THE U.S. ARMY AND THE MORO WARS (part 4/4) - Kris versus krag - 2nd part
LIGHTNING FROM THE CLOUDS:
THE U.S. ARMY AND THE MORO WARS
By Dirk deRoos
MAP AND UNIFORM DRAWINGS
BY GREG ROSE
At daybreak, as the expedition faced another bloody frontal assault on the "cottas" Baldwin was amazed to see white flags flying over the walls of the surrounded fortress. The Sultan and the Datu had determined that there was no profit in this fight. After brief negotiations and promises to return to a peaceful life the Moros surrendered.
Many "datus" of the Lake region followed suit. They could, after all, go back to the old ways after the Americans, like the Spaniards, had departed. A few "datus", however, remained belligerent in the area. In the four months after Baldwin's expedition American garrisons near the Lake were attacked twelve times.
Thievery and raids also failed to evaporate, sometimes with comic consequences. Witness the following correspondence between an American military governor and the Sultan of Jolo regarding the theft of the cemetery gates from the American garrison:
To his Highness the Sultan of Jolo, from his brother the Governor of Tiange, Greetings:
Three nights ago the iron gates of the cemetary were stolen. Indications point to the Moros living in your territory as thieves. I desire to make a thorough search for said gates and have them returned and the thieves punishedÉI do not know who committed this theft; if I did I would not call on you but would act myself. The thief was a Moro; this being the case it is your duty to act. The graves of our dead are respected. This act was worse than any of the acts so far reported and it was to a certain extent a desecration of our dead and will not be tolerated.
Very Respectfully,
O.J. Sweet
Major 23rd Infantry,
Military Governor
The Sultan's reply was as follows:
This letter comes from your son the Sultan Hadji Mohammed Jamalul, Kiram to my father the Governor of Tiange:
Your letter of the 23rd instant received and I understand its contents. I am very sorry indeed that the gates to the cemetary were stolen. It would have been better if the thief had robbed the property of the living, because they have a chance to earn more but the dead do not. Therefore aid me to think how to get rid of stealing in this country. Let us inquire at all places where there are blacksmiths. There are no blacksmiths in Maibun. Above all you must closely examine the blacksmiths in the Buz Buz and Moubu as these gates were too heavy to be carried a long distance. Very likely they are in these two places. I will have a search made in all places where there are blacksmiths. If we find the thief let us bury him alive. I did not tell the thief to steal nor did he do it with my knowledge. Your are an old manÉ.and perhaps you have pity on me. As for me I detest thieves
Despite the earnest protestations of the Sultan of Jolo, the Moros admired a good thief, and a bandit leader was respected almost as a prince. One of the best (or worst) was Jikiri.
Jikiri enters history's stage as betel-nut bearer for the Sultan of Sulu (betel nuts being a mild narcotic chewed by fashionable Malays). According to legend, Jikiri was hooted out of the Sultan's service by His Excellency's bodyguard due to Jikiri's laughable ugliness, one eye in particular being remarkable for its size and protuberance. Driven to the life of an outcast, he draped a white cloth across his face (presumably to hide that eye) and began to make the most of a bad situation.
His debut as a pirate chief came with the capture of a Chinese merchant vessel off Jolo in November, 1907. One crewman escaped by leaping overboard.
On December 24, now with a hearty band of seven at his command, he hacked to death two American loggers and one of their wives within sight of the American base at Zamboanga.
By January, 1908, being on something of a "roll" he had eluded the Constabulary and 200 American troops pursuing him, and had vanished into the Lumapit Swamp on Jolo Island.
As the good news spread, Jikiri's following, and boldness, grew. Soon he was regularly harassing coastal shipping, and boasting to the Americans in letters to the Governor that as soon as he had "cut down the hundred men I have sworn to kill", he would "run 'juramentado' in the streets of Jolo." When the American guard there was tripled he warned them in another letter to stay alert since he would "strike without warning."
His following eventually grew to over a hundred well-armed Moro warriors. They were a formidable bunch. Jikiri raided into north Borneo where the British captured three of his colleagues. These prisoners were being towed in a canoe by a steam launch when one of them overpowered and beheaded the guard. He then boarded the launch and attacked the British Captain in charge.
