Chapter X.The Insurrection of 1896–97.Combat at San Juan del Monte—Insurrection spreading—Arrival of reinforcements from Spain—Rebel entrenchments—Rebel arms and artillery—Spaniards repulsed from Binacáyan—and from Noveleta—Mutiny of Carabineros—Prisoners at Cavite attempt to escape—Iniquities of the Spanish War Office—Lachambre’s division—Rebel organization—Rank and badges—Lachambre advances—He captures Silang—Perez Dasmariñas—Salitran—Anabo II.The Augustinians take credit to themselves that one of their order, Father Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, discovered the existence of the revolutionary conspiracy, on the 19th August. But already on the 5th of July a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil had declared in a written report that there were over 14,000 men belonging to the valley of the Pasig, affiliated to the conspiracy.A council of the authorities was convened on the 6th of August, but nothing was done. On that same date, however, the Governor of Batangas telegraphed that a discovery of arms, ammunition and Republican flags had been made at Taal. In consequence of this, General Blanco ordered some arrests to be made.On the 19th, Father Gil gave information to General Blanco that he had discovered the existence of a secret revolutionary society, and two days later Blanco reported to the Government in Madrid that there existed a vast organization of secret societies.At this time the garrison of Manila consisted of some 1500 men, most of them being natives. As arrests were being continually made, the members of the Katipunan, or those suspected of being such, left their homes and took to the woods although very poorly equipped with fire-arms.On 30th August a party of the rebels under SanchoValenzuela, Modesto Sarmiento, and others had a fight with some native cavalry and Guardias Civiles at San Juan del Monte near Manila. The rebels lost heavily in killed, their chiefs were taken prisoners and shot on the 4th September, at the Paseo de la Luneta.A Spanish artilleryman was murdered by some rebels at Pandacan about this time, and martial law was proclaimed.The Guardia Civil, all native soldiers, was now concentrated in Manila abandoning their outlying posts. After many vacillations and contradictory cablegrams to the Government in Madrid, General Blanco now definitely asked for large reinforcements.On September 1st, the people of Noveleta revolted and killed a captain and a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil and three days later the rebels penetrated to the town of Caridad, close to Cavite.Early in September rebels were in arms, and dominating great part of the Provinces of Manila, Cavite, Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga and Nueva Écija.By the middle of the month rebel bands appeared in Tarlac, Pangasinán, Laguna, Morong and Tayabas.On the 9th September, the Cavite rebels attacked San Roque, which is close to the town of Cavite, and burned part of it. On the 12th, thirteen persons who had been convicted by a court-martial of complicity in the revolt were shot in Cavite.The cables from General Blanco to the Madrid Government were all this time misleading and contradictory, and showed that he had no grasp of the state of affairs. These dispatches were subjected to severe criticism in theHeraldo, a Madrid newspaper.By the middle of September troops arrived from Zamboanga and other southern stations, and the garrison of Manila was brought up to 6000 men, two-thirds of whom were natives. Reinforcements were sent to Cavite, for the rebels were in great force about Silang, Imus, and Noveleta.On the 17th September another attack was made by the rebels on San Roque, but was repulsed.On the 1st October the mail steamerCataluñaarrived with a battalion of marines from Spain, greatly to the delight of the Spaniards, who gave the force an enthusiastic reception.Next day the ss.Monserratarrived with more troops, and from this time forward troops kept pouring in.Still General Blanco remained on the defensive in and around the city of Manila and the town of Cavite, and repulsed attacks made by the rebels on the magazines at Binancáyan and Las Piñas.The rebels were now firmly established over the rest of the Province of Cavite. The natural features of this part of Luzon made the movements of regular troops extremely difficult. The country abounds in rivers which run from south to north parallel to each other at short distances. They run at the bottom of deep ravines, which present excellent positions for defence. Many of these rivers have dams across them and the sluices in these might be opened by the defenders, or the dams could be blown up in case a column of the assailants should be entangled in the ravine below, when they would inevitably be overwhelmed in the descending torrent.In places the country could be flooded and thus be rendered impassable for troops.But the industry of the rebels, skilfully directed, had added enormously to these natural advantages. From the reports of eye-witnesses I can affirm that the entrenchments of the Tagals were colossal. Tagals and Boers have demonstrated that a competitive examination is not necessary to enable fighting-men to entrench themselves. The Tagal lines ran from the delta of the Zapote River to Naic in an almost unbroken line, approximately parallel to the coast.They were doubled and trebled in front of villages or towns and across the roads.The trace wasen crémaillère, the section being 6 feet thick at the top and 8 feet high, the exterior face vertical, with a revetment of bamboos fastened together with rattans. It was in fact a bank of earth built up against a strong bamboo fence.The defenders fired through loop-holes left in the parapet, and were very well covered, but they could only fire straight before them and horizontally.The defences of the towns had thicker and loftier parapets; in some cases there were three tiers of loop-holes properly splayed.The insurgents were very insufficiently armed, and at first there were ten men to a rifle. The man who wasreputed the best shot carried the rifle and cartridge belt, and if he was killed or wounded in an engagement, the next best shot took the weapon and continued the fight. In the early actions there was scarcely ever a rifle left on the ground by the insurgents.The only cannon the rebels had at first were some ancient brass swivel guns called falconetes or lantácas, which they took from the estate-houses at Imus and Malabon.They also had some brass mortars like quart pots, which are used for firing salutes on feast days. These they fastened at an angle to blocks of wood, thus making small howitzers, quite effective at short range. They loaded these with the punchings from boiler-plates and broken cooking-pots.They showed a considerable ingenuity in making cannon out of any materials at hand. They would take a steel boiler-tube, a stay tube for choice, say about three inches bore and a quarter of an inch thick. Plugging up one end and drilling a touch-hole, they would drive this tube into a hole bored in a log of hard wood turned on the outside to a taper, then they drove eight or nine wrought-iron rings over the wood. They drilled through the wood to suit the touch-hole and the gun was ready.They fitted no trunnions, but mounted this rude cannon upon a solid block of wood.In other cases they made some wire guns by lapping steel boiler-tubes with telegraph-wire.Towards the end of the campaign of Lachambre’s division against the rebels, some modern field-pieces of eight centimètres were captured from them, but it is not clear where these came from.To supplement their scanty stock of rifles, they made some hand-guns of gas-tube. These were fired by applying a match or lighted cigar to the touch-hole, and would seem to be very clumsy weapons. But I may say that when on a visit to the estate of Palpa, in Peru, I saw a Chinaman who was in charge of the poultry corral, kill a hawk hovering, with a similar gun.The Spanish Military and Naval Authorities now took the revolt very seriously, and on the 8th November the squadron comprising theCastilla,Reina Cristina, and other vessels, and the guns of the forts at Cavite and Puerto Vaga, opened upon the rebel position at Cavite,Viejo, Noveleta, Binancáyan, and other places within range, and kept it up for hours. The next morning