The Filipino American War as seen by diarists in real time with some additional commentary and sourc

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Friday, September 2nd, 1898

Another beautiful day but the sun is very hot. The heat seems more oppressive here than at home and the thermometer registers less. The weather is fine right along and most of us think the rainy season is over. We have beans, biscuits and fresh meat. Today the Colonel [Alexander Hawkins] visited our quarters and promises the Captain [Daniel Bierer] to have cots sent up for the men to sleep on. [Frank] Hustead, [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Charles] Burke, [Max] Hannan, [Homer] Daugherty and Sergeant [William] Martin are on the sick list.

Note that this prison was built in 1865. The photo was taken in 1932.

I believe that is Bilibid Prison? Notice the wagon wheel spokes and the circular wheel "guardhouse". I did not think the Spaniards had copied the "Pennsylvania System". Learned something new.  

Notice that the 10th Pennsylvania unit, of which John Asendorf is a member, has soldiers who have slept on the floor of that old prison they used as a barracks? Just today they get cots.  

Journal of E. Huntington Blatchford Headquarters Department of the Pacific Eighteenth Army Corps, Manila, P. I., September 2, ’98

I cannot realize that I am ten thousand odd miles from Chicago, and something like eleven thousand from where I enlisted in “this man’s army.” It surprises me to see how much at home I have felt right through this experience, in the Presidio, in the hold of the Peru, and now in the Philippines, which always seemed just beyond the jumping-off place. I suppose if I were here alone I should feel truly “insulated,” but there being an odd eighteen thousand Americans to keep one company, homesickness is prevented. At present here at headquarters I am royally fixed—far better than a private should be. There would be a question in my mind about taking this “job” if there were active service to be had, but I am lazy enough to gladly exchange garrison duty for “special duty.” General Hughes is a regular trump, a gentleman of the old school, most considerate to others. The few things he asks of me I only wish were more.

This paper is stained, not with patriotic blood (though I believe that right here in Manila some of our men have bled—true heroes), but with patriotic or tropic perspiration. It is well-nigh impossible to keep it off the paper. In an hour or two it will be cooler. The heat seems to agree with me admirably. The only discomforts I mind, and those are not unendurable, are the heat and flies, and mosquitoes of a night-time. They seem successful in preventing an unbroken sleep, and it is something of a surprise to me to find myself fresh in the morning after my shower-bath.

Must be nice. Fans, electricity, hot water, indoor plumbing, good food, a BED... etc.

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Saturday, September 3rd, 1898

This is another fine, hot day. Since it is too hot to drill most of the boys sneak off and visit the city breweries, distilleries, churches, the arsenal and all the places of interest. No pay yet! [Frank] Hustead, [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Charles] Burke, [Max] Hannan and Sergeant [William] Martin are on the sick list.

Those troopers not on guard duty and not otherwise assigned have left the bivouac and are out of sight of their officers and non-coms.

Idle soldiers wandering around loose + alcohol = trouble. "Unpaid soldiers who cannot buy goods and services will have more incentive to "take" what they want.

Civil War Bummer

The origin of this term, applied to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s foragers during the March To The Sea and the Carolinas Campaign, is obscure but was common army parlance by 1864. Possibly deriving from the German Bummler, meaning “idler” or “wastrel,” the name was embraced by many soldiers, who believed it struck terror in the hearts of Southern people. The soldiers of the Army of Georgia were authorized to live off the land, since it was Sherman’s intent to “make Georgia howl” and to lay just as heavy a hand on South Carolina, which many Federals considered a “hellhole of secession.” On the road from Atlanta to the sea and then north, Sherman’s columns left their supply bases far behind, and their wagons could not carry provisions sufficient for all. Nevertheless, the Union commander sought to regulate and limit foraging, keeping it within accepted rules of warfare. Each brigade leader was to organize a foraging detail under “discreet officers.” The details were empowered to gather rations and forage of any sort and quantity useful to their commands and could appropriate animals and conveyances without limit. Soldiers, however, were not to trespass on any private dwelling, were to avoid abusive or threatening language, and, when possible, were to leave each family “a reasonable portion [of provisions] for their maintenance.” In regions where the army moved unmolested, no destruction of property was permitted. But where bushwhackers or guerrillas impeded the march, corps commanders were enjoined to “enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according to the measure of hostility.” Many who marched through Georgia and the Carolinas disregarded these prohibitions. Too often, foraging parties became bands of marauders answering to no authority. One conscientious bummer wrote to his sister about the depredations inflicted on South Carolina:

How would you like it, do you think, Ab, to have troops passing your house constantly … ransacking and plundering and carrying off everything that could be of any use to them? There is considerable excitement in foraging, but it is (a) disagreeable business in some respects to go into people’s houses and take their provisions and have the women begging and entreating you to leave a little when you are necessitated to take all. But I feel some degree of consolation in the knowledge I have that I never went beyond my duty to pillage.

Source: Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War

It is not like the American army has not set a historical precedent for vandalism, petty theft and such and called it "foraging".

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Journal of E. Huntington Blatchford Manila, P. I., September 3, 1898

The exchange here is $2.05 Spanish for $1 American, so we can double the quantity of our pay at anytime. I have bought a broadbrim pith hat, a white suit and white shoes, all for the sum of five dollars and fifty cents Spanish. I need here in the office rather different clothes from those suitable for regular drill and fatigue work. Wednesday I took the General’s belongings— boxes, bags, etc.—from the Hotel Oriente out to the Governor’s palace at Malacañang. It took me all the afternoon, as the buffalo-cart the commissary was to send did not show up, and I had finally to hire two cabs and dicker with the heathen for the trip. It was good fun, and I managed to get them to the General about five-thirty o’clock, just as he was needing them. I have had several errands around town to do, but next to no office work. What little I have had to do has been locating places on the map, transposing Spanish measures into English, and looking up information of one kind and another in Spanish year-books. You can think that I would enjoy this.

I tend to look at what is written and reconstruct events from a detached third person analytical viewpoint.

a. Blatchford is a messenger runner.
b. He has been paid and familiarized himself with the black market.

LAWS & REGULATIONS FINANCIAL CRIME & FRAUD
How Black Markets Work
By AMY FONTINELLE
Updated December 31, 2021
Reviewed by JULIUS MANSA
Fact checked by SUZANNE KVILHAUG

What Is the Black Market?

A black market is a transaction platform, whether physical or virtual, where goods or services are exchanged illegally. What makes the market "black" can either be the illegal nature of the goods and services themselves, the illegal nature of the transaction or both.

For example, while neither buying nor selling food is illegal, the transaction enters the black market when the good sold is illegal. And while it's perfectly legal to sell hamburgers, when an all-cash restaurant does not remit to the state government the mandatory sales taxes on its transactions, it too has entered the black market.

Why Black Markets Exist

Black markets, also called shadow markets, come about when people want to exchange goods or services that are prohibited by governments. Black markets skew economic data, as transactions are unrecorded. Black markets also arise when people don't want to pay taxes on the transaction for legal or illegal goods or services. Some black markets exist simply because people don't realize there are laws they aren't following, such as bartering and not reporting the taxable value of the transaction, or hiring a regular housekeeper or babysitter but failing to pay employment taxes.

Licensure-Driven Black Market Conditions

The licensing restrictions that governments impose on numerous occupations cause some workers to enter the black market because they don't want or can't afford to invest the time and money to obtain the required licenses. For example, in New York City, one must purchase a license called a medallion in order to legally operate a taxi business.
1
These medallions cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, making them prohibitively expensive for most entrepreneurs. As a result, some people may choose to operate black-market taxis without a license—at least, until they are caught. Ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft have further splintered the market for these types of businesses.

Trade-Driven Black Market Conditions

Sometimes participants in black markets don't want to act illegally, but because they lack the ability to work legally and need to make money, they don't report their jobs or income to the government. Such situations arise when illegal immigrants obtain jobs, when students traveling abroad obtain employment without acquiring a work visa or when children work in violation of minimum age requirements.

Regulations-Driven Black Market Conditions

Black markets can also appear when government-imposed price ceilings create shortages. For example, if the government caps the price at which a grocery store may sell bottled water after a natural disaster, the store will quickly run out of water. Vendors will then likely appear selling water at the higher prices people are actually willing to pay. This secondary market is a black market.

Governments can also cause black markets through overregulation. An extreme example can be found in Cuba, where the rationing and ineffective central planning of communism made it difficult to purchase the desired quantities of even basic products such as cooking oil. Black markets are rampant because citizens want to buy things that are difficult to come by through legal channels. They're also common because it's so hard to find a job.

Economy-Driven Black Market Conditions

High unemployment can give rise to black markets. When workers can't find jobs in the above-ground economy, they may turn to jobs in the underground economy. These jobs could be as innocuous as fixing a neighbor's toilet (but being paid in cash and not reporting the income to the tax authorities) or as serious as selling cocaine (where not only the sale of the product itself but also the non-reporting of taxable income is illegal).

What Can You Buy on the Black Market?
Consumers can buy and sell numerous types of goods and services on the black market. Anything that is subject to the conditions described in the previous sections can show up in the underground economy. In the United States, we tend to think of illegal drugs, prostitution, designer knockoffs, and ticket scalping when we think of black markets.

More serious and lesser-known black markets operating worldwide include those in human organs, endangered species, babies, weapons, and slave labor (human trafficking).

Black markets also exist where people might never expect to find them. Online, it's possible to buy an eBay account (to falsely obtain a favorable seller rating) and to buy Instagram followers (to inflate one's perceived popularity).

The Case for Black Markets

Some people are in favor of black markets. These markets can supply goods that, while illegal (such as marijuana), arguably improve quality of life (for example, when used to alleviate pain for patients who haven't found relief from legal pharmaceuticals).

Black markets can provide legal necessities that are in short supply, as in the case of everyday Cuba or a city hit by a hurricane. Also, the shadow economy makes it possible for people to earn a living who would otherwise be destitute or seek welfare—people who would be perfectly employable under less government regulation or in an economy with a higher employment rate.

Overall, the case for black markets is highly subjective and depends on one's moral and ethical beliefs. If you think that drug use is a victimless crime, you might not have a problem with the black market for illegal drugs. If you think tax rates are too high, you might be happy to hire workers under the table.

The Case Against Black Markets

Black markets have a number of downsides, some of which are subjective, but many of which almost everyone would agree are serious problems.

