Mike
21-01-2002, 14:13
LIGHTNING FROM THE CLOUDS:
THE U.S. ARMY AND THE MORO WARS
By Dirk deRoos
MAP AND UNIFORM DRAWINGS
BY GREG ROSE
"FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTSÉ"
Lt. Ernest H. Johnson was a midwesterner. A graduate of the University of Nebraska, he had served with courage and distinction for two grueling years in this Asian jungle war. He must have wondered sometimes late at night in a dark jungle bivouac what had brought him and his country here. That December day of the ambush he may have thought about Christmas back home, with snow in the cornfields and carolers in the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska. But in the mud and humidity of the rainforest, where every shadow could conceal a cunning and fearless enemy, he mainly concentrated upon his job, leading a patrol through palm thickets and "cogon" grass to search out and destroy the enemy.
As the patrol slogged wearily forward through the tangled swamp, Johnson saw a dark-skinned figure in loose black trousers rise out of the "cogon" grass behind his men. He swung the muzzle of his weapon down on the stranger to be greeted by a straightforward look and a smile. Thinking that this was only one of the locals who helped carry supplies for the patrol, Johnson turned away. Suddenly he realized that the face was not familiar! He spun to turn back, but it was too late. The hurtling spear transfixed him, its three-foot blade plunging through his left arm, his chest, both lungs and his right arm. As he staggered, shots began to crack through the neck-high grass. Johnson's junior officer pulled out the spear as Johnson continued to direct his men's responses to the ambush. As the shots and screams sputtered out and the enemy vanished back into the jungle, Ernest H. Johnson lost consciousness.
Johnson lingered for four months before succumbing to his wounds at the Army hospital in Zamboanga. It was there that he told the visiting area commander, "Don't be too hard on them, sir, they are fighting for what they believe to be their rights." For Lt. Johnson of the Philippine Constabulary the Moro Wars were at an end. The year was 1913.
The enemy and the war were almost military secrets in 1913. Shadowed by indifference and design they have remained so. After all, "peace" had been officially declared by the United States in the Philippines in 1902. That not everyone agreed with this declaration was both embarrassing and troublesome.
AMERICA'S THREE WARS IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1898-1916
The United States had come to the Philippine Islands in 1898 on a crusade or a mistake, depending on your preconceptions. The Spanish colonial empire had, with supposed treachery, murdered our sailors and sunk the U.S.S. MAINE in Havana Harbor. That perfidy (to use a favorite word of the era) could not go unpunished. War followed between the United States and Spain. Politicians in the U.S. Congress had promised to liberate Cuba from Spanish tyranny and set her free. We publicly committed that we had no colonial ambitions in the Caribbean, but we made no such promise regarding our intentions to the Spanish colony of the Philippines.
And so, on May 1, 1898 when Commodore Dewey's flotilla destroyed the Spanish Pacific Fleet in Manila Bay, Manifest Destiny had crossed the Pacific. The United States began its claim to a colonial empire. It also began the first of its three Philippine Wars between the years of 1898-1916.
These wars in total were not just brief, minor skirmishes against a decayed colonial relic, ineffective insurgents, or a few Muslim fanatics with sharp knives, as is often implied. The cultures and societies of the Philippines and the United States were both shaken by these confrontations which were bitter, fanatical, and often brutal on all sides. And the turmoil of war unleashed even more destructive forces of disease and poverty.
I have not found complete casualty figures for this period for the combatants, nor even for the United States, but a few statistics are sobering. Between 1898 and 1902, when "peace" was declared, the two major cholera epidemics killed over 100,000 civilians and combatants, while dysentery was killing U.S. troops at a rate 50 times that of the most disease-infested American theater of war in World War II. For the up to 70,000 American troops stationed at any one time in the Philippines after 1900, combat casualties fell at the rate of one dead to two wounded! The razor-sharp edge of the bolo or kris was meant to kill.
The first of these three wars was the pacific segment of the Spanish-American War. It ended with the defeat of Spain and the surrender of the Philippine Islands to the protection of the United States (on December 10, 1898). The U.S. replaced Spain as colonial overlord of the Philippine archipelago.
This transfer of power drew the United States into the second of its Philippine wars, this time against the Filipino Insurrectionists under Emilio Aguinaldo. Believing that they should be independent of any foreign control (and inspired by the philosophy and events of the American Revolution) the "insurrectos" battled Americans as they had Spaniards. Heroic, though ill armed and poorly led this rebellion gradually collapsed. On the 4th of July, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt declared that hostilities were at an end in the Philippines. Peace and prosperity and American ways could now flourish in our new empire. Bully!
Within six months the first of these new American ways was to be implemented with the declaration that slavery was at an end in the Philippines. That declaration ignited the third Philippine war for the United States, this time against the Moros. It was to be the longest and most savage confrontation of the three.