the firing was resumed at daylight, supplemented by the guns from launches and boats well inshore. Troops were landed under the protection of the squadron, and advanced against the entrenchments of Binancáyan. They delivered three frontal attacks with great gallantry, reaching the parapet each time, but were beaten back, leaving many dead upon the ground. No flanking attack was possible here for the parapet extended for many miles each way.A simultaneous attack was made upon Noveleta by a column of 3000 Spanish and native infantry under Colonel Fermin Diaz Mattoni.This force started from Cavite and marched through Dalahican and along the road to Noveleta. This road is a raised causeway running through a mangrove swamp, having deep mud on each side impassable for troops. This is at least a mile of swamp, and the troops advanced along the causeway and crossed a bridge which spanned a muddy creek.No enemy was in sight, and the town was not far off. Suddenly the head of the column fell into a most cunningly devised pitfall. The road had been dug out, the pit covered with wattle, and the surface restored to its original appearance. The bottom of the pit was set with pointed bamboo stakes which inflicted serious wounds upon those that fell upon them.At the moment of confusion the rebels opened a withering fire from concealed positions amongst the mangroves upon the column standing in the open.The Spaniards and native troops made great efforts to get forward, but could not stand the fire and had to retire. When they got back to the bridge it was down, and they had to wade across the creek under a close fire from the rebels hidden amongst the mangroves. In this action the Spaniards are said to have lost 600 killed and many hundreds wounded. The loss fell principally on the 73rd and 74th Regiments of Native Infantry.The rebels were greatly encouraged, and got possession of a large number of rifles, with ammunition and accoutrements.Both these attacks were made under the direction of General Blanco, who witnessed them from a lofty staging erected within the lines ofDalahican. After these disastershe resumed the defensive, except that the squadron and the batteries at Cavite and Puerto Vaga frequently bombarded the rebel positions.At this time thousands of natives were in prison in Manila awaiting their trial. A permanent court-martial had been organised to try the suspects. Great numbers were shot, and many hundreds were transported to the Caroline Islands, to Ceuta, and Fernando Pó. Wealthy natives were mercilessly blackmailed, and it is reported that those who were discharged had to pay large sums for their release.The Spanish Volunteers in Manila committed many arbitrary and even outrageous actions, and aroused the hatred of the natives far more than the regular troops did. They allowed their patriotism to carry them into most lamentable excesses.On the 25th February a rising and mutiny of the Carbineers or Custom-House Guards took place in Manila at the captain of the port’s office. The scheme miscarried and was only partially successful. The officer on duty was shot, and also the sergeant, and the rebels made off with some rifles and ammunition.The volunteers and some troops hastily called together pursued the rebels through Tondo as far as the Leper Hospital, till nightfall, the last volley being fired at 6.15 P.M. In this affair the mutineers lost a great many men, but some of them got away and joined the rebels.Blanco had not been severe enough with the rebels or suspected rebels to please the friars. His management of the attacks upon Noveleta and Binancáyan had been faulty, and his health was bad. It was not surprising, having the priests against him, and the military dissatisfied, that he was recalled. He left at the end of 1896. General Polavieja, an officer who had risen from the ranks by his military talents, and who, when serving in Cuba, had very accurately gauged the situation, and had made a remarkably clever report to the government, was sent out to replace Blanco. Polavieja was inexorable with the rebels and their sympathisers. Military executions took place about once a week for two months. Francisco Roxas, a mestizo ship-owner, Numeriano Adriano, and many other mestizos and natives were shot at the Paseo de la Luneta.On December 6th the prisoners in Cavite jail rose, murdered their jailer, and attempted to escape. Onehundred and fifty prisoners were concerned in this affair. Of these, forty-seven were shot in the streets of the town, and twenty-one were captured, whilst thirteen were shot in the bushes behind Cañacao. Those recaptured were tried for prison-breaking, and were all shot the next morning.By the beginning of 1897, a large number of troops had arrived from Spain. They were, however, largely conscripts, raw youths who had never handled a rifle, mere raw material in fact, sent out without uniform or equipment, many having only what they stood up in, or at most, having a spare shirt and a singlet tied up in a handkerchief. We talk about the shortcomings of our War Office officials, and certainly they sometimes give examples of wooden-headed stupidity, and are behind the age in many particulars. But for deliberate inhumanity, for utter callousness to human suffering, to loss of health and life, I think the Spanish War Office could hardly be outdone. And I speak of their misdeeds from personal knowledge in the Philippines and in Cuba. What an enormous amount of suffering was caused to the working-people of Spain by the sending to Cuba and to the Philippines of over 200,000 men in 1895–96. Never in this generation were men shipped away so destitute of clothing, provisions, surgeons and medical comforts. Never have I seen troops in the field with such wretched equipment, or so devoid of transport, tents, and supplies.Whatever successes they achieved were secured by the inborn valour of the troops, and by extraordinary exertions on the part of the generals and staff to improvise on the spot what the national treasury should have supplied them with at the commencement of hostilities.The raw recruits having been drilled and exercised with the rifle were organised in fifteen battalions and called Cazadores (chasseurs). These battalions, with four regiments of native infantry and some native volunteers, were formed into brigades under Generals Cornell, Marina, Jaramillo and Galbis. The first three brigades constituted a division, which was placed under the command of General Lachambre, an officer of great energy, and of long experience in the Cuban wars.By the beginning of 1897 the Tagal rebellion had concentrated its forces in the province of Cavite. Embers of rebellion still smouldered in other provinces of Luzon,but many rebels from outlying places had thrown in their lot with those of Cavite, and in great numbers, very indifferently supplied with arms and ammunition, but amply with provisions, they confidently awaited the long-prepared attack of the Spanish forces behind the formidable entrenchments that their persevering labour had raised. In the interval they had organised themselves after a fashion, and had instituted a reign of terror wherever they held sway.The organisation of the rebels in the province of Cavite was of a somewhat confused nature, and seemed to respond to the ambition and influence of particular individuals rather than to any systematic principle.Thus Silang was declared a vice-royalty under Victor Belarmino, styled Victor I.The rest of the province was divided into two districts, each ruled by a council; the first was Imus and its vicinity, under Bernardino Aguinaldo with ministers of war, of the treasury, of agriculture and of justice.The second was San Francisco de Malabon, presided over by Mariano Alvarez, with ministers of state as above.But above the kingdom of Silang and the two republics, the President of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, held sway as lieutenant of the Generalissimo Emilio Aguinaldo. He resided in his palace at San Francisco, and from there dictated his orders. The supreme power was in the hands of Aguinaldo.All these authorities exercised despotic power, and certainly ill-treated and robbed their own countrymen who did not desire to join them, far more than the Spaniards have ever done in the worst of times. They frequently inflicted the death-penalty, and