Some black market goods are stolen from legitimate markets, taking business away from law-abiding entrepreneurs. While some consumers might not mind buying a stolen designer handbag at a discount because they think the retailer's price is too high, others would be appalled if they knew that while they thought they were simply getting a bargain, they were really supporting an organized crime ring. There is often a dark side to organized crime that goes beyond theft and the resale of stolen goods. This and other black-market activities are sometimes used to fund terrorism since the profits can't easily be traced.

Violence is another problem inherent in black markets. Because these markets are unregulated, participants can't rely on legitimate police protection in the event of theft or other crimes. If a drug dealer's stash of cocaine is stolen by a rival dealer, he can't ask the police to help him get his merchandise back. The dealer might send one of his employees to shoot the thief and reclaim the stolen goods, further compounding the effects of the original crime.

Another argument against black markets is that because their participants don't pay taxes, a heavier tax burden falls on law-abiding citizens.

The Bottom Line

Black markets will continue to exist as long as we have regulations and taxes. Laws that prevent people from buying and selling the goods and services they desire and taxes that prevent people from keeping what they feel is their fair share of earned income will always cause people to hide their activities from law enforcement agencies, tax authorities and other regulators.

Remember how the American army dealt with Native Americans and the "illegal trade in firearms and whiskey" when it thought it faced a "threat" from those same Native Americans?

c. He has bought himself "civilian clothes" and goes around in "Mufti" or as a "European".
d. He refers to civilian Filipinos, who live in a city with indoor plumbing, a telephone exchange, electric lights, which is kind of "clean" and "hygienic" from the batch of 1898 photos I perused as "heathens".
e. Private Blatchford is assigned to the previously mentioned arsonist, Colonel and soon to be General Hughes and functions as his go-for or flunky.

flun·ky
[ˈfləNGkē]
NOUN
flunkey (noun)
a liveried manservant or footman.
synonyms:
liveried manservant · liveried servant · lackey · steward · butler · footman · valet · retainer · attendant · factotum · houseboy · page
a person who performs relatively menial tasks for someone else, especially obsequiously.
synonyms:
minion · lackey · hireling · subordinate · underling · servant · retainer · vassal · puppet · spaniel · pawn · tool · creature · instrument · cat's paw

I would like to illustrate something...



That is not a "rickshaw".



There are "colonialist" scum and then there are colonialist "scum".

The Americans are at the top of the slippery slope at this moment. How far down the moral abyss will they slide, here?

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Sunday, September 4th, 1898

This is a fine day but, as usual, hot as ever. We all attend divine services. It is rumored that we are to be transferred to the First Brigade thereby constituting a change of duty but the Colonel [Alexander Hawkins] objects to this as all are satisfied with the present quarters. [Frank] Hustead, [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Charles] Burke, [Max] Hannan and [Charles] Collins are on the sick list.

Unit History...

10th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
10th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (1898-1899) - Organized at Connellsville, Washington, etc., Pa., and mustered into the service of the United States at Mount Gretna, Pa., May 11 and 12, 1898, with 36 officers and 604 enlisted men.

Assignments:

Assigned to Second Brigade, Second Division, Eighth Army Corps, August 1, 1898
Transferred to First Brigade, Second Division, Eighth Army Corps, December 14, 1898
Movements:
Left Mount Gretna May 17; arrived at San Francisco, Cal., May 24
Sailed from Francisco on steamship Zealandia June 15; arrived at Manila Bay July 17
Participated in engagement at Malate July 31 and August 1
in the advance on and capture of Manila August 13
in engagements with insurgents at Manila February 4 and 5, 1899
joined in the advance on Malolos and participated in engagements at Malabon March 25
Polo, March 26
Marilao, March 27
Entered Malolos March 31; left Malolos April 14
Stationed at Cavite until June 28
Detachment of regiment was stationed at Corregidor Island from December 1, 1898, to June 22, 1899
Sailed from Manila on steamship "Senator" July 1, 1899, arrived at San Francisco August 1
Mustered out of the service of the United States at San Francisco, Cal., August 22, 1899, with 33 officers and 736 enlisted men. Casualties while in service: Officers-wounded, 7; died of disease, 1. Enlisted men-killed in action, 12; wounded, 61; died of wounds, 3; died of dis- ease,6.

From:

Correspondence Relating to the War with Spain, Center for Military History, U.S. Army, Vol 1
The Organization of the Army during the Spanish-American War, page 509
Organization of Volunteers, page 581

Asendorf is well ahead of the curve on the rumor mill. The 1st Brigade is under the command of General Arthur MacArthur. He is adjudeged to be a better general than General Francis Vinton Green who was alleged to have mishandled his part of the Mock Battle of Manila. He will instead be placed in charge of "the Philippine Question", after a military occupation government is stood up. Friend of McKinley, he was.^1

^1 Article....

"Why did America Cross the Pacific."

Gen. Greene’s Mission and the Decision to Take the Philippines, August to October 1898

After the July debates, the Cabinet and McKinley agreed it was most important to get information and recommendations from the Americans who were on the scene in the Philippines. Of these men, none turned out to be more influential than a brigadier general named Francis Vinton Greene.

It was an illustrious name. Greene came from one of the most respected military families in America. His grandfather was Nathaniel Greene, one of the most celebrated generals in the Revolution. His father had been a general during the Civil War, commanding a Union brigade at Gettysburg.

Following the family tradition, Francis Greene had graduated from West Point in 1870 at the top of his class. Commissioned in the Corps of Engineers, he had been one of the surveyors on a renowned expedition during the 1870s in the Rocky Mountain West. As a staff officer in the War Department Greene had become close to President Ulysses S. Grant as well as to Gens. William Sherman and Philip Sheridan and other leading officers of the day. In these years, he first met the young naval officer George Dewey.

Greene was assigned to go out and observe the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. He witnessed the principal campaigns and wrote a book about the war that became a standard account, establishing a unique reputation as a soldier-scholar.

Greene left the Army in 1886 to go into business in New York City. Running an asphalt paving company, he became a powerful force in all the civic improvement and road-building issues of that city and beyond. That connected him well to local Republican politics. He was also elected colonel of one of New York’s militia regiments, the 71st New York.

As war with Spain threatened, one of Greene’s friends, Theodore Roosevelt, pleaded with the colonel to accept him as a deputy in that regiment, a lieutenant colonel, if war came. (Roosevelt ended up finding such a place in a different regiment, commanded by Leonard Wood.)

When the war did come, as Greene and his regiment readied for service in Cuba, Greene was ordered to command one of the brigades being assembled for the Philippines. It was not a hard call for Corbin at the War Department. Corbin would later privately record that he regarded Greene as “one of the most competent soldiers I have ever known.”63

After a difficult siege in the rainy season and a brief assault, Greene’s brigade and the other American troops had accepted the surrender of Manila. Greene, who could speak Spanish and French, was promptly put in charge of all the finances of the Philippine administration. He met with all the Spanish officials and leading private bankers and took actions to head off a financial crisis.

This was the context when McKinley asked Dewey to provide his best advice about the situation in the Philippines. He asked Dewey to even consider returning to Washington to report directly to him on this vital matter. Dewey sent a brief reply, noting the desirability of Luzon but saying nothing about the revolutionary government that had been created by Aguinaldo. Dewey said he hoped he would not have to go to Washington while matters remained “in present critical condition.”

Dewey, Army expedition commander Merritt, and Greene conferred. They decided that Greene should be the man to go to Washington.64

News arrived of the armistice with Spain. Outside of official channels, Greene received a telegram from a well-connected associate. It advised him that the war was considered closed. Commissioners would determine the disposition of the Philippines. Greene’s friend thought the Army would just retain a garrison there.

This informal news shocked the commanders in Manila. They feared the United States was planning to withdraw from the islands and thought that leaders in Washington did not understand the “critical” situation. On August 25, Merritt and Greene fired a salvo of telegrams to Washington through official and unofficial channels.

In one, Greene asked his friend to go see Corbin as soon as possible, to even see President McKinley if necessary. He recommended that the president should send for “a competent and responsible person immediately” to come and brief them — either Maj. Gen. Merritt or himself, going to Washington or to Paris (to see the commissioners). Greene also cabled Day and Hay to the same effect.

Washington reacted promptly. Merritt was ordered to turn over his command to a newly arrived major-general, Elwell Otis, and hurry at once to Paris. There he could brief the peace commissioners. Greene was ordered to Washington “by first transport.”

Dewey said his views would come back with Greene. He again called for holding on to Luzon. He wrote little about politics or practicalities. The Filipinos, he did add, “are gentle, docile and under just laws and with the benefits of popular education would soon make good citizens” with capacities for self-government superior to the Cubans.

On August 30, the day after he received his order from Washington, Greene boarded a steamship for Hong Kong. Boarding the ship with Greene was Aguinaldo’s representative, Felipe Agoncillo, who also hoped to see and influence the American president.

Greene liked and respected Agoncillo. During the weeks of traveling the two men frequently dined together and chatted.

Greene brought with him every book and relevant document he could find. He used the ensuing weeks of travel to draft a detailed report for McKinley, more than 60 pages, on “The Situation in the Philippines.”65

Knowing how long his trip would take, Greene sent a preview. On September 5, as he changed ships in Nagasaki, Greene personally encoded an unusual telegram sent outside of standard Army channels. Written in the tightly abbreviated style of telegrams in that era, Greene sent his message directly to Day. It read:

Rep of Aguinaldo with me. Comes solely on his own responsibility. In my opinion Spanish Power Philippines dead. Any attempt revive it will result Civil War, anarchy and foreign intervention.

Once the 13,000 Spanish prisoners already in American hands were sent home, “Aguinaldo’s army will probably dissolve. He cannot maintain independent gov’t without protection of some strong nation.”

Therefore: “Only safe course is for United States to hold islands and not divide them. British sentiment will support this unanimously. Have expressed these views Admiral Dewey. He fully concurs.”66

Thus for the first time, in early September, McKinley and Day finally received a very plain statement about what their commanders in the Philippines thought about the points they and their Cabinet colleagues had been debating. In addition to the substance of this advice, McKinley would have realized its political significance. He could presume that eventually such advice would become publicly known. It would not be easy for the president to break with the advice he had received from his men on the spot, including the new national hero (Dewey).

