower, Abanador and Daza disguised the congregation
of men as a work force aimed at preparing the town for a local fiesta, which incidentally, also
served to address Connell's preparations for his superior's visit. Abanador also brought in a group
of "tax evaders" to bolster their numbers. Much palm wine, locally called tuba, was brought in to
ensure that the American soldiers would be drunk the day after the fiesta. Hours before the
attack, women and children were sent away to safety. To mask the disappearance of the women
from the dawn service in the church, 34 men from Barrio Lawaan cross-dressed as women
worshippers.[2] These "women", carrying small coffins, were challenged by Sergeant Scharer of
the sentry post about the town plaza near the church. Opening one of the coffins with his
bayonet, he saw the body of a dead child, whom he was told, was a victim of a cholera epidemic.
Abashed, he let the women pass on. Unbeknownst to the sentries, the other coffins hid the bolos
and other weapons of the attackers.[1]
The issue of children's bodies merits further attention since there is much conflict between
accounts by members of Company C. That day, the 27th, was the 52nd anniversary of the
founding of the parish, an occasion on which an image of a recumbent Christ known as a Santo
Intierra would have been carried around the parish. In modern times these Santo Intierras are
enclosed in a glass case but at the time were commonly enclosed in a wooden box[14]
• Attack
The US 9th Infantry Regiment in the Philippines, 1899
Between 6:20 and 6:45 in the morning of September 28, 1901, the villagers made their move.
Abanador, who had been supervising the prisoners' communal labor in the town plaza, grabbed
the rifle of Private Adolph Gamlin, one of the American sentries and stunned him with a blow to
the head. This served as the signal for the rest of the communal laborers in the plaza to rush the
other sentries and soldiers of Company C, who were mostly having breakfast in the mess area.
Abanador then gave a shout, signaling the other Filipino men to the attack and fired Gamlin's
rifle at the mess tent, hitting one of the soldiers. The pealing of the church bells and the sounds

7. from conch shells being blown followed seconds later. Some of the Company C troopers were
attacked and hacked to death before they could grab their rifles; the few who survived the initial
onslaught fought almost bare-handed, using kitchen utensils, steak knives, and chairs. One
private used a baseball bat to fend off the attackers before being overwhelmed.[15][16]
The men seemingly detained in the Sibley tents broke out and made their way to the municipal
hall. Simultaneously, the attackers hidden in the church broke through to the convent and killed
the officers there. An unarmed Company C soldier was ignored, as was Captain Connell's
Filipino houseboy. The attackers initially occupied the convent and the municipal hall; however,
the attack at the mess tents and the barracks failed, with Pvt. Gamlin recovering consciousness
and managing to secure another rifle, causing considerable casualties among the Filipinos. With
the initial surprise wearing off and the attack degrading, Abanador called for the attackers to
break off and retreat. The surviving Company C soldiers, led by Sergeant Frank Betron, escaped
by sea to Basey and Tanauan, Leyte.[16] The townspeople buried their dead and abandoned the
town.
Of the 74 men in Company C, 36 were killed in action, including all its commissioned officers;
Captain Thomas W. Connell, First Lieutenant Edward A. Bumpus and Major Richard S.
Griswold.[4] Twenty-two were wounded in action and four were missing in action. Eight died
later of wounds received in combat; only four escaped unscathed. The villagers captured about
100 rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition and suffered 28 dead and 22 wounded.
• Retaliation
Main article: March across Samar
Further information: Jacob H. Smith#Samar campaign
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 caption at the bottom proclaimed, "Criminals Because They
Were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines"
The next day, Captain Edwin Victor Bookmiller, the commander in Basey, sailed with Company
G, 9th Infantry Regiment for Balangiga aboard a commandeered coastal steamer, the SS
Pittsburgh.[17] Finding the town abandoned, they buried the American dead and set fire to the
town.[1]
Coming at a time when it was believed Filipino resistance to American rule had collapsed, the
Balangiga attack had a powerful impact on Americans living in Manila. Men started to wear
sidearms openly and Helen Herron Taft, wife of William Howard Taft, was so distraught she
required evacuation to Hong Kong.[18]
The Balangiga incident provoked shock in the US public, too, with newspapers equating the
massacre to George Armstrong Custer's last stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.
Major General Adna R. Chaffee, military governor of the Philippines, received orders from US
President Theodore Roosevelt to pacify Samar. To this end, Chaffee appointed Brigadier General
Jacob H. Smith to Samar to accomplish the task.
General Smith instructed Major Littleton Waller, commanding officer of a battalion of 315 US
Marines assigned to bolster his forces in Samar, regarding the conduct of pacification:

8. “ I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill ”
and burn, the better it will please me... The interior of Samar must be
made a howling wilderness...[19][20]
— Gen. Jacob H. Smith
The order was, however, countermanded by Waller.
As a consequence of this order, Smith became known as "Howling Wilderness Smith".[21] He
further ordered Waller to kill all persons who were capable of bearing arms and in actual
hostilities against the United States forces. When queried by Waller regarding the age limit of
these persons, Smith replied that the limit was ten years of age.
Food and trade to Samar were cut off, intended to starve the revolutionaries into submission.
Smith's strategy on Samar involved widespread destruction to force the inhabitants to stop
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, in a report, stated that over an eleven-day period his
men burned 255 dwellings, shot 13 carabaos and killed 39 people.[17]
The Judge Advocate General of the Army observed that only the good sense and restraint of the
majority of Smith's subordinates prevented a complete reign of terror in Samar. However, the
abuses were still sufficient to outrage anti-Imperialist groups in the United States when these
became known in March 1902.
The exact number of Filipinos killed by US troops will never be known. A population shortfall
of about 15,000 is apparent between the Spanish census of 1887 and the American census of
1903 but how much of the shortfall is due to a disease epidemic and known natural disasters and
how many due to combat is difficult to determine. Population growth in 19th century Samar was
amplified by an influx of workers for the booming hemp industry, an influx which certainly
ceased during the Samar campaign.[22]
Exhaustive research in the 1990s made by British writer Bob Couttie as part of a ten year study
of the Balangiga Massacre tentatively put the figure at about 2,500; David Fritz used population
ageing techniques and suggested a figure of a little more than 2,000 losses in males of combat
age but nothing to support widespread killing of women and children [23] Some Filipino
historians believe it to be around 50,000.[16] The rate of Samar's population growth slowed as
refugees fled from Samar to Leyte,[24] yet still the population of Samar increased by 21,456
during the war.
The earliest reference to a 50,000 plus death toll is American historian Kenneth Ray Young.[23]
American military historians' opinions on the Samar campaign are echoed in the February 2011
edition of the US Army's official historical magazine, Army History Bulletin: "...the
indiscriminate violence and punishment that U.S. Army and Marine forces under Brig. Gen.
Jacob Smith are alleged to have unleashed on Samar have long stained the memory of the United
States’ pacification of the Philippine Islands"

9.