their so-called courts-martial no more thought of acquitting an accused person than a regimental court-martial in England would. The terrible President of the Katipunan ultimately became a victim of one of these blood-thirsty tribunals.Their military organization was curious. The province was sub-divided into military zones. First Silang, second Imus, third Bacoor, fourth San Francisco de Malabon, fifth Alfonso. Each zone had an army which consisted of all the population able to work, and was divided into two parts, the active or fighting force and the auxiliary but non-combatant part. The active force was divided into regiments and companies, and these last into riflemen and spearmen, there being commonly five of the latter to oneof the former. Besides the usual military ranks, they instituted the following functionaries:Minister of MarineMarcelo de los Santos.Principal Chaplain to the ForcesEladio Almeyda.Intendant-General of TaxesSilvestre Aguinaldo.General of ArtilleryCrispulo Aguinaldo.Inspector of Ordnance FactoriesEdilberto Evangelista.General of EngineersJudge Advocate GeneralSantos Nocón.All the above held the rank of lieutenant-general. The badges of rank were as follows:Rebel Badges of Rank.Generalissimo,Kon the hat or cap.Z. L. I. B.on the arm.on the left breast.Lieutenant Generals,Marshals,Brigadiers,Colonels,Majors,KKKThe Ministers,KThe Secretary to the Generalissimo,K K KThe rebels occupied the whole of the province of Cavite, except the fortified town of that name containing the naval arsenal, and a small strip on the shores of the Laguna where the Spanish troops were posted.Cornell’s brigade was at Calamba and Marina’s brigade at Biñan. They had outlying detachments amounting to 1500 men at Santa Cruz, Santo Domingo, Tayabas, and along the line from Tanáuan to Bañadero, leaving each brigade 4000 men for the advance into the rebel territory. The divisional troops numbered about 1300, making a total of 9300 combatants.The brigade under Jaramillo had its headquarters in Taal, Batangas Province, with outlying detachments at Batangas, Calacá, Lián Balayan and Punta Santiago, and a force holding the line of the Pansipit River, altogether amounting to 1000 men, leaving 1600 free to operate.Besides this a fourth brigade, not belonging to the division, having General Galbis as brigadier, was extended along the northern bank of the Zapote River, under the immediate orders of the governor-general. The Lakes of Bay and Bombon (Taal) were guarded by armed steam-launches and other small craft, whilst the gunboats of the squadron patrolled the sea coast. The rebel province was thus held in a grip of iron.On the 12th February, 1897, General Lachambre reported himself ready to advance. General Polavieja ordered Jaramillo to attack the rebel trenches at Bayuyungan on the 14th, and to keep up the attack until Lachambre had seized Silang, when he was to attack Talisay on the Lake of Taal. The marines at Dalahican were ordered to attack Noveleta, whilst Lachambre was to advance on the 15th, the two brigades taking different routes, but converging on Silang.The march was extremely difficult, and the nine-centimètreguns were only taken through, at the cost of most strenuous efforts. The enemy tenaciously defended every favourable position, and were only driven off at the cost of many lives.On the 19th, Silang, one of the principal rebel towns, was taken by assault and at the point of the bayonet, after a preparatory bombardment in which the artillery fired 105 rounds of shell, whilst 25,000 rifle cartridges were used by the infantry.The rebels lost 2000 men killed and wounded, whilst the Spanish losses were 12 killed and 70 wounded. The town was strongly entrenched and stoutly defended, and its capture with so small a loss may justly be called a creditable operation. Marina’s brigade attacked from the south and Cornell’s brigade from the east.The action lasted from 7 to 11.30A.M.The rebels were discouraged, but still, on the 22nd, they delivered an attack as if they would retake the town, and pressed on with great fury. They killed four of the Spaniards and wounded twenty-one, but in the end were driven off, leaving 400 dead on the ground. The houses in Silang were found fully furnished and provisioned. In the house of the so-called Viceroy of Silang, Victor Belarmino, the principal ornament of the sala was a chromo-lithograph portrait of the Queen Regent.The church-doors were wide open and the altars profusely illuminated. On the sacristy table lay the priestly robes and ornaments, ready, doubtless, for the celebration of a Te Deum for the expected victory. But he who was to wear them, the celebrated Tagal Bishop, lay with a bullet through his heart across the parapet he had fiercely defended.Lachambre preserved the best houses around the church and convent and utilised them as storehouses, hospital, and barracks, burning the rest of the town as a punishment to the rebels. He then garrisoned and fortified the post and connected it with the telegraph line.On the 24th Lachambre marched from Silang, his main body advancing by the direct route to Perez Dasmariñas parallel to the River Casundit, a flanking force of three companies guarding the left of the column, whilst Lieutenant Colonel Villalon, with a battalion and a half having started an hour earlier than the main body, took the road to Palimparan, having the Rio Grande on his right, and byhis advance protecting the right flank of the column. Villalon advanced rapidly, and, brushing aside all opposition, rushed Palimparan with a loss of one killed and one wounded, killing seven of the rebels in the attack. Here he bivouacked, and at sunset was joined by another force consisting of half a brigade under Colonel Arizon, detached from General Galbis’ force on the Zapote River.In the meantime the main body had advanced to within three miles of Perez Dasmariñas and bivouacked at the hamlet called Sampalcoc. On the following day Perez Dasmariñas was taken by assault, after a short bombardment by the mountain batteries. The rebels were strongly entrenched, and made a stout resistance. They had flooded the rice fields to the east of the town and rendered them impassable.The town was attacked from the south and west, but it took hours of hard fighting for the Spaniards to break in, and even then the rebels fought hand to hand, and many preferred death to surrender. Those who fled were taken in flank by Arizon’s force, which approached the northern end of the town from the eastward. The loss of the Spaniards was 21 killed and 121 wounded, whilst the natives left 400 dead at the foot of their defences, and a great number were killed outside the town.The early part of the defence was directed by Aguinaldo, but he fled when the Spanish forces closed up, leaving Estrella, an ex-sergeant of the Guardia Civil, in his place. Estrella fled later on when the Spaniards had entered the town. Unintimidated by this rude lesson, the rebels that same night fired into the town, and on the 27th they attacked a column which went out to make a reconnaissance towards Palimparan, and gave a mountain battery a chance, which they promptly took, of getting at a dense body of them with case. The artillery fired 22 rounds in this action, and the infantry used 63,000 cartridges. The Spanish loss was two killed and ten wounded, whilst the rebels lost at least 300.The church, convent, and stone homes round the Plaza of Perez Dasmariñas were loopholed and prepared for defence, and occupied by a garrison of two companies of infantry. Owing, however, to the difficulty of bringing up supplies, the division could not resume its advance till the 7th March. Then the division took the eastern road to Imus, whilst the half brigade under Arizon marched by aparallel road on the right flank, which converged upon the Imus road at Salitran, a village with a large stone estate-house belonging to the Recollets, strongly entrenched and held by the rebels.On arriving within range two guns of Cornell’s brigade opened fire on the estate-house from an eminence, but after the fifth round the Spanish flag was shown from the house, it having been occupied by Arizon’s force arriving from the east after a very slight resistance, for the rebels seemed to have no one in command. They had prepared for an attack from the east, but when they found the Spaniards