McKinley was still not quite convinced. Later in September, he convened his freshly appointed peace commissioners to discuss their instructions. Out for a carriage ride with one of them, a vigorous expansionist, McKinley seemed (to his companion) to be “timid about the Philippines.” To him, McKinley seemed “oppressed with the idea that our volunteers were all tired of the service and eager to get home. ‘The whole shooting match wants to quit,’ was the way he expressed it.” McKinley thought the country was in no mood for further military operations, including fights for expansion.

At the meeting, the expansionist commissioners debated Day, whom McKinley had put in charge of the delegation. Day had not budged from his view that the United States should take as little as possible. To Day, the Americans had only liberated Manila. They had no obligations beyond that. Washington, Day argued, had to place some limit on humanitarian enterprise:

Because we had done good in one place [Cuba], we were not therefore compelled to rush over the whole civilized world, six thousand miles away from home, to undertake tasks of that sort among people about whom we knew nothing, and with whom we had no relation.

McKinley summed up. He could see why many Americans found the acquisition of territory naturally attractive. But he thought these attractions would wear off “when the difficulties, expense and loss of life which it entailed, became more manifest.”

However, McKinley said he could no longer see how to return liberated Manila to Spain. Flowing from that, it also seemed doubtful to hold Manila without holding more of the surrounding island of Luzon.

“Beyond this he did not seem inclined to go.” He then drafted the commission’s instructions accordingly. He privately told Day that, if territory was returned to Spain, it would be good to try to get some guarantees about the treatment of the inhabitants.67

After four weeks of travel by ship and railroad, Greene’s train steamed into Washington on September 27. Greene went straight to the White House. McKinley practically cleared his schedule for him.

Greene met for two hours with McKinley on the day he arrived. He delivered his report, which the president read and reviewed with him. The report was clear and vividly written. The next day McKinley had a copy of it sent to Paris for the commissioners, commending it to them.

The next morning Greene was back at the White House, now joined by the new secretary of state, Hay. He stayed for lunch. Greene was back yet again in the evening, now joined by his wife, for a visit that mixed business and socializing. Two days later Greene was at the White House for still more discussions.

Greene also arranged for McKinley to meet with his traveling companion, Aguinaldo’s representative Agoncillo. Greene joined that meeting too. Agoncillo was received purely as a private traveler since neither the United States nor anyone else had recognized his revolutionary government.

While en route to Washington, Agoncillo had also previewed his position. Meeting with reporters he outlined that, above all, his government wanted absolute independence.

If absolute independence was not possible, the next preference was to become a protectorate of the United States. A third preference was to be an American colony or, worse still, a British one. What they could not accept was any return to Spanish rule.68

In their meeting Agoncillo told McKinley about the revolution and the new government. McKinley was noncommittal. Agoncillo’s written position was passed along to the commissioners in Paris, Agoncillo’s next destination.69

In his own meetings with McKinley, in addition to going over his long report, Greene boiled down the options he thought were left to the United States. He wrote these out separately, as follows:

There are five courses open to us in the Philippines:

first, to return them to Spain, which would mean Civil War for we have destroyed Spanish authority in the Philippines;

second, to hand the Philippines over to the Filipinos, which would mean anarchy for they are at present incapable of self-government;

third, to hand the Islands over to Germany or Japan, either one of which could probably take them over, but this would be an act of cowardice of which we are incapable;

fourth, to put the Islands under some form of joint protectorate like that which was established [by Britain] for Egypt in 1882, but this has not proved successful and has resulted in one nation taking the whole responsibility;

fifth, to take all the Islands as possessions of the United States and gradually work out their destiny, and this is the only proper solution.

McKinley read this over and over again, in silence. Then “with that kindly smile which was so characteristic of him,” he observed “gently,” that: “General Greene, that is very advanced doctrine. I am not prepared for that.”

McKinley asked Greene if he knew what instructions he had just given to his peace commissioners. Greene did not. McKinley summarized his instructions as having been “to take the City and Bay of Manila and such additional portions of the Island of Luzon as they think necessary for naval purposes, and to return the rest of the Islands to Spain.” This summary by McKinley is somewhat different and narrower than the language he had signed off on September 16. But Greene’s account may give a truer sense of what McKinley actually had in mind.70

Greene then set out to change McKinley’s mind, to persuade him that the United States had to take control of the whole Philippines. He went over all that he had done and learned in his six weeks in the Philippines. He talked about how he had used his Spanish to have long exchanges with all the prominent Filipinos in Manila and how he had spent more time learning from Agoncillo. Therefore he had to disagree, “respectfully but with extreme urgency.”

Greene had time to go into great detail about his analysis of the situation during the three extended meetings he had with McKinley, each of which were two to three hours. It was, as Greene had explained in his written report, a situation “without precedent in American history.” There were more than 7 million people in the Philippines. Manila, a city of 400,000, was already under U.S. military rule.

All of this had been ruled by a Spanish officialdom of no more than 30,000, most of whom were now trying to escape back to Spain. “The Spanish officials have intense fear of the Insurgents; and the latter hate them, as well as the friars, with a virulence that can hardly be described.” The Spanish could neither cope with the insurgents nor surrender to them. An attempted restoration of Spanish power would produce “civil war and anarchy, leading inevitably and speedily to intervention by foreign nations whose subjects have property in the Islands which they would not allow to be destroyed.”71

As for the Revolutionary Government of Aguinaldo, Greene assessed that it would be a “Dictatorship of the familiar South American type …. a pure despotism.” He saw “no reason to believe that Aguinaldo’s Government has any elements of stability.” Aguinaldo was a young man of 28. Though Greene thought Aguinaldo was able, Greene did not think he could command wide or enduring support.

Also, the insurgents were purely “Tagalo” in ethnic composition. Greene did not assume that the Visayans, more numerous than the Tagalos, would fall in line. There were plenty of fault lines for conflict among “the thirty races in the Philippines, each speaking a different dialect.”

Greene believed the United States could gain the support of the educated and propertied Filipino elite, since they “fully realize that they must have the support of some strong nation for many years before they will be in a position to manage their own affairs alone.” Their ideal for this was a Philippine Republic under American protection, “much as they heard is to be granted to Cuba.” On this desire for a protectorate, “all are agreed” among the Filipino elite. Only Aguinaldo and his inner circle were doubtful.

But, Greene argued, the protectorate option was harder than it might seem. “t is difficult to see how any foreign Government can give this protection without taking such an active part in the management of affairs as is practically equivalent to governing in its own name and for its own account.”72

Just taking only some portion of Luzon would, Greene had written, be “a terrible mistake” for all, including for McKinley’s presidency. It could embroil the United States in a conflict with another country that later intervened in the other islands.

What if Aguinaldo and the insurgents did not accept U.S. rule, even temporary rule? Greene admired the way the insurgents had fought the Spanish:

Nevertheless from daily contact with them for six weeks I am very confident that no such results could have been obtained against an American Army, which would have driven them back to the hills and reduced them to a petty guerrilla warfare. If they attack the American Army, this will certainly be the result, and while these guerrilla bands might cause some trouble so long as their ammunition lasted, yet with our Navy guarding the coasts and our Army pursuing them on land it would not be long before they were reduced to subjection.

McKinley gave Greene ample time to describe the situation and make his case. At the time, Greene thought that he had not been convincing enough. He thought he had “utterly failed to shake” the president’s reluctance to take the Philippines.

Looking back on it years later, Greene saw that perhaps his seeds had borne fruit after all. He recalled that, as the two men parted at the end of September, McKinley said he intended to start a trip to the West to make a series of speeches about the unexpected results of the war. Smiling, he told Greene, “Perhaps when I come back I may think differently from what I now think.”73

McKinley kept gathering information. During early October, Day and Moore sent him detailed, substantive reports from Paris summarizing what the commissioners had learned from Merritt and other experts, including Foreman.

All of the information gathered in Paris seemed to line up with what McKinley had heard from Greene. A report given great weight by Merritt was the view of the Army’s lead surgeon in the Philippines, Frank Bourns. Bourns had spent years visiting the islands as a scientist during the early 1890s. Returning with the Army, Bourns had taken charge of public health in the Philippines after the American occupation of Manila. He had worked directly with Filipino leaders to make progress.

From Paris, Bourns was reported as believing that “if a few ambitious insurgent Chieftains could be disposed of, masses of natives could be managed by the United States. Considers natives incapable of self-government because of lack of good examples, lack of union in Luzon and throughout Archipelago, and existence of race, tribal and religious differences.”74

Outside of formal channels, McKinley had access to a more unvarnished side of Bourns’ views. Someone had given the president part of a lengthy private letter Bourns had written from Manila.

In this letter Bourns did write that “these people could be managed if properly handled.” Yet Bourns was angry about the attitudes of his fellow Americans. He warned that none of the other American officers, with one exception, “seem to have cared to inform themselves either of the character of the people or their desires, nor do they even care to explain our desires and intentions.”

In his letter, left in McKinley’s papers, Bourns bluntly sized up the situation this way:

Aguinaldo has the whole Philippine population at his beck and call. He is the successful man and has the successful man’s influence. The lower classes have a blind confidence in him. With the middle classes it is an ambitious confidence; that is they do not know quite enough to understand that an independent government cannot long continue to exist and are anxious to see it, because they expect to get the plums. With the well educated and wealthy people it is merely a question of expediency; they support the Philippine Government so that they may influence it for the best. I venture to say that ninety-five percent of them at heart want to see American protection, and a good many of the most influential want to see annexation, but the masses of the people know nothing about Americans and think we are just like the Spaniards. Our officials take no trouble to educate them; our men simply refuse to have anything to do with them, will not recognize them nor write to them officially, and many of the line officers, such as colonels, majors, and captains, treat them as cattle to be knocked around as suits their pleasure.

Of course, Bourns wrote, “This is all wrong.” If the United States did not do better, Bourns feared that it would find itself in a war with the Filipinos.

Yet Bourns thought the problem was still manageable. With some “tact and patience,” and attention to the Filipinos, “the whole Filipino government could be swung our way without bloodshed.”75

In mid-October, having received no further guidance from Washington, Dewey weighed in again. He sent a terse cable pleading for a decision about the Philippines “as soon as possible, and a strong government established.”