THE U.S. ARMY AND THE MORO WARS
By Dirk deRoos
MAP AND UNIFORM DRAWINGS
BY GREG ROSE
"FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTSÉ"
Lt. Ernest H. Johnson was a midwesterner. A graduate of the University of Nebraska, he had served with courage and distinction for two grueling years in this Asian jungle war. He must have wondered sometimes late at night in a dark jungle bivouac what had brought him and his country here. That December day of the ambush he may have thought about Christmas back home, with snow in the cornfields and carolers in the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska. But in the mud and humidity of the rainforest, where every shadow could conceal a cunning and fearless enemy, he mainly concentrated upon his job, leading a patrol through palm thickets and "cogon" grass to search out and destroy the enemy.
As the patrol slogged wearily forward through the tangled swamp, Johnson saw a dark-skinned figure in loose black trousers rise out of the "cogon" grass behind his men. He swung the muzzle of his weapon down on the stranger to be greeted by a straightforward look and a smile. Thinking that this was only one of the locals who helped carry supplies for the patrol, Johnson turned away. Suddenly he realized that the face was not familiar! He spun to turn back, but it was too late. The hurtling spear transfixed him, its three-foot blade plunging through his left arm, his chest, both lungs and his right arm. As he staggered, shots began to crack through the neck-high grass. Johnson's junior officer pulled out the spear as Johnson continued to direct his men's responses to the ambush. As the shots and screams sputtered out and the enemy vanished back into the jungle, Ernest H. Johnson lost consciousness.
Johnson lingered for four months before succumbing to his wounds at the Army hospital in Zamboanga. It was there that he told the visiting area commander, "Don't be too hard on them, sir, they are fighting for what they believe to be their rights." For Lt. Johnson of the Philippine Constabulary the Moro Wars were at an end. The year was 1913.
The enemy and the war were almost military secrets in 1913. Shadowed by indifference and design they have remained so. After all, "peace" had been officially declared by the United States in the Philippines in 1902. That not everyone agreed with this declaration was both embarrassing and troublesome.
AMERICA'S THREE WARS IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1898-1916
The United States had come to the Philippine Islands in 1898 on a crusade or a mistake, depending on your preconceptions. The Spanish colonial empire had, with supposed treachery, murdered our sailors and sunk the U.S.S. MAINE in Havana Harbor. That perfidy (to use a favorite word of the era) could not go unpunished. War followed between the United States and Spain. Politicians in the U.S. Congress had promised to liberate Cuba from Spanish tyranny and set her free. We publicly committed that we had no colonial ambitions in the Caribbean, but we made no such promise regarding our intentions to the Spanish colony of the Philippines.
And so, on May 1, 1898 when Commodore Dewey's flotilla destroyed the Spanish Pacific Fleet in Manila Bay, Manifest Destiny had crossed the Pacific. The United States began its claim to a colonial empire. It also began the first of its three Philippine Wars between the years of 1898-1916.
These wars in total were not just brief, minor skirmishes against a decayed colonial relic, ineffective insurgents, or a few Muslim fanatics with sharp knives, as is often implied. The cultures and societies of the Philippines and the United States were both shaken by these confrontations which were bitter, fanatical, and often brutal on all sides. And the turmoil of war unleashed even more destructive forces of disease and poverty.
I have not found complete casualty figures for this period for the combatants, nor even for the United States, but a few statistics are sobering. Between 1898 and 1902, when "peace" was declared, the two major cholera epidemics killed over 100,000 civilians and combatants, while dysentery was killing U.S. troops at a rate 50 times that of the most disease-infested American theater of war in World War II. For the up to 70,000 American troops stationed at any one time in the Philippines after 1900, combat casualties fell at the rate of one dead to two wounded! The razor-sharp edge of the bolo or kris was meant to kill.
The first of these three wars was the pacific segment of the Spanish-American War. It ended with the defeat of Spain and the surrender of the Philippine Islands to the protection of the United States (on December 10, 1898). The U.S. replaced Spain as colonial overlord of the Philippine archipelago.
This transfer of power drew the United States into the second of its Philippine wars, this time against the Filipino Insurrectionists under Emilio Aguinaldo. Believing that they should be independent of any foreign control (and inspired by the philosophy and events of the American Revolution) the "insurrectos" battled Americans as they had Spaniards. Heroic, though ill armed and poorly led this rebellion gradually collapsed. On the 4th of July, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt declared that hostilities were at an end in the Philippines. Peace and prosperity and American ways could now flourish in our new empire. Bully!
Within six months the first of these new American ways was to be implemented with the declaration that slavery was at an end in the Philippines. That declaration ignited the third Philippine war for the United States, this time against the Moros. It was to be the longest and most savage confrontation of the three.