arriving in great force upon their right flank, enfilading their strong entrenchments, they became demoralised and took to flight.The scouts now reported that a formidable entrenchment a mile and a quarter long, was occupied by the rebels about a mile north of the village. This entrenchment, called Anabo II., covered both the roads to Imus, and each flank rested on a deep ravine—the eastern end had a redoubt, and the western end a flanking epaulement.The ground in front was perfectly open, and there was difficulty in making a flanking attack, so General Zabala, with a half brigade, made a direct attack. The fighting line gradually advanced, taking such cover as thepilápilesof the rice-fields could give, until they arrived within 100 yards of the parapet, when Zabala, waving high his sword, gave the order for the assault, falling a moment after pierced through the breast by a shot from alantaca. Two captains fell near him, but the lieutenants led their companies to the assault; the cazadores sprang across the ditch and clambered up the high parapet with the agility and fury of leopards, bayoneting those of the defenders who remained to fight it out, and sending volley after volley into those who had taken to flight.The Spanish loss was 11 killed and 33 wounded, whilst 200 of the rebels were killed. This heavy loss did not however appear to intimidate them in the least, for on the 8th they made two desperate attempts to retake the position, in both of which they came within close range of the Spaniards, who poured repeated volleys into them by word of command, whilst the mountain-guns played upon them withease. In this action the Spaniards lost 5 killed and 25 wounded, and they calculated the rebel killed at 300.
Chapter X.The Insurrection of 1896–97.Combat at San Juan del Monte—Insurrection spreading—Arrival of reinforcements from Spain—Rebel entrenchments—Rebel arms and artillery—Spaniards repulsed from Binacáyan—and from Noveleta—Mutiny of Carabineros—Prisoners at Cavite attempt to escape—Iniquities of the Spanish War Office—Lachambre’s division—Rebel organization—Rank and badges—Lachambre advances—He captures Silang—Perez Dasmariñas—Salitran—Anabo II.The Augustinians take credit to themselves that one of their order, Father Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, discovered the existence of the revolutionary conspiracy, on the 19th August. But already on the 5th of July a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil had declared in a written report that there were over 14,000 men belonging to the valley of the Pasig, affiliated to the conspiracy.A council of the authorities was convened on the 6th of August, but nothing was done. On that same date, however, the Governor of Batangas telegraphed that a discovery of arms, ammunition and Republican flags had been made at Taal. In consequence of this, General Blanco ordered some arrests to be made.On the 19th, Father Gil gave information to General Blanco that he had discovered the existence of a secret revolutionary society, and two days later Blanco reported to the Government in Madrid that there existed a vast organization of secret societies.At this time the garrison of Manila consisted of some 1500 men, most of them being natives. As arrests were being continually made, the members of the Katipunan, or those suspected of being such, left their homes and took to the woods although very poorly equipped with fire-arms.On 30th August a party of the rebels under SanchoValenzuela, Modesto Sarmiento, and others had a fight with some native cavalry and Guardias Civiles at San Juan del Monte near Manila. The rebels lost heavily in killed, their chiefs were taken prisoners and shot on the 4th September, at the Paseo de la Luneta.A Spanish artilleryman was murdered by some rebels at Pandacan about this time, and martial law was proclaimed.The Guardia Civil, all native soldiers, was now concentrated in Manila abandoning their outlying posts. After many vacillations and contradictory cablegrams to the Government in Madrid, General Blanco now definitely asked for large reinforcements.On September 1st, the people of Noveleta revolted and killed a captain and a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil and three days later the rebels penetrated to the town of Caridad, close to Cavite.Early in September rebels were in arms, and dominating great part of the Provinces of Manila, Cavite, Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga and Nueva Écija.By the middle of the month rebel bands appeared in Tarlac, Pangasinán, Laguna, Morong and Tayabas.On the 9th September, the Cavite rebels attacked San Roque, which is close to the town of Cavite, and burned part of it. On the 12th, thirteen persons who had been convicted by a court-martial of complicity in the revolt were shot in Cavite.The cables from General Blanco to the Madrid Government were all this time misleading and contradictory, and showed that he had no grasp of the state of affairs. These dispatches were subjected to severe criticism in theHeraldo, a Madrid newspaper.By the middle of September troops arrived from Zamboanga and other southern stations, and the garrison of Manila was brought up to 6000 men, two-thirds of whom were natives. Reinforcements were sent to Cavite, for the rebels were in great force about Silang, Imus, and Noveleta.On the 17th September another attack was made by the rebels on San Roque, but was repulsed.On the 1st October the mail steamerCataluñaarrived with a battalion of marines from Spain, greatly to the delight of the Spaniards, who gave the force an enthusiastic reception.Next day the ss.Monserratarrived with more troops, and from this time forward troops kept pouring in.Still General Blanco remained on the defensive in and around the city of Manila and the town of Cavite, and repulsed attacks made by the rebels on the magazines at Binancáyan and Las Piñas.The rebels were now firmly established over the rest of the Province of Cavite. The natural features of this part of Luzon made the movements of regular troops extremely difficult. The country abounds in rivers which run from south to north parallel to each other at short distances. They run at the bottom of deep ravines, which present excellent positions for defence. Many of these rivers have dams across them and the sluices in these might be opened by the defenders, or the dams could be blown up in case a column of the assailants should be entangled in the ravine below, when they would inevitably be overwhelmed in the descending torrent.In places the country could be flooded and thus be rendered impassable for troops.But the industry of the rebels, skilfully directed, had added enormously to these natural advantages. From the reports of eye-witnesses I can affirm that the entrenchments of the Tagals were colossal. Tagals and Boers have demonstrated that a competitive examination is not necessary to enable fighting-men to entrench themselves. The Tagal lines ran from the delta of the Zapote River to Naic in an almost unbroken line, approximately parallel to the coast.They were doubled and trebled in front of villages or towns and across the roads.The trace wasen crémaillère, the section being 6 feet thick at the top and 8 feet high, the exterior face vertical, with a revetment of bamboos fastened together with rattans. It was in fact a bank of earth built up against a strong bamboo fence.The defenders fired through loop-holes left in the parapet, and were very well covered, but they could only fire straight before them and horizontally.The defences of the towns had thicker and loftier parapets; in some cases there were three tiers of loop-holes properly splayed.The insurgents were very insufficiently armed, and at first there were ten men to a rifle. The man who wasreputed the best shot carried the rifle and cartridge belt, and if he was killed or wounded in an engagement, the next best shot took the weapon and continued the fight. In the early actions there was scarcely ever a rifle left on the ground by the insurgents.The only cannon the rebels had at first were some ancient brass swivel guns called falconetes or lantácas, which they took from the estate-houses at Imus and Malabon.They also had some brass mortars like quart pots, which are used for firing salutes on feast days. These they fastened at an angle to