In Luzon, Dewey wrote, Spanish authority had been “completely destroyed.” Outside Manila, “general anarchy prevails.” The islands to the south would soon fall into the same state. “Distressing reports have been received of inhuman cruelty practiced on religious and civil authorities in other parts of these islands. The natives appear unable to govern.”76

McKinley left Washington for about 10 days in October, traveling around the Midwest to rally support for the upcoming midterm elections. It was during this trip that McKinley began to speak publicly, in vague terms, about American duty and unexpected obligation.

At one point some scholarly opinion tended to think McKinley was trying to gauge public opinion. In fact he was deciding how to lead it, and lead it toward the conclusion firming up in his own mind.77

By the time he returned to Washington, McKinley had decided that there was no good middle ground. No government had recognized Aguinaldo. With the notable exception of Germany, the other great powers seemed to prefer American control now that Spanish rule was gone.78

Back in Washington, Secretary of the Navy Long wrote to his wife,

If I could have had my way, I wouldn’t have had the war, and I wouldn’t have been burdened with Porto Rico or Cuba or the Philippines. They are an elephant, just as everything else is an elephant that disturbs the even tenor of our national way, but there they are, and my shoulder goes to the wheel.

McKinley cabled the commissioners: “We must either hold [the Philippines] or turn them back to Spain.” McKinley now saw “but one plain path of duty — the acceptance of the archipelago. Greater difficulties and more serious complications — administrative and international — would follow any other course.”79

A few weeks later, McKinley talked privately to a colleague about how he had worked through the arguments. The islands could not go back to Spain. If they went to another European power “we should have a war on our hands in fifteen minutes” and the United States would be responsible, having let it happen just to escape responsibility for its actions. McKinley reviewed the geography of the islands. He discussed why it had seemed so difficult to separate them.

His visitor congratulated McKinley on his decision and remarked on what great confidence the people had in him. McKinley was having none of it:

Yes that confidence, that awful confidence. Consider what a burden that imposes on me. I almost wish these questions were not so much left to the decision of any small number. I can foresee for myself and for the people nothing but anxiety for the next two years.80

I have to remark, that from the American point of view, McKinley, despite his own poltroonery and culpability in what I regard as his admininistration's criminal colonialist aggression, still looked for alternatives to the outright seizure of the Philippine Islands. He tried to do "the right thing". General Greene, likewise, in generating his advice and also carrying back Dewey's own observations, tried to do "the right thing" by 1898 American standards. This question of becoming "colonizers" has and had always been troublesome for Americans since the American Revolution forward. We started out by throwing foreign colonizers out of our own country. And then we turned around and became "colonizers" as we invaded other (Native Americans and Mexican, and Russian encroached, and then with this Spanish American War, Spanish colonial lands.

To put it in terms that few Europeans understand about us, but which I am sure many Filipinos and Cubans, then and now would recognize, we have had a strange mix of domestic political "moralism" and power politics which pitted slavocrats and abolitionists, internationalists and isolationists, regionalists and nationalists, those who wanted to stay at home and tend to our own affairs and those who wanted to "export Americanism" all mixed up.

This whole article, from which I excerpted General Greene's involvement, should give a good general view of the American internal machinations and politics which will lead to the February 1899 tragedy.

But about that...

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General Otis, the war criminal, is currently still being "polite" and biding his time. He has to wait for those reinforcements and more artillery, more infantry, more Krags and more AMMUNITION. He already anticipates an "Indian War".

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Monday, September 5th, 1898

This is another fine, hot day. Our Captain [Bierer] visited our men at the hospital and reports John Baird very sick and [Robert] Fox almost impossible that he will live and the doctor blamed it on the Regimental doctor and says it was neglect that they didn’t examine him and simply treated him for cramps which Fox didn’t have. The Captain [Bierer] had told them that Fox was struck in the stomach the night of the 31st with a stone of some heavy dirt from the breastwork which was enough, I think, to start inflammation. But, like any other sickness, they filled him up on pills. [Frank] Hustead, [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Max] Hannan, [Charles] Collins and Joseph P. Johnson are on the sick list.

Incompetent army medical care is the reality of the American (actually any) army, not the fiction, our popular historians would like us to believe. Whether it was malaria in Cuba during the Spanish American War, or fungal infections (*jungle rot) in the Philippine Islands, in the Filipino American War, or the incompetent idiot who told me that my skin infection was hives, the quacks who enrolled and still enroll in the American army were and are legion.

Poor Robert Fox will probably die because the imbecile who misdiagnosed him, did not apply what a few good American Civil War surgeons who had service out in the west against Native Americans had learned the hard way about sepsis and the peculiar Native American practice to taint their bullets and arrows with excrement. It seems our "heathen" Native Americans had built up a huge practical knowledge base about how infections worked and how to treat them. Their "medicine men" had a "germ theory" and they had some nifty means for combatting those germs. The Native Americans, for example, would apply silver, copper, or even tree mold topically to an infection to "drain the poison off". This seems to have also been a treatment, that Filipino doctors applied to handle fungal and bacteriological infections they encountered locally.

The American army quacks would give you mercury pills.

First rule of medicine. Do no harm. Hah!

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Tuesday, September 6th, 1898

This is a beautiful day but as hot as ever. We are still doing guard duty at the prison. The Captain [Daniel Bierer] receives a telegram that [Robert] Fox died last night at 10:30 p.m. He, at once, made the necessary arrangements and Chaplain [Joseph] Hunter wishes [the funeral] to be held right after dinner owing to the long distance to the cemetery which is situated 1[?] mile from the old Camp “Dewey.” The whole company filed into line and marched to the hospital. We all viewed the remains which were, to our surprise, not a bit natural showing that he had suffered terrible agony. On account of some delay about the coffin, we didn’t leave the hospital until 4:30. We then marched off. A firing squad, one carriage and two carts (the squad rode little ponies) drove out to the cemetery. We reached them at about 7 o’clock. In a very short time we had dug the grave. As soon as he was lowered we fired the salute (three times) and the bugler blew Taps (three times). We returned to our quarters at 9:30. I was very, indeed, very sore and tired and I guess all of us were. [Frank] Hustead, [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Max] Hannan, [Charles] Collins and Joseph P. Johnson are on the sick list.

Well, that happened. Notice the difference between the Protestant 10th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and the 1st California next...

Diary of James J. Loughrey September 6, 1898

Requiem High Mass was celebrated for Captain Richter and the other members of the regiment who had died. Father Doughterty celebrated the Mass, with the sermon preached by Father McKinnion.

Being mostly Roman Catholics, our flour mill thieves hold a "High Mass" for their dead. This mass is in High Church Latin and comes with all the fixings and trimmings. Remember where the 1st California are quartered? They have access to a fully functioning (Filipino) cathedral and its cadre of priests and other functionaries.

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On a more secular note...



The contraption is called a "Kalesa". The thing, in front of it, is called a "horse". I would like tp point out that this was the conveyance of the "ilustrado" class..

Which brings up the question of cavalry...

I have thought it hilarious that some people of the era and even now, thought / think that neither the Americans nor the Filipinos did not use cavalry in the Filipino American War. Both nations had a tradition of raising horse troopers from among their "privileged middle and upper classes" for their armies. The difference comes at the American Civil War. Once the slavo-crats took their experienced so called plantation owner aristocrat cavalry officers out of the American army to form JEB Stewart's and Joe Wheeler's and Nathan Bedford Forrest's horse soldiers, where was the Union to get their cavalry?

They raised it from nothing.

Question



Why did it take the North so long to build an effective cavalry during the Civil War?

Answer

In the first two years of the Civil War, most judged the Southern cavalry—the horse-borne troopers who could travel far more quickly than their colleagues in the infantry—superior to that of the Union army. In the war’s first months, Confederate cavalry enjoyed a reputation for better horsemanship and more fighting spirit; they boasted the most colorful and well-known cavalry officers of the war’s early months, including the flamboyant J. E. B. Stuart and the daring Nathan Bedford Forrest; and celebrated some noteworthy victories over their Northern counterparts. No less an authority than Union General William Tecumseh Sherman described the Confederate cavalry in 1863 as “splendid riders, shots, and utterly reckless . . . the best Cavalry in the world.”

A larger number of West Point graduates and a greater proportion of Regular Army troops hailed from the South

The diverging nature of life in the two regions provided Southerners with some initial advantages in fielding an effective cavalry force quickly. In 1860, far more Southerners lived in rural locations than did Northerners. Because roads in the South were generally poorer, a greater proportion of Southerners grew up in the saddle; because they learned to hunt as youths, fewer Southerners had to be taught to shoot. Those advantages in upbringing echoed in the proportion of Southerners in the cavalry units of the prewar army; despite their relatively smaller population, more cavalry officers hailed from the South than from the North, and upon the outbreak of war the majority of those cavalry officers resigned their commissions and joined the Confederate cavalry, leaving the Union Army at a further competitive disadvantage. Southerners furnished a number of explanations for their supposed prowess on horseback and in battle. Most believed themselves to naturally possess more “martial spirit” than their counterparts in the North. At the outset of the war, many if not most Southerners viewed their region as having a near monopoly on fighting ability; the fact that a larger number of West Point graduates and a greater proportion of Regular Army troops hailed from the South suggested to many that the South benefited from pronounced advantages in military aptitude. Southerners frequently regarded the North as a region of timid clerks and shopkeepers, ill-suited to the burdens of campaigning and fighting. (So widespread was that confidence in Southerners’ own innate superiority as soldiers that Confederate textbooks for elementary schoolchildren featured word problems like “A Confederate soldier captured 8 Yankees each day for 9 successive days; how many did he capture in all?” and “If one Confederate soldier can whip 7 Yankees, how many soldiers can whip 49 Yankees?”) During the first half of the war, Confederate victories at battles like Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville—against larger and better-equipped Union forces—seemed to confirm Southerners’ belief about their natural superiority in battle. The Southern cavalry’s exploits in the first months of the war, sometimes literally riding circles around their opponents, similarly suggested the Rebel horsemen’s inherent preeminence. In mid-nineteenth century armies, cavalry troops served a number of functions. Because of their speed and range, commanders often employed cavalry troops as a reconnaissance force, relying on them to furnish information about the location and strength of enemy troops: large bodies of infantry depended on the reports furnished by cavalry troopers to guard against surprise or entrapment by enemy forces. Cavalry also served as screens for infantry armies on the march: with foot-soldiers strung out in long, vulnerable columns, often over several miles, horse troops could interpose themselves between enemy divisions and offer them some protection, as Confederate cavalry did so effectively in the Shenandoah Valley in 1862. Frequently, cavalry troops engaged enemy troops directly, either from horseback or (as became more and more common in the latter years of the war) fighting dismounted as infantry troops. Confederate raiders like Forrest and John Singleton Mosby used their cavalry to mount daring attacks on Federal supply lines, frustrating the outmanned Union cavalry’s efforts to check them.