The Britisher shot him six times with his service revolver at close range, knocking him off his feet twice. Each time the Moro got up and pursued the officer around his own ship. Having emptied his revolver the Captain grabbed a rifle but was knocked senseless by his pursuer. The Moro then began dispatching the Chinese crew when the officer came to an slammed five rifle slugs into the Moro. It took all five to do the job. The other escaped prisoners rejoined Jikiri's band.
Jikiri continued his depredations; sacking villages, slashing an English planter "into 32 pieces," attacking coastal vessels and generally wreaking havoc. U.S. Cavalry and Constabulary were again on his trail, as was the Sultan of Sulu who, made nervous by increased American forces searching for Jikiri (including 2 Navy gunboats, 3 Army launches and a chartered transport which ringed Jolo Island), had decided to help dispatch his ex-betel-nut bearer to his last account.
On July 1, 1909, Jikiri was finally cornered with the remnants of his band (seven men, four women and four children) in a cave inside an extinct volcanic crater.
Captain George L. Byram led troops A, B, and D of the 6th Cavalry, a section of mountain artillery, and a naval detachment with two one-pounder rapid-fire guns and two Colt machine guns against the trapped bandit.
An artillery bombardment and automatic weapons barrage seemed prudent. When the dust cleared the cave entrance was pulverized. Trees with six-inch diameters had been cut in half by machine gun fire.
The troopers approached the cave entrance to look for any unlikely survivors, but were greeted instead by Jikiri and his seven followers, barongs in hand. In less than 10 seconds sixteen Americans were down, then the odds caught up with Jikiri and his seven followers. Byram was "severely criticized" for the operation and three Medals of Honor were awarded.
Baldwin's expedition and the pursuit of Jikiri are typical of the U.S. actions against the Moros. Punitive expeditions might force the surrender of a "datu" and his "cotta," but with the expedition's withdrawal the "datu" would be up to his old tricks. A bandit leader like Jikiri could be run to ground, but only with overwhelming force, and every Moro was a potential bandit chieftain.
The American response to continued Moro belligerency was to mount larger and more frequent expeditions, some with more success than others.
One of the more efficient U.S. leaders was Major General Leonard Wood. From 12 November through 21 November, 1903, Wood led an expedition which struck at the Moros under Panglima Hassan and Datu Andung, two nororious and powerful "datus" on Jolo Island.
The U.S. forces consisted of the 28th Infantry Regiment, a battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment, two troops of the 14th Cavalry, a battery of mountain guns, and a pack train. The expedition included a nasty assault on a "cotta" in a swamp, a mad-man charge by over 40 "juramentados" on a Cavalry troop (!) leaving 27 of the Moro fanatics dead, and a climactic full-blown assault on a mountain chain of eight heavily fortified "cottas." Five hundred Moros died in the fighting, although the "datu" Panglima Hassan escaped to trouble the infidels again.
In 1904 General Wood again led an expeditionary force out into Moro country, this time against Datu Ali on the island of Mindanao. The force proceeding upriver on an assortment of river boats consisted of the 23rd Infantry, a single company of the 17th Infantry, one dismounted troop of the 14th Cavalry, one field gun, and a detachment of Marines and sailors.
After skirmishes with the Moros and several outpost actions the force arrived at the stronghold of Datu Ali near Serenaya. The stronghold was a masonry fort one-thousand yards long linked with a score of "cottas" joined together and bristling with "lantakas" and old Spanish cannon.
Wood's artillery piece, augmented by some 3.2" guns dismounted from the river gunboats, bombarded the stronghold to the crashing counterpoint of the responding Moro cannon. This continued until nightfall. Morning revealed a white flag above the fort and one wounded Moro within. The stronghold was otherwise empty. Five thousand men, women and children had escaped without a sound into the night and the jungle.
With results such as that, after eleven years of fighting the American level of frustration led to an increase in the intensity (and brutality) of combat. At Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak on Jolo Island forces including Philippine Scouts and Constabulary led by John J. Pershing trapped hundreds of Moro warriors and their families in mid-1913.