blocks of wood, thus making small howitzers, quite effective at short range. They loaded these with the punchings from boiler-plates and broken cooking-pots.They showed a considerable ingenuity in making cannon out of any materials at hand. They would take a steel boiler-tube, a stay tube for choice, say about three inches bore and a quarter of an inch thick. Plugging up one end and drilling a touch-hole, they would drive this tube into a hole bored in a log of hard wood turned on the outside to a taper, then they drove eight or nine wrought-iron rings over the wood. They drilled through the wood to suit the touch-hole and the gun was ready.They fitted no trunnions, but mounted this rude cannon upon a solid block of wood.In other cases they made some wire guns by lapping steel boiler-tubes with telegraph-wire.Towards the end of the campaign of Lachambre’s division against the rebels, some modern field-pieces of eight centimètres were captured from them, but it is not clear where these came from.To supplement their scanty stock of rifles, they made some hand-guns of gas-tube. These were fired by applying a match or lighted cigar to the touch-hole, and would seem to be very clumsy weapons. But I may say that when on a visit to the estate of Palpa, in Peru, I saw a Chinaman who was in charge of the poultry corral, kill a hawk hovering, with a similar gun.The Spanish Military and Naval Authorities now took the revolt very seriously, and on the 8th November the squadron comprising theCastilla,Reina Cristina, and other vessels, and the guns of the forts at Cavite and Puerto Vaga, opened upon the rebel position at Cavite,Viejo, Noveleta, Binancáyan, and other places within range, and kept it up for hours. The next morning the firing was resumed at daylight, supplemented by the guns from launches and boats well inshore. Troops were landed under the protection of the squadron, and advanced against the entrenchments of Binancáyan. They delivered three frontal attacks with great gallantry, reaching the parapet each time, but were beaten back, leaving many dead upon the ground. No flanking attack was possible here for the parapet extended for many miles each way.A simultaneous attack was made upon Noveleta by a column of 3000 Spanish and native infantry under Colonel Fermin Diaz Mattoni.This force started from Cavite and marched through Dalahican and along the road to Noveleta. This road is a raised causeway running through a mangrove swamp, having deep mud on each side impassable for troops. This is at least a mile of swamp, and the troops advanced along the causeway and crossed a bridge which spanned a muddy creek.No enemy was in sight, and the town was not far off. Suddenly the head of the column fell into a most cunningly devised pitfall. The road had been dug out, the pit covered with wattle, and the surface restored to its original appearance. The bottom of the pit was set with pointed bamboo stakes which inflicted serious wounds upon those that fell upon them.At the moment of confusion the rebels opened a withering fire from concealed positions amongst the mangroves upon the column standing in the open.The Spaniards and native troops made great efforts to get forward, but could not stand the fire and had to retire. When they got back to the bridge it was down, and they had to wade across the creek under a close fire from the rebels hidden amongst the mangroves. In this action the Spaniards are said to have lost 600 killed and many hundreds wounded. The loss fell principally on the 73rd and 74th Regiments of Native Infantry.The rebels were greatly encouraged, and got possession of a large number of rifles, with ammunition and accoutrements.Both these attacks were made under the direction of General Blanco, who witnessed them from a lofty staging erected within the lines ofDalahican. After these disastershe resumed the defensive, except that the squadron and the batteries at Cavite and Puerto Vaga frequently bombarded the rebel positions.At this time thousands of natives were in prison in Manila awaiting their trial. A permanent court-martial had been organised to try the suspects. Great numbers were shot, and many hundreds were transported to the Caroline Islands, to Ceuta, and Fernando Pó. Wealthy natives were mercilessly blackmailed, and it is reported that those who were discharged had to pay large sums for their release.The Spanish Volunteers in Manila committed many arbitrary and even outrageous actions, and aroused the hatred of the natives far more than the regular troops did. They allowed their patriotism to carry them into most lamentable excesses.On the 25th February a rising and mutiny of the Carbineers or Custom-House Guards took place in Manila at the captain of the port’s office. The scheme miscarried and was only partially successful. The officer on duty was shot, and also the sergeant, and the rebels made off with some rifles and ammunition.The volunteers and some troops hastily called together pursued the rebels through Tondo as far as the Leper Hospital, till nightfall, the last volley being fired at 6.15 P.M. In this affair the mutineers lost a great many men, but some of them got away and joined the rebels.Blanco had not been severe enough with the rebels or suspected rebels to please the friars. His management of the attacks upon Noveleta and Binancáyan had been faulty, and his health was bad. It was not surprising, having the priests against him, and the military dissatisfied, that he was recalled. He left at the end of 1896. General Polavieja, an officer who had risen from the ranks by his military talents, and who, when serving in Cuba, had very accurately gauged the situation, and had made a remarkably clever report to the government, was sent out to replace Blanco. Polavieja was inexorable with the rebels and their sympathisers. Military executions took place about once a week for two months. Francisco Roxas, a mestizo ship-owner, Numeriano Adriano, and many other mestizos and natives were shot at the Paseo de la Luneta.On December 6th the prisoners in Cavite jail rose, murdered their jailer, and attempted to escape. Onehundred and fifty prisoners were concerned in this affair. Of these, forty-seven were shot in the streets of the town, and twenty-one were captured, whilst thirteen were shot in the bushes behind Cañacao. Those recaptured were tried for prison-breaking, and were all shot the next morning.By the beginning of 1897, a large number of troops had arrived from Spain. They were, however, largely conscripts, raw youths who had never handled a rifle, mere raw material in fact, sent out without uniform or equipment, many having only what they stood up in, or at most, having a spare shirt and a singlet tied up in a handkerchief. We talk about the shortcomings of our War Office officials, and certainly they sometimes give examples of wooden-headed stupidity, and are behind the age in many particulars. But for deliberate inhumanity, for utter callousness to human suffering, to loss of health and life, I think the Spanish War Office could hardly be outdone. And I speak of their misdeeds from personal knowledge in the Philippines and in Cuba. What an enormous amount of suffering was caused to the working-people of Spain by the sending to Cuba and to the Philippines of over 200,000 men in 1895–96. Never in this generation were men shipped away so destitute of clothing, provisions, surgeons and medical comforts. Never have I seen troops in the field with such wretched equipment, or so devoid of transport, tents, and supplies.Whatever successes they achieved were secured by the inborn valour of the troops, and by extraordinary exertions on the part of the generals and staff to improvise on the spot what the national treasury should have supplied them with at the commencement of hostilities.The raw recruits having been drilled and exercised with the rifle were organised in fifteen battalions and called Cazadores (chasseurs). These battalions, with four regiments of native infantry and some native volunteers, were formed into brigades under Generals Cornell, Marina, Jaramillo and Galbis. The first three brigades constituted a division, which was placed under the command of General Lachambre, an officer of great energy, and of long experience in the Cuban wars.By the beginning of 1897 the Tagal rebellion had concentrated