The changing nature of tactics and technology during the Civil War led to a dramatic change in the way horse troops were employed as the war progressed. The mounted cavalry charge became less effective with the development of more accurate shoulder arms, and the importance of reconnaissance and dismounted fighting became more important. Stuart’s daring raids into Northern territory alarmed civilians and burnished Stuart’s reputation as a dashing cavalier, but the military significance of those raids was less significant. Stuart’s infamous long raid during the Gettysburg campaign captured several Union supply trains but left the Confederate army moving blindly through unfamiliar territory; Stuart’s absence led general Robert E. Lee to accept the battle at Gettysburg without a clear idea of the terrain or the strength of the enemy, with disastrous consequences. By the midpoint of the war, Union cavalry troopers had achieved at least parity with their Confederate counterparts, matching them in horsemanship and firepower thanks in part to the introduction of repeating carbines to the cavalry arsenal. The relentless process of weeding out less-competent leaders and replacing them with soldiers of demonstrated military acumen also benefited the Union as the war dragged on. By the final year of the war, the Union cavalry troopers had more than equaled the prowess of the Southern forces, and Federal commanders like Phil Sheridan had honed the Union cavalry into a devastatingly effective tool that helped maintain unyielding pressure on Confederate armies from 1864 on.

  

It is a little more fundamental than that.(^^^)
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If you were the Union Army and you wanted to make a special ideological point to the slavo-crats (And to the Native Americans in a perverse way... M.) you took ex-slaves and put them on a horse.  



Those are the Philippine Scouts. (^^^) Notice who is the tank crewman? He is a Filipino citizen.  

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Wednesday, September 7th, 1898

The weather remains clear and hot. We are on guard duty in the prisons. We have fresh biscuits, beans and fresh meat. Private [Gilbert] Cuite was court martialed today for disorderly conduct and assaulting [Leroy] Underwood. He was fined 16 3/4 for swearing, $2.00 for disorderly conduct and six days hard labor. The money is to be deducted from his pay. [Frank] Hustead, [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Max] Hannan, [Charles] Collins and Joseph P. Johnson remain on the sick list.

As far as I could glean from the archives, the fight was over a Filipina girl. Leroy Underwood was the one clouted and the loser in the brawl. Gilbert Cuite was the one who was drunk. It was a drumhead court martial.  The punishment meted; was a month's pay for putting Underwood on the sick list due to a concussion, 2 more dollars for calling the captain an expletive deleted and the rockpile for "disrespect" to and of an officer and his judicial authority.

Private Gilbert Cuite was what happened when soldiers are left idle and have access to liquor and unsupervised free time.

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Thursday, September 8th, 1898

This is another fine, hot day. I was over to visit John Baird and Fred Jennewine. Fred is getting along fine and expects to be released in a few days, but John Baird is feeling very low and is not very encouraged. I also went down to the bay and gathered a few shells. [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis and [Max] Hannan are on the sick list.

It is to be remarked, that during the Spanish American War, approximately 450 American soldiers were killed by weapon effects. 4,000 Americans died from diseases acquired through poor camp sanitation, rotten food and incompetent medical care.

The 10th Pennsylvania is just a sub-element of this. It is to be remarked that while dozens of men became sick with malaria and other ailments, this regiment suffered more battle casualties than deaths due to illness, mainly because the 10th Pennsylvania had officers who took care of the soldiers.

And speaking of officers who did not take care of their soldiers, how about the 1st South Dakota Volunteers?

Diary of Thomas H. Briggs September 8, 1898 (Tuesday)

A young man named [Sayre] Jenson [of Irene, South Dakota], belonging to our company, while playing with a bomb he had found at the fort, had his hand blown off by the explosive bomb. He is under the doctor's care.

Booby...

boo·by
[ˈbo͞obē]
NOUN
a stupid or childish person.
synonyms:
idiot · fool · stupid person · simpleton · moron · cretin · imbecile · [more]
a large tropical seabird of the gannet family, with brown, black, or white plumage and brightly colored feet.

...trap.

trap
[trap]
NOUN
a device or enclosure designed to catch and retain animals, typically by allowing entry but not exit or by catching hold of a part of the body:
"the squirrels ravaged the saplings, despite the baited traps" · [more]
synonyms:
snare · net · cage · prison · encumbrance · burden · problem
a situation in which people lie in wait to make a surprise attack:
"we were fed false information by a double agent and walked straight into a trap"
synonyms:
ambush · lure · decoy · bait · ambuscade
a container or device used to collect a specified thing:
"one fuel filter and water trap are sufficient on the fuel system"
VERB
catch (an animal) in a trap.
synonyms:
confine · catch · cut off · corner · pin down · drive into a corner · pen · hem in · close in · shut in · hedge in · imprison · hold captive

Diary of James J. Loughrey September 8, 1898

Solemn High Mass was celebrated, accompanied by a native choir. The service and singing were beautiful.

Have you noticed that the 1st California spends a lot of time in church?

Which brings us to our "gopher"...



Journal of E. Huntington Blatchford Manila, P. I., September 8, 1898

The General has gone to the City Government Building as Provost Marshal-General, and has not yet taken me from here. The first day I moved the office up to the second floor. Here we have two grand rooms—one large and the other rather smaller; the latter is my private property. The ceiling must be quite twenty feet high, and the windows and doors match. At night I find we get all the breeze there is, and no more than our share of the mosquitoes. The General said, this morning, that he had more work than he could see his way through, and that he should want me to come down to his present headquarters in a day or two, but that, in any case, he would keep the office here in the palace for a sleeping-place for me. He also remarked that he was looking for a saddle horse, and “when I get it I shall probably want you to exercise it more or less.” He is so kind to me that I hardly feel as if it were the part of a soldier to be his messenger, but still I am glad to be. I shall be well satisfied to be connected with this municipal administration as the governing problem is more pressing here now than the military, and I rather think that the General will have to take the brunt of the former in his position. He has three regiments—the Twenty-third Infantry, the Thirteenth Minnesota, and the Second Oregon Volunteer Infantry—as his police force. In addition to the police work, he is responsible for the water, electric light, fire, street-cleaning, and penitentiary departments of the city. I had a little share in the street-cleaning question the other day. It was before the General was formally appointed. He wanted to know about how many carts and men the Government had, and where these carts were. I brought the subject up when I was talking with my Spanish friend at his house. I found that a gentleman in the same house had been in the city government, and I learned from him the system of their street-cleaning. It is done by contract, the government furnishing transportation. I was able to make a somewhat full report the next morning to the General—the information being what he wanted, and what he had. not been able to get hold of. I had been able to get the name and address of the contractor. I heard him to-day, in talking with a Major who has been put in charge of street-cleaning, use the material I was so lucky as to chance upon. The Spaniards are very nasty in trying to block the administration in a thousand little ways, and they are the hardest people to get information out of, if you go at it directly. There would be good use here for a secret service of five or six efficient men. The General is persuaded that there are large amounts of Government property stored away in churches and private houses in the city which should be searched out and claimed by the United States. One instance of the way they waft away the stuff: when the officers went to take charge of the Spanish public treasury, the grand Archbishop comes along and says it is his—has been loaned to him, and therefore, being church property, it is “hands off” for the Americans. The way the matter was settled I know not. Under the circumstances I should have been tempted to give the Archbishop just about thirty seconds to give up his money, á la good old Western style. I must tell you a story I heard of the times here before the battle, when the Germans were threatening trouble. You very likely have heard it, but it is so good, and also reported as authentic, that I will run the chance of repeating. The German admiral, it seems, went to the British admiral and asked him what course he would take in case the Germans should take part with the Spaniards at the storming of the city — in short, if the German men-of-war should attack the American fleet. The English admiral replied, with perfect graciousness: “Only Admiral Dewey and myself know what I should do under those circumstances.” It was enough to silence the German.

I do not need to explain much here.

1. Who is this smarmy fixer and "gopher"?

The Philippine Diary Project

Diary entries from Philippine history.

About Eliphalet Huntington Blatchford

About the author: Eliphalet Huntington Blatchford (October 9, 1876 — December 23, 1905). The Newberry Library, which holds the Blatchford Family Papers, in its Biography of the E.W. Blatchford Family, summarizes his life as follows:

Eliphalet Huntington Blatchford, known as E. Huntington or Hunt, was born October 9, 1876 in Chicago and attended Amherst College. In 1898 he enlisted in the United States Cavalry and was stationed in Manila, the Philippines, where he remained for six months. E. Huntington Blatchford’s writings and letters home describing his experiences were later published as “A Trooper’s Diary.” He later studied law and worked for E. W. Blatchford & Co. He died of heart disease December 23, 1905 while at a health sanitarium in Winnetka, IL.

It is an old American maxim that when someone hides his first name behind an initial, you wonder what else about the character of the man there is hidden.

It goes, in "a legal joke" or tale, something like this...

A man calls himself J. Cass Wellington. He is called to testify in a criminal case. During the cross examination, the defense attorney, one Abraham Lincoln, asks Mr. J. Cass Wellington, for what the J. initial stands as a name. The witness answers "John", but Mister Lincoln produces written evidence that the witness' name is actually "Jack" as in Jack Cass Wellington. From here, Mister Lincoln proceeds to impeach the witness. It is not hard to do. Lie in small things... lie in big things. Would you like to know what Mister Lincoln proved on Mister Jack Cass Wellington? He was the murderer, not Mister Lincoln's client. 
            
"Eliphalet" is a bit of a moniker that would, if known among the US 4th Cavalry troopers, be quickly changed to "Elephant" Blatchford. Such is how pretentious posers were handled in those days. 

2. So now our "gopher" can go ariding as a "European" among the "heathens"? 

3. I suppose, from a popular point of view, Mister "Elephant's" recounting of the alleged meeting between Sir Edward Chichester, of the HMS Immortalitie and Vice Admiral Otto von Diederichs might seem "satisfactory", except that as far as I know, it never happened that way.  Like most anecdotes, the more mundane explanation is that Admiral Diederichs made inquiries as to whether the British would join him in a protest that Dewey's captains were violating neutral's rights under international law.   