its forces in the province of Cavite. Embers of rebellion still smouldered in other provinces of Luzon,but many rebels from outlying places had thrown in their lot with those of Cavite, and in great numbers, very indifferently supplied with arms and ammunition, but amply with provisions, they confidently awaited the long-prepared attack of the Spanish forces behind the formidable entrenchments that their persevering labour had raised. In the interval they had organised themselves after a fashion, and had instituted a reign of terror wherever they held sway.The organisation of the rebels in the province of Cavite was of a somewhat confused nature, and seemed to respond to the ambition and influence of particular individuals rather than to any systematic principle.Thus Silang was declared a vice-royalty under Victor Belarmino, styled Victor I.The rest of the province was divided into two districts, each ruled by a council; the first was Imus and its vicinity, under Bernardino Aguinaldo with ministers of war, of the treasury, of agriculture and of justice.The second was San Francisco de Malabon, presided over by Mariano Alvarez, with ministers of state as above.But above the kingdom of Silang and the two republics, the President of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, held sway as lieutenant of the Generalissimo Emilio Aguinaldo. He resided in his palace at San Francisco, and from there dictated his orders. The supreme power was in the hands of Aguinaldo.All these authorities exercised despotic power, and certainly ill-treated and robbed their own countrymen who did not desire to join them, far more than the Spaniards have ever done in the worst of times. They frequently inflicted the death-penalty, and their so-called courts-martial no more thought of acquitting an accused person than a regimental court-martial in England would. The terrible President of the Katipunan ultimately became a victim of one of these blood-thirsty tribunals.Their military organization was curious. The province was sub-divided into military zones. First Silang, second Imus, third Bacoor, fourth San Francisco de Malabon, fifth Alfonso. Each zone had an army which consisted of all the population able to work, and was divided into two parts, the active or fighting force and the auxiliary but non-combatant part. The active force was divided into regiments and companies, and these last into riflemen and spearmen, there being commonly five of the latter to oneof the former. Besides the usual military ranks, they instituted the following functionaries:Minister of MarineMarcelo de los Santos.Principal Chaplain to the ForcesEladio Almeyda.Intendant-General of TaxesSilvestre Aguinaldo.General of ArtilleryCrispulo Aguinaldo.Inspector of Ordnance FactoriesEdilberto Evangelista.General of EngineersJudge Advocate GeneralSantos Nocón.All the above held the rank of lieutenant-general. The badges of rank were as follows:Rebel Badges of Rank.Generalissimo,Kon the hat or cap.Z. L. I. B.on the arm.on the left breast.Lieutenant Generals,Marshals,Brigadiers,Colonels,Majors,KKKThe Ministers,KThe Secretary to the Generalissimo,K K KThe rebels occupied the whole of the province of Cavite, except the fortified town of that name containing the naval arsenal, and a small strip on the shores of the Laguna where the Spanish troops were posted.Cornell’s brigade was at Calamba and Marina’s brigade at Biñan. They had outlying detachments amounting to 1500 men at Santa Cruz, Santo Domingo, Tayabas, and along the line from Tanáuan to Bañadero, leaving each brigade 4000 men for the advance into the rebel territory. The divisional troops numbered about 1300, making a total of 9300 combatants.The brigade under Jaramillo had its headquarters in Taal, Batangas Province, with outlying detachments at Batangas, Calacá, Lián Balayan and Punta Santiago, and a force holding the line of the Pansipit River, altogether amounting to 1000 men, leaving 1600 free to operate.Besides this a fourth brigade, not belonging to the division, having General Galbis as brigadier, was extended along the northern bank of the Zapote River, under the immediate orders of the governor-general. The Lakes of Bay and Bombon (Taal) were guarded by armed steam-launches and other small craft, whilst the gunboats of the squadron patrolled the sea coast. The rebel province was thus held in a grip of iron.On the 12th February, 1897, General Lachambre reported himself ready to advance. General Polavieja ordered Jaramillo to attack the rebel trenches at Bayuyungan on the 14th, and to keep up the attack until Lachambre had seized Silang, when he was to attack Talisay on the Lake of Taal. The marines at Dalahican were ordered to attack Noveleta, whilst Lachambre was to advance on the 15th, the two brigades taking different routes, but converging on Silang.The march was extremely difficult, and the nine-centimètreguns were only taken through, at the cost of most strenuous efforts. The enemy tenaciously defended every favourable position, and were only driven off at the cost of many lives.On the 19th, Silang, one of the principal rebel towns, was taken by assault and at the point of the bayonet, after a preparatory bombardment in which the artillery fired 105 rounds of shell, whilst 25,000 rifle cartridges were used by the infantry.The rebels lost 2000 men killed and wounded, whilst the Spanish losses were 12 killed and 70 wounded. The town was strongly entrenched and stoutly defended, and its capture with so small a loss may justly be called a creditable operation. Marina’s brigade attacked from the south and Cornell’s brigade from the east.The action lasted from 7 to 11.30A.M.The rebels were discouraged, but still, on the 22nd, they delivered an attack as if they would retake the town, and pressed on with great fury. They killed four of the Spaniards and wounded twenty-one, but in the end were driven off, leaving 400 dead on the ground. The houses in Silang were found fully furnished and provisioned. In the house of the so-called Viceroy of Silang, Victor Belarmino, the principal ornament of the sala was a chromo-lithograph portrait of the Queen Regent.The church-doors were wide open and the altars profusely illuminated. On the sacristy table lay the priestly robes and ornaments, ready, doubtless, for the celebration of a Te Deum for the expected victory. But he who was to wear them, the celebrated Tagal Bishop, lay with a bullet through his heart across the parapet he had fiercely defended.Lachambre preserved the best houses around the church and convent and utilised them as storehouses, hospital, and barracks, burning the rest of the town as a punishment to the rebels. He then garrisoned and fortified the post and connected it with the telegraph line.On the 24th Lachambre marched from Silang, his main body advancing by the direct route to Perez Dasmariñas parallel to the River Casundit, a flanking force of three companies guarding the left of the column, whilst Lieutenant Colonel Villalon, with a battalion and a half having started an hour earlier than the main body, took the road to Palimparan, having the Rio Grande on his right, and byhis advance protecting the right flank of the column. Villalon advanced rapidly, and, brushing aside all opposition, rushed Palimparan with a loss of one killed and one wounded, killing seven of the rebels in the attack. Here he bivouacked, and at sunset was joined by another force consisting of half a brigade under Colonel Arizon, detached from General Galbis’ force on the Zapote River.In the meantime the main body had advanced to within three miles of Perez Dasmariñas and bivouacked at the hamlet called Sampalcoc. On the following day Perez Dasmariñas was taken by assault, after a short bombardment by the mountain batteries. The rebels were strongly entrenched, and made a stout resistance. They had flooded the rice fields to the east of the town and rendered them impassable.The town was attacked from the south and west, but it took hours of hard fighting for the Spaniards to break in, and even then the rebels fought hand to hand, and many preferred death to surrender. Those who fled were taken in flank by Arizon’s force, which approached the northern end of the town from the eastward. The loss of the Spaniards was 21 killed and 121 wounded, whilst the natives left 400 dead at the foot of their defences, and a great number were killed outside the town.The early part of the defence was directed by Aguinaldo, but he fled when the Spanish forces closed up, leaving Estrella, an ex-sergeant of the Guardia Civil, in his place. Estrella fled later on when the Spaniards had entered the town. Unintimidated by this rude lesson, the rebels that same night fired into the town, and on the 27th they attacked a column which went out to make a reconnaissance towards Palimparan, and gave a mountain battery a chance, which they promptly took, of getting at a dense body of them with case. The artillery fired 22 rounds in this action, and the infantry used 63,000 cartridges. The Spanish loss was two killed and ten wounded, whilst the rebels lost at least 300.The church, convent, and stone homes round the Plaza of Perez Dasmariñas were loopholed and prepared for defence, and occupied by a garrison of two companies of infantry. Owing, however, to the difficulty of bringing up supplies, the division could not resume its advance till the 7th March. Then the division took the eastern road to Imus, whilst the half brigade under Arizon marched by aparallel road on the right flank, which converged upon the Imus road at Salitran, a village with a large stone estate-house belonging to the Recollets, strongly entrenched and held by the rebels.On arriving within range two guns of Cornell’s brigade opened fire on the estate-house from an eminence, but after the fifth round the Spanish flag was shown from the house, it having been occupied by Arizon’s force arriving from the east after a very slight resistance, for the rebels seemed to have no one in command. They had prepared for an attack from the east, but when they found the Spaniards arriving in great force upon their right flank, enfilading their strong entrenchments, they became demoralised and took to flight.The scouts now reported that a formidable entrenchment a mile and a quarter long, was occupied by the rebels about a mile north of the village. This entrenchment, called Anabo II., covered both the roads to Imus, and each flank rested on a deep ravine—the eastern end had a redoubt, and the western end a flanking epaulement.The ground in front was perfectly open, and there was difficulty in making a flanking attack, so General Zabala, with a half brigade, made a direct attack. The fighting line gradually advanced, taking such cover as thepilápilesof the rice-fields could give, until they arrived within 100 yards of the parapet, when Zabala, waving high his sword, gave the order for the assault, falling a moment after pierced through the breast by a shot from alantaca. Two captains fell near him, but the lieutenants led their companies to the assault; the cazadores sprang across the ditch and clambered up the high parapet with the agility and fury of leopards, bayoneting those of the defenders who remained to fight it out, and sending volley after volley into those who had taken to flight.The Spanish loss was 11 killed and 33 wounded, whilst 200 of the rebels were killed. This heavy loss did not however appear to intimidate them in the least, for on the 8th they made two desperate attempts to retake the position, in both of which they came within close range of the Spaniards, who poured repeated volleys into them by word of command, whilst the mountain-guns played upon them withease. In this action the Spaniards lost 5 killed and 25 wounded, and they calculated the rebel killed at 300.
Chapter X.The Insurrection of 1896–97.Combat at San Juan del Monte—Insurrection spreading—Arrival of reinforcements from Spain—Rebel entrenchments—Rebel arms and artillery—Spaniards repulsed from Binacáyan—and from Noveleta—Mutiny of Carabineros—Prisoners at Cavite attempt to escape—Iniquities of the Spanish War Office—Lachambre’s division—Rebel organization—Rank and badges—Lachambre advances—He captures Silang—Perez Dasmariñas—Salitran—Anabo II.The Augustinians take credit to themselves that one of their order, Father Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, discovered the existence of the revolutionary conspiracy, on the 19th August. But already on the 5th of July a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil had declared in a written report that there were over 14,000 men belonging to the valley of the Pasig, affiliated to the conspiracy.A council of the authorities was convened on the 6th of August, but nothing was done. On that same date, however, the Governor of Batangas telegraphed that a discovery of arms, ammunition and Republican flags had been made at Taal. In consequence of this, General Blanco ordered some arrests to be made.On the 19th, Father Gil gave information to General Blanco that he had discovered the existence of a secret revolutionary society, and two days later Blanco reported to the Government in Madrid that there existed a vast organization of secret societies.At this time the garrison of Manila consisted of some 1500 men, most of them being natives. As arrests were being continually made, the members of the Katipunan, or those suspected of being such, left their homes and took to the woods although very poorly equipped with fire-arms.On 30th August a party of the rebels under SanchoValenzuela, Modesto Sarmiento, and others had a fight with some native cavalry and Guardias Civiles at San Juan del Monte near Manila. The rebels lost heavily in killed, their chiefs were taken prisoners and shot on the 4th September, at the Paseo de la Luneta.A Spanish artilleryman was murdered by some rebels at Pandacan about this time, and martial law was proclaimed.The Guardia Civil, all native soldiers, was now concentrated in Manila abandoning their outlying posts. After many vacillations and contradictory cablegrams to the Government in Madrid, General Blanco now definitely asked for large reinforcements.On September 1st, the people of Noveleta revolted and killed a captain and a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil and three days later the rebels penetrated to the town of Caridad, close to Cavite.Early in September rebels were in arms, and dominating great part of the Provinces of Manila, Cavite, Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga and Nueva Écija.By the middle of the month rebel bands appeared in Tarlac, Pangasinán, Laguna, Morong and Tayabas.On the 9th September, the Cavite rebels attacked San Roque, which is close to the town of Cavite, and burned part of it. On the 12th, thirteen persons who had been convicted by a court-martial of complicity in the revolt were shot in Cavite.The cables from General Blanco to the Madrid Government were all this time misleading and contradictory, and showed that he had no grasp of the state of affairs. These dispatches were subjected to severe criticism in theHeraldo, a Madrid newspaper.By the middle of September troops arrived from Zamboanga and other southern stations, and the garrison of Manila was brought up to 6000 men, two-thirds of whom were natives. Reinforcements were sent to Cavite, for the rebels were in great force about Silang, Imus, and Noveleta.On the 17th September another attack was made by the rebels on San Roque, but was repulsed.On the 1st October the mail steamerCataluñaarrived with a battalion of marines from Spain, greatly to the delight of the Spaniards, who gave the force an enthusiastic reception.Next day the ss.Monserratarrived with more troops, and from this time forward troops kept pouring in.Still General Blanco remained on the defensive in and around the city of Manila and the town of Cavite, and repulsed attacks made by the rebels on the magazines at Binancáyan and Las Piñas.The rebels were now firmly established over the rest of the Province of Cavite. The natural features of this part of Luzon made the movements of regular troops extremely difficult. The country abounds in rivers which run from south to north parallel to each other at short distances. They run at the bottom of deep ravines, which present excellent positions for defence. Many of these rivers have dams across them and the sluices in these might be opened by the defenders, or the dams could be blown up in case a column of the assailants should be entangled in the ravine below, when they would inevitably be overwhelmed in the descending torrent.In places the country could be flooded and thus be rendered impassable