Cold War Between Von Diederichs and Dewey in Manila Bay

By Captain J. M. Ellicott, U. S. Navy (Deceased)

November 1955 Proceedings Vol. 81/11/633

Early in 1898 Germany entered the race with other Western powers for the acquisition of Asiatic bases and trading ports. In February she brought pressure enough upon China to obtain the lease of the Bay of Kiaochow and probably saw in the native uprising in the Philippines the possibility of obtaining them by purchase from Spain, consequently she assembled a portion of her Asiatic fleet in Hong Kong in anticipation of their occupancy. The destruction of the Maine, however, brought the United States into almost inevitable war with Spain, and the arrival of a U. S. Squadron in Hong Kong under Commodore Dewey threatened to bring in another competitor for the islands.

The German division in Hong Kong was under the command of Prince Henry of Prussia, whom Dewey had met some years before and liked, but even their cordial personal relations could not prevent an apprehension on the part of the German Prince that the United States might snatch the plum for which Germany was reaching. At a banquet Prince Henry was heard to say to Commodore Dewey: “What would you want in the event of Spain’s defeat?”

To which Dewey replied: “Only a bay.”

It seemed almost certain, however, that Dewey’s squadron of three vessels would be defeated by the Spanish squadron of six, and that the Germans could then negotiate with Spain for the purchase of her turbulent islands, but when Dewey’s squadron was increased to six, it seemed more than likely that the situation would be reversed. Germany then made her first cold war move by contracting for all the coal in Hong Kong, or in transit to Hong Kong. Dewey, however, beat the Germans to it by purchasing, with the approval of Great Britain, the collier Nanshan, loaded with coal, which was then nearing Hong Kong.

On April 27 Dewey’s squadron sailed for Manila. Figuring that it would take him three days to reach there, the foreign ship commanders at Hong Kong waited with bated breath on May 1 for news from the Philippines, but none came. On May 2 a cablegram went through from the Philippine Governor General to the Spanish Government stating that Dewey’s squadron had suffered a severe repulse with heavy loss.

But no word came from Dewey, and when an attempt was made to communicate with him the cable had gone dead.

When the cablegram from the Governor General of the Philippines was published, the German cruiser Irene was ordered from Nagasaki to Manila to learn what was happening. She entered Manila Bay, ignoring the blockade until brought to a standstill by a shot across her bow when she ignored a call from a patrol launch to heave to. Her captain claimed that he did not know that a blockade existed, but it was later found that he had been informed of it by a merchant vessel which he intercepted on his way down.

After nearly a week’s suspense, the McCulloch arrived in Hong Kong with complete reports which were very disheartening and disturbing to the Germans, but still they were not entirely discouraged. Dewey had not taken Manila and had expressed no immediate intention of doing so. He had only established a blockade of the bay.

As soon as this news was received, the German cruiser Cormoran was ordered to Manila from Hong Kong. The Cormoran attempted to slip through Dewey’s blockade in the dead of night, ignoring a signal to heave to, but was stopped by a shot from the Raleigh across her bow and boarded by an officer who assigned her an anchorage. There could be no logical explanation of her action other than an attempt to test the efficiency of the blockade.

The British heavy cruiser Immortalité almost immediately tailed the Cormoran, accompanied by a small British gunboat. The former was commanded by Captain Sir Edward Chichester, a warm friend of Commodore Dewey. A French and a Japanese cruiser soon followed. All these vessels were assigned an anchorage west of Manila, seven miles across the bay from Cavite.

On May 23 three transports sailed from San Francisco for Manila with 2,500 troops; it became obvious to Germany that the United States intended to occupy the city. About ten days later the Commander in Chief of the German Asiatic fleet, Vice Admiral Otto von Diederichs, arrived in Manila Bay on his flagship, the formidable cruiser Kaiserin Augusta, accompanied by the cruisers Kaiser and Prinz Wilhelm, a transport carrying 1,400 enlisted men, and a collier. Von Diederichs was stopped at Corregidor by a blockading vessel and was assigned the foreign ship anchorage. He sent his vessels to it, but proceeded with his flagship directly to Manila and fired a salute of 21 guns with the Spanish flag at the main. He than crossed to Cavite and fired a salute of 13 guns to Admiral Dewey, returning immediately to his assigned anchorage.

Dewey did not return the salute. Von Diederichs sent an officer to ask why, to which Dewey replied that he should have been saluted first as he was in command of the whole bay and holding it under strict blockade. Von Diederichs did not apologize and the salute was not returned.

Dewey then crossed the bay in the Concord and paid his official call on von Diederichs, during which he asked him why he had assembled such a large force in Manila Bay. Von Diederichs stood stiffly erect, heels together Prussian style, and answered sternly: “We are here by order of the Kaiser, Sir.”

Germany then had five formidable cruisers in Manila Bay, superior in gun power to Dewey’s squadron, plus a transport with 1,400 enlisted men—purpose unknown—and a fully laden collier. News was received at this time that a Spanish squadron consisting of two battleships, several gunboats, and three destroyers was in the Mediterranean headed for Manila. Dewey immediately cabled for the monitors Monterey and Monadnock to be sent to him as a reinforcement.

It was soon noted by observation and Filipino grapevine that intercourse between German officers and Spanish officials in Manila was very active. Apparently under German supervision the ten-inch batteries in front of the city were being backed by high embankments to prevent shells fired at them from entering the residential section.

It was also rumored that the Germans were assisting the Spaniards in improvising torpedo boats in the Pasig River. One night we were startled by seeing our searchlights playing upon a large launch approaching from the direction of Manila without lights. Dewey himself ordered a three-inch gun to be fired directly at her, whereupon a sailor scrambled to her forecastle frantically waving a German flag. When brought alongside the Olympia, a German officer came on board with a communication from Admiral von Diederichs. Dewey sent word back to von Diederichs that if he attempted that method of communication again he would probably lose a launch, an officer, and several men.

There seemed to be a hookup between Camara’s squadron and that of von Diederichs, for when it was known that the former had reached the Suez Canal, the latter ordered his ships to Mariveles at the entrance to Manila Bay across the Boca Chica from Corregidor, and it was reported he was holding landing force drills and was himself occupying the abandoned residence of the Spanish colonel. As soon as he heard of it, Admiral Dewey transferred his flag to the McCulloch and steamed slowly around the German ships at Mariveles between them and the shore, making a close inspection. He saw that the rumor was correct and that the Germans had established a barracks for their landing force in an abandoned Spanish hospital building.

It was noted from the McCulloch that the Irene was missing and next day Dewey was told by Filipinos that she was in Subig Bay preventing them from capturing a Spanish garrison on Isla Grande. The Raleigh and Concord were immediately dispatched to Subig and when the Irene saw them coming she slipped her cable and steamed away, giving them a wide berth. The Raleigh took over the garrison and took it under parole to Manila.

The Baltimore, in which this writer was serving, was then sent north of Luzon to meet the Charleston and her convoy of transports and conducted them in column down the coast. As we entered the Boca Chica, the whole German squadron came out from Mariveles and paralleled us in column as we proceeded up the bay. The Baltimore and Charleston went to general quarters with loaded guns. It was a tense period and our crews were so incensed that it was feared that some trigger-happy gunner would fire a shot point-blank into the Kaiserin Augusta. Possibly the Germans wished that this would happen and so bring on an engagement, for the transports were not only carrying troops for an assault on Manila, but a complete refill of ammunition for Dewey’s ships, and the Charleston would add another cruiser to his squadron. A single shot from our side would have given the Germans an excuse to destroy the whole convoy. Happily no shot was fired and when we turned toward Cavite the Germans returned to the foreign ship anchorage.

News of the destruction of Cervera’s squadron at Santiago and the recall of Camara’s squadron to Spain did not seem to abate von Diederichs’ truculence. He probably believed that Manila’s garrison of 13,000 could stand off our 2,500 troops until the war ended, that Spain would then be willing to sell the insurgent Philippines to recoup her finances, and that she would rather sell them to Germany than to any other nation if Germany continued to assist her sub rosa. It was too a general belief that the United States would not want to acquire overseas territory.

Admiral Dewey turned Cavite over to the army and transferred his flag to the Baltimore while the Olympia was coaling.

I was officer of the deck one morning when a young German officer came from Admiral von Diederichs with a communication for Admiral Dewey. The latter was on the quarter deck with his secretary, Ensign Caldwell. Dewey read the communication, slapped it against his left hand, and handed it to Caldwell with some remark I couldn’t hear, then turned to the German officer with some words of dismissal, for the latter saluted stiffly, heels together, and turned to go. Dewey called after him: “And you may tell Admiral von Diederichs again that if he wants a fight, I’ll be ready for him in half an hour.”

Some days later when I had guard boat duty and was distributing mail to the foreign ships, Captain Chichester met me when I boarded the lmmortalité and invited me to lunch. I declined because I had several more ships to visit, but he took me into his cabin and we had quite a chat, during which I told him the incident which I have just related. He smiled and said:

“Not long ago von Diederichs said to me, ‘Where would you stand if there should be a conflict between my squadron and Dewey’s’, and I replied, ‘Ask Admiral Dewey’.”

Captain Chichester was one of the finest men I ever met. I little dreamed that ten years later I was to command a battalion of American Marines and bluejackets in his funeral procession at Gibraltar.

On August 10 Admiral Dewey announced that Manila would be attacked by our armed forces in forty-eight hours and advised all foreign men-of-war to move out of the line of fire offering them anchorage at Cavite. All but the Germans accepted; von Diederichs stood pat.

On August 13 the assault began by land and sea. The German squadron immediately got under weigh and formed across our advancing squadron, causing much apprehension, but Captain Chichester in the lmmortalité rushed at full speed from Cavite and hove to between the Germans and our advancing columns. At 5:15 p.m. the Spanish flag was hauled down at Manila and the Stars and Stripes hoisted in its place. Twenty-one guns were fired from all our ships, followed immediately by twenty-one guns from the lmmortalité with our flag at her main. The Germans fired no salute. A few days later their hopes were completely dashed. News came that the United States had purchased the Philippines.

Von Diederichs departed with his squadron without any further communication. The cold war was over.