for troops.But the industry of the rebels, skilfully directed, had added enormously to these natural advantages. From the reports of eye-witnesses I can affirm that the entrenchments of the Tagals were colossal. Tagals and Boers have demonstrated that a competitive examination is not necessary to enable fighting-men to entrench themselves. The Tagal lines ran from the delta of the Zapote River to Naic in an almost unbroken line, approximately parallel to the coast.They were doubled and trebled in front of villages or towns and across the roads.The trace wasen crémaillère, the section being 6 feet thick at the top and 8 feet high, the exterior face vertical, with a revetment of bamboos fastened together with rattans. It was in fact a bank of earth built up against a strong bamboo fence.The defenders fired through loop-holes left in the parapet, and were very well covered, but they could only fire straight before them and horizontally.The defences of the towns had thicker and loftier parapets; in some cases there were three tiers of loop-holes properly splayed.The insurgents were very insufficiently armed, and at first there were ten men to a rifle. The man who wasreputed the best shot carried the rifle and cartridge belt, and if he was killed or wounded in an engagement, the next best shot took the weapon and continued the fight. In the early actions there was scarcely ever a rifle left on the ground by the insurgents.The only cannon the rebels had at first were some ancient brass swivel guns called falconetes or lantácas, which they took from the estate-houses at Imus and Malabon.They also had some brass mortars like quart pots, which are used for firing salutes on feast days. These they fastened at an angle to blocks of wood, thus making small howitzers, quite effective at short range. They loaded these with the punchings from boiler-plates and broken cooking-pots.They showed a considerable ingenuity in making cannon out of any materials at hand. They would take a steel boiler-tube, a stay tube for choice, say about three inches bore and a quarter of an inch thick. Plugging up one end and drilling a touch-hole, they would drive this tube into a hole bored in a log of hard wood turned on the outside to a taper, then they drove eight or nine wrought-iron rings over the wood. They drilled through the wood to suit the touch-hole and the gun was ready.They fitted no trunnions, but mounted this rude cannon upon a solid block of wood.In other cases they made some wire guns by lapping steel boiler-tubes with telegraph-wire.Towards the end of the campaign of Lachambre’s division against the rebels, some modern field-pieces of eight centimètres were captured from them, but it is not clear where these came from.To supplement their scanty stock of rifles, they made some hand-guns of gas-tube. These were fired by applying a match or lighted cigar to the touch-hole, and would seem to be very clumsy weapons. But I may say that when on a visit to the estate of Palpa, in Peru, I saw a Chinaman who was in charge of the poultry corral, kill a hawk hovering, with a similar gun.The Spanish Military and Naval Authorities now took the revolt very seriously, and on the 8th November the squadron comprising theCastilla,Reina Cristina, and other vessels, and the guns of the forts at Cavite and Puerto Vaga, opened upon the rebel position at Cavite,Viejo, Noveleta, Binancáyan, and other places within range, and kept it up for hours. The next morning the firing was resumed at daylight, supplemented by the guns from launches and boats well inshore. Troops were landed under the protection of the squadron, and advanced against the entrenchments of Binancáyan. They delivered three frontal attacks with great gallantry, reaching the parapet each time, but were beaten back, leaving many dead upon the ground. No flanking attack was possible here for the parapet extended for many miles each way.A simultaneous attack was made upon Noveleta by a column of 3000 Spanish and native infantry under Colonel Fermin Diaz Mattoni.This force started from Cavite and marched through Dalahican and along the road to Noveleta. This road is a raised causeway running through a mangrove swamp, having deep mud on each side impassable for troops. This is at least a mile of swamp, and the troops advanced along the causeway and crossed a bridge which spanned a muddy creek.No enemy was in sight, and the town was not far off. Suddenly the head of the column fell into a most cunningly devised pitfall. The road had been dug out, the pit covered with wattle, and the surface restored to its original appearance. The bottom of the pit was set with pointed bamboo stakes which inflicted serious wounds upon those that fell upon them.At the moment of confusion the rebels opened a withering fire from concealed positions amongst the mangroves upon the column standing in the open.The Spaniards and native troops made great efforts to get forward, but could not stand the fire and had to retire. When they got back to the bridge it was down, and they had to wade across the creek under a close fire from the rebels hidden amongst the mangroves. In this action the Spaniards are said to have lost 600 killed and many hundreds wounded. The loss fell principally on the 73rd and 74th Regiments of Native Infantry.The rebels were greatly encouraged, and got possession of a large number of rifles, with ammunition and accoutrements.Both these attacks were made under the direction of General Blanco, who witnessed them from a lofty staging erected within the lines ofDalahican. After these disastershe resumed the defensive, except that the squadron and the batteries at Cavite and Puerto Vaga frequently bombarded the rebel positions.At this time thousands of natives were in prison in Manila awaiting their trial. A permanent court-martial had been organised to try the suspects. Great numbers were shot, and many hundreds were transported to the Caroline Islands, to Ceuta, and Fernando Pó. Wealthy natives were mercilessly blackmailed, and it is reported that those who were discharged had to pay large sums for their release.The Spanish Volunteers in Manila committed many arbitrary and even outrageous actions, and aroused the hatred of the natives far more than the regular troops did. They allowed their patriotism to carry them into most lamentable excesses.On the 25th February a rising and mutiny of the Carbineers or Custom-House Guards took place in Manila at the captain of the port’s office. The scheme miscarried and was only partially successful. The officer on duty was shot, and also the sergeant, and the rebels made off with some rifles and ammunition.The volunteers and some troops hastily called together pursued the rebels through Tondo as far as the Leper Hospital, till nightfall, the last volley being fired at 6.15 P.M. In this affair the mutineers lost a great many men, but some of them got away and joined the rebels.Blanco had not been severe enough with the rebels or suspected rebels to please the friars. His management of the attacks upon Noveleta and Binancáyan had been faulty, and his health was bad. It was not surprising, having the priests against him, and the military dissatisfied, that he was recalled. He left at the end of 1896. General Polavieja, an officer who had risen from the ranks by his military talents, and who, when serving in Cuba, had very accurately gauged the situation, and had made a remarkably clever report to the government, was sent out to replace Blanco. Polavieja was inexorable with the rebels and their sympathisers. Military executions took place about once a week for two months. Francisco Roxas, a mestizo ship-owner, Numeriano Adriano, and many other mestizos and natives were shot at the Paseo de la Luneta.On December 6th the prisoners in Cavite jail rose, murdered their jailer, and attempted to escape. Onehundred and fifty prisoners were concerned in this affair. Of these, forty-seven were shot in the streets of the town, and twenty-one were captured, whilst thirteen were shot in the bushes behind Cañacao. Those recaptured were tried for prison-breaking, and were all shot the next morning.By the beginning of 1897, a large number of troops had arrived from Spain. They were, however, largely conscripts, raw youths who had never handled a rifle, mere raw material in fact, sent out without uniform