At an annual Dewey Day banquet in a leading Washington hotel two years later, attended by all available Manila Bay officers, members of the armed services, and public officials, a young lieutenant (I think it was Ben Hodges) when called upon for some remarks narrated several of the incidents herein related. Secretary of the Navy Long listened with intense interest, then turned to Admiral Dewey and said:

“Why was I not informed of all this?” and Dewey replied:

“There was no need to bother you with it, Mr. Secretary. We had the situation well in hand.”

A graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy in 1883, Captain Ellicott served under Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan on the Chicago, was a division officer on the Baltimore in the Battle of Manila Bay, and was commanding officer of the armored cruiser Maryland when she won the Engineering Efficiency Trophy. He was retired in 1913 but continued on active duty until 1922.

The Naval Institute has learned with regret that Captain Ellicott died at Mare Island on September 15, 1955, eleven days after his 96th birthday.

The attitude that Sir Edward Chichester adopted was under instructions from his government, to "observe neutrality". This was a flexible situation that Dewey fiddle played to perfection. 

“There was no need to bother you with it, Mr. Secretary. We had the situation well in hand.”

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4. There is an old Unreconstructed Confederate expression: "Hide the family silver. Sherman's boys are just down the road." If that needs further explanation; then I refer you to "bummers".  "Elephant" is an obvious example of one. 

5. The soon to be an arsonist, General Hughes, is the provost marshal. You can figure out what opportunities this presents for "Elephant" to legally loot, pilfer and pillage. It is probably how he paid for his college studies when he returned to America to become a lawyer. He stole when and where he could.  I refer you to a recent US military scandal called Fat Leonard. 

More about Fat Leonard.  Fat Leonard was a crook, a ratfink, and a traitor. But look at how he fitted himself into the American military culture and its easygoing way of "doing business" on the local economies?  In 1898, we see it in these Blatchford diary entries how it worked then, so we see it now in the American military as we go through this horrible current mess with the Navy.   

6. Have you figured out how I look at Blatchford, yet?

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Friday, September 9th, 1898

This is a pretty day but at 7:00 p.m. we have hard rain which continue all night. The Captain [Daniel Bierer] is trying to make arrangement to send [William] Crable home. He has been at the hospital in Cavite for a long time. The papers have been completed and Thomas Rhodes has taken all of his things to him at Cavite. This is a quiet day. All the boys are resting up. [Frank] Christopher and Charles Lewis are the only ones on the sick list.

I have a LOT of questions.

The Roster of the 10th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
Contributed by John Asendorf

The unit we need to concern ourselves with, is Company C.

Company C

Officers:

Captain - BIERER, Daniel M., Uniontown, Pa.
1st Lieutenant - HOWARD, Charles H., Uniontown, Pa.
2d Lieutenant - WOOD, Robert M., Uniontown, Pa.

Sergeants:

MARTIN, William, Uniontown, Pa. - 1st Sergeant
EWING, Alec. A., Uniontown, Pa.
HAGAN, Samuel, Oliver, Pa.
ROCKWELL, Samuel N., Uniontown, Pa.
SEMANS, Walter L., Dunbar, Pa.

Corporals:

ASHCRAFT, Charles W., Uniontown, Pa.
COLLINS, Charles O., Uniontown, Pa.
JENKINS, John, Uniontown, Pa.
KNOTTS, George B., Uniontown, Pa.
McCANCH, Alexander, Oliver, Pa.
TURLEY, John H., Oliver, Pa.

Musicians:

BARNES, Elmer E., New Brighton, Pa.
RIFFLE, Arthur C., Masontown, Pa.

Wagoner:

HANNAN, John, Uniontown, Pa.

Privates:

ASENDORF, John H., Uniontown, Pa.
BAIRD, James F., Uniontown, Pa.
BAIRD, John, Uniontown, Pa.
BARNES, John R., Uniontown, Pa.
BEATTY, Curtis, Uniontown, Pa.
BECKET, Alonzo, Uniontown, Pa.
BEIGHLEY, Sidney N., Uniontown, Pa.
BELDING, William E., Haverstraw, N. Y.
BEST, Paul K., Jeannette, Pa.
BOST, William, Oliver, Pa.
BOYLE, Charles E., Uniontown, Pa.
BRAIN, Frank, Uniontown, Pa.
BROWN, George W., Confluence, Pa.
BROWN, John C., Uniontown, Pa
BRYSON, Melvin H., West Leisenring, Pa.
BURKE, Charles E., Uniontown, Pa.
CHRISTOPHER, Frank G., McCleilandtown, Pa.
COLLINS, John T., Uniontown, Pa.
COLLINS, Walter E., Uniontown, Pa.
COLLINS, William D., Uniontown, Pa.
CONN, George D., Washington, Pa.
COOK, George, Uniontown, Pa.
COYNER, Louis R., Uniontown, Pa.
CRABLE, William H., Juniataville, Pa.
CRAFT, Frederick E., Brownsville, Pa.
CUITE, Gilbert, Uniontown, Pa.
CULLUMS, Grant, Stockton, Cal.
CURRY, John M., Laurel Hill, Pa.
CURRY, Robert D., Laurel Hill, Pa.
DANIELS, Rudolph B., Uniontown, Pa.
DAUGHERTY, Homer J., Fairchance, Pa.
DE BOLT, Carl W., Uniontown, Pa.
DE GARDEYN, Abraham, Jr., Point Marion, Pa.
DEAN, John A., Oliver, Pa.
DOWNS, Ralph W. E., Uniontown, Pa.
ENGLEHART, W. M., Guseman, W. Va.
FOX, Robert L., Tarrs, Pa.
FRANKENBERRY, Joseph W., Uniontown, Pa.
GRIFFITH, Robert E., Greensburg, Pa.
HADDOCK, William S., Pittsburg, Pa.
HANLY, James E., Uniontown, Pa.
HANNAN, Max, Uniontown, Pa.
HERRINGTON, Charles E., Oliver, Pa.
HOWARD, William N., Uniontown, Pa.
HUSTEAD, Frank H., Uniontown, Pa.
INSLEY, William W., Jeannette, Pa.
JENNEWINE, Fred. M., Laurel Iron Works, W. Va.
JOHNSON, Joseph P., Uniontown, Pa.
JOHNSON, Milbert, Point Marion, Pa.
JONES, James G., Uniontown, Pa.
JONES, Thomas, Oliver, Pa.
JONES, Thomas P., Ruble, Pa.
KELLEY, Frank A., Tippecanoe, Pa.
KELLY, Edward J., Uniontown, Pa.
KEMPER, Amon S., Uniontown, Pa.
KENNEDY, William H., Oliver, Pa.
KERR, John P., Scottdale, Pa.
KNIGHT, Daniel H., Uniontown, Pa.
LANDIS, Jacob, Uniontown, Pa.
LEWIS, Charles J., Uniontown, Pa.
LEWIS, William D., Uniontown, Pa.
LITTLE, William E., Uniontown, Pa.
McCOLLUAGH, Edmund C., Uniontown, Pa.
MILLER, Benjamin F., Connellsville, Pa.
MILLER, George R., Uniontown, Pa.
MILLER, George W., Uniontown, Pa.
MILLER, Joseph H., Uniontown, Pa.
MILLER, Marling C., Uniontown, Pa.
MURPHY, Jesse, Dawson, Pa
O'NEIL, Charles W., Uniontown, Pa.
PLAYFORD, Charles, Uniontown, Pa.
POPE, John A., Vanderbilt, Pa.
RHODES, Thomas J., High House, Pa.
RIDGEWAY, Joel, Laurel Iron Works, W. Va.
ROCKWELL, Allen B., Uniontown, Pa.
RUSH, Ray, Uniontown, Pa.
SCHROCK, Elmer E., Uniontown, Pa.
SHANABENGER, Frank w., Uniontown, Pa.
SHAW, John C., Uniontown, Pa.
SPARKS, Ray L., Uniontown, Pa.
STUMM, Charles A., Smithfield. Pa.
SULLIVAN, Frank, Uniontown, Pa.
TRAINOR, Frank P., Oliver, Pa.
TWIST, David, Uniontown, Pa.
UNDERWOOD, Leroy, Uniontown, Pa.
WILLIAMS, Lewis C., Uniontown, Pa.
WOOD, John W., Uniontown, Pa.
WOODWARD, James W., Uniontown, Pa.
WOODY, Grant, Uniontown, Pa.
YOWLER, George S., Uniontown, Pa.

To quote a certain fictional doctor from Star Trek... "He's dead, Jim."

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Diary of James J. Loughrey September 9, 1898

Admission Day entertainment at the Filipino Theatre by NSGW [Native Sons of the Golden West]. I developed a bad cold and cough.

The Native Sons of the Golden West...

I have a lot of problems with these yahoos.

Alvin M. Winn...

Let us start with that Unreconstructed Confederate. As you read his background, you will find that he was an associate with the traitor, Jeff Davis. That is bad enough. When this "gentleman" wound up in California, he commenced his fortune by organizing to regulate mortuary practices. Then he inveigled himself into becoming Sutter's business manager. If you know of Sutter's Mill and the land around it, then you know why Winn's fraudulent swindling of Sutter during the California Gold Rush was somewhat "important". We can add outright fraud and theft of about $5,000.00 of Sutter's money he loaned to himself, to his crimes, but you get the drift?

With the mismanagement of Sacramento under his belt, and his political appointment to the state militia, and his subsequent interactions with the lynchers, and "regulators" and "vigilance" committees in "old California" you get a repeat in this western coastal state of a legal and social condition, he helped organize, not too dissimilar from Winn's childhood and early adulthood "Mississippi". This reprobate was quite at home with his fellow haters of immigrants, Catholics, Mexicans, Chinese and Japanese et al.

He was certainly a great organizer and creator of what we today would describe as ultra-nationalist exclusionary "clubs".

Notice that Mister A. M. Winn, during the American Civil War, actually chose in sympathy, the side of rebellion and treason, though he "officially" stayed neutral?

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Saturday, September 10th, 1898

This is another fine, hot day but during the night there was another scare at the prison caused by a report that the insurgents were massing in the rear of the prison with the intention of breaking in to liberate political prisoners. Early in the morning, right after breakfast, the bugle call to arms was sounded and Company C reported at the prison in double quick and together with Companies H and D marched down the street taking the first road to the right for about 400 yards where we came to a halt. Just in front of us we saw about 300 insurgents who were very much surprised. At this time, General Hale appeared and ordered Companies I and C to march to the rear of the prison and in this way surrounded them and told them to move back which they did. Later on, at 3:00 p.m., we were relieved by Company E. [Frank] Christopher and [Charles] Lewis are on the sick list.

Now that is interesting. Who was del Rey trying to break out of the Bilibid Jail, this early?

You would think that information would be in the Philippine National Archives? Nope. As far as I can determine, those records are located at Newberry College, 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL 60610.

35 items (80 leaves) ; 23 cm or smaller
Arranged chronologically
Documents, dated from Oct. 18, 1883 to Aug. 2, 1899, pertaining to prisoners being held at Bilibid Prison in Manila -- Many of the items, addressed to the chief warden Manuel García, are orders of incarceration for criminal prisoners, as well as for those arrested for their political involvement in the Philippine revolution. Other materials include requests to the warden for information on certain prisoners, requests from judges for permission to visit prisoners, requests for prisoners to leave the premises to attend their trials, requests from the military for minimum-security prisoners to help dig a well for the troops, appointments for prison positions of assistant warden and gatekeeper, and regulations concerning official visiting hours. Several documents pertain to members of the Aguinaldo family, including Benigno Aguinaldo, cousin to Emilio, who later served as president of the first Philippine republic; and to Apolinario Mabini, one of Aguinaldo's key advisers. The final item, dated Aug. 2, 1899, is notification from the chief justice of the Supreme Court to the U.S. military governor Gen. Elwell S. Otis, that he is forwarding certified copies of the cases of certain political prisoners being held at Bilibid, along with their petition for amnesty
In box with title: "Carcel de Bilibid. Letras.".
Forms part of the Edward E. Ayer Manuscript Collection (Newberry Library)
Butler, R.L. Check list of the mss. in the Ayer Coll.,. 1393
Lietz, P.S. Calendar of the Philippine docs. in the Ayer Coll.,. 331
Location of original: Newberry Library, Special Collections, 60 W. Walton St., Chicago, IL 60610
In Spanish

What about Brigadier General Irving Hale?

Okay, I have another question. What is the commanding officer of the 1st Colorado doing, commanding the provost marshal's assigned troops? Should not the future arsonist, Hughes, have handled this one?

=================================================================================================================

Diary of James J. Loughrey September 10, 1898

It was reported that Insurgents killed three men from the Battery of the 3rd US Artillery in the trenches last night. We received orders to be ready to go to the front at any moment; we each received 130 rounds of ammunition and shelter tents. Everything was declared quiet at 8 p.m. The trouble apparently originated between two parties of Insurgents. Every time we receive mail we seem to be sure to be called out! The medical team reported that 1100 men were in hospital at this date, mostly with ulcerated legs and arms.

Firefight between troops loyal to Luna and those loyal to del Rey. The prison "jail break" attempt was part of this fracas.

==================================================================================================================

Diary of Thomas H. Briggs September 10, 1898 (Saturday)

Just about noon today we [had] orders to be ready by 10:00 to start. … So we packed our knapsacks and marched down to the water and get on board of a little steam launch and steamed out to the steamship, St. Paul, a transport which took us over in front of Manila, where we remained for the night. Tea was served by the ship crew to the boys, which was very gratefully recieved. It rained most all night.

Apparently, the nervous Americans have called in troops from Cavite to man the Intramuros in Manila. The 2nd South Dakota is part of this movement.

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Sunday, September 11th, 1898

This is a beautiful day here we are on guard at the prison. We have had fresh meat for dinner and beans. The Captain [Daniel Bierer] and Lieutenant [Charles] Howard went over to Cavite to see [William] Crable and took two letters for him along. They learned that he was much worse but he was able to read the letters and the Captain asked him if he should answer them for him but he said no. He said he would be able enough in a few days to write. Lieutenant Howard stayed there with him and the Captain returned on the 2 o’clock boat here to the city. The Captain told us all about his visit and said that he had erysipelas and that the doctors expresses their opinion that he could not get well. In about two hours after his arrival here he received a telegram announcing his death. Lieutenant Howard was ordered to make the necessary arrangements. We all went to the Opera House for service in the evening. [Frank] Christopher and [Charles] Lewis are on the sick l

Told you Crable was a red shirt.

I have had this condition. It is PAINFUL and if not properly treated can develop eventually into blood poisoning which leads to serious consequences. My affected leg was wrapped is silver foil and I was given a regimen of antibiotics. Even then, the physician I was assigned, bungled the diagnosis and I spent six weeks before the infection remitted.

Even in 1898, Crable should have survived this infection. As I remarked earlier, incompetent American military medical care was killing thousands of American soldiers.

===================================================================================================

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Monday, September 12th, 1898

This is another fine, hot day. Lieutenant [Charles] Howard stayed at Cavite all night and returned with [William] Crable’s body in the morning on the first boat. Lieutenant [Robert] Wood and a firing squad [honor guard] met him along with two rigs and a cart for the body and horses for the [squad]. They returned late in the afternoon and reported all the graves of the 10th Regiment boys were in good condition. [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis and Sergeant [Alec] Ewing are on the sick list.

Crable will eventually have a LOT of company.

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Tuesday, September 13th, 1898

This is another fine, hot day. We are guarding the prison and everything is quiet with the exception of some rumors stating that the insurgents are forming another attack on the prison. But, we are not payiong much attention to them. We have good meals today and all expect mail but were disappointed. [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Alec] Ewing and [Max] Hannan are on the sick list.

Not much is happening at the moment.

I did find this published in a monograph by Jon B.B. Trussell Jr. It is page 178 and refers to a clodhopper^1 by the name of Christner.

We are having some trouble with the natives now but think all the fighting will soon be over.... [Manila] is quite a lively place.... There is fights and riots to settle every hour, and since I am corporal, have lots of business on hand. . . . The women chews tobacco and smoke cigars . . . and are a (censored) mean set generally. I will be home soon with an abnormal appetite for buckwheat, so be ready

Buckwheat is ... used in flapjacks and pancakes. It is also a satirical expression for the type of person who is fond of it. Generally, that would be a country fellow.

^1 American expression for a country fellow.

clod·hop·per

[ˈklädˌhäpər]

NOUN

informal

a large, heavy shoe:

"size-fourteen clodhoppers"

a foolish, awkward, or clumsy person:

"the other students looked very young and I felt like a clodhopper"

synonyms:

lout · boor · barbarian · Neanderthal · churl · clown · gawk · hulk · bumpkin · yokel · fool · dolt · dullard · bosthoon · clodpole · lubber

Just speculating here, but maybe Christner is one pay grade above his competency? 

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Wednesday, September 14th, 1898

This is a beautiful day and a nice breeze is blowing. I took a walk to the hospital where I learned that our two patients were getting along fine. I also saw the greatest and largest cockpit in the city. The building is as large as an ordinary show tent where at least 5000 people witness the performances at one time but since the breakout of the war this has been used as a lookout. This building has a tower about 80 feet high and one can get the best view of the city, country and bay. [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Alec] Ewing, [Max] Hannan and [Charles] Stumm are on the sick list.

This is a sporting events venue. In the meaning of the era, it was a place where fighting roosters were pitted against each other in "fights". There was a whole tradition based on this practice which supported a thriving gambling culture. Other societies have something like this. Prizefighting, where desperate lower economic class human beings were and are pitted against each other in a "sporting contest" where they beat each other's brains into mush, supports a similar gambling culture among the upper economic classes. So... we Americans have banned chicken fighting and dog fighting as cruel, criminal and inhumane, but we continue to allow human beings to be used in the same exact manner?

Who are the savages? We eat chickens. Having chickens fight each other and gambling on the outcome may be bloody and disgraceful, but it is an order of magnitude less despicable than having human beings maim or kill each other for sport.

That is, incidentally, why I prefer Baseball, a clever game of skill and applied ballistic and athletic tactics that involves a clear goal, against American Football, which is essentially men running into each other so violently that they have to wear body armor to survive it.

===================================================================================================

Diary of James J. Loughrey September 14, 1898

A boat capsized about 800 yards up river from our quarters at about 5.30 p.m. W. W. Smith was drowned but the other occupants, Privates Martin and Fytton. survived.

See map.



Just north of that island that splits the Pasing River. The 1st California sent boats out to try to stop Katipunan gunrunners from smuggling fighters and guns past the American outpost line. There was about 16 miles of rather effective land patrols as soon as the Americans bought enough Filipino horses and were able to mount infantry (dragoons), so the Filipino national liberation forces started to smuggle using the Pasing and its tributaries. This is going to be an ongoing problem for the war criminal, General Otis, and will be another reason that open warfare breaks out between the Filipinos Katipunan and the American occupiers of Manila.

[miletus12]

Diary of John Henry Asendorf Thursday, September 15th, 1898

This is a fine day and we are having a good shower. In the evening there was a change of guard duty at the prison and hereafter we will have to do outpost too. [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Alec] Ewing, [Max] Hannan and James Baird are on the sick list.

Referring to the map above, where left is north, and the previous day's diary entry, to reconstruct the situation on the ground; the 10th Pennsylvania, at least Company C of it, has been reassigned to the outpost line just south of modern Caloocan City. They are about to become dragoons. The Americans are pushing mounted infantry patrols into General Luna's vulnerable line of communications with north Luzon and especially the vulnerable Lingayen central plain to see what the Yankees are up against.

Aguinaldo's generals are making serious mistakes, even this early, with gaps in their containment lines.

[miletus12]

Diary of James J. Loughrey September 16, 1898

We drilled by platoon. C. O’Donnell, chief of the 1st platoon at command faced left about and remained at the rear of the platoon!

Yeah... 2nd LT faced the wrong way and wound up at the wrong end of the platoon he is supposed to lead in close order drill. Wonder why?

The 1st California has problems...

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Diary of John Henry Asendorf Friday, September 16th, 1898

The weather is pretty but hot. Company C is doing outpost duty in the rear of the jail. This is a simple point of observation. There is a telegraph operator stationed here and General [Irving] Hale is making daily visits to this post. [Frank] Christopher, [Charles] Lewis, [Alec] Ewing, [Max] Hannan, [James] Baird, [George] Knotts and [John] Curry are on the sick list.

Company C is on the picket line at the rear of the Bilibid jail. The telegraph office is sited at the jail. Why?



Notice the watch tower at the central guard station? It is a natural observation point inside a rather secure facility. This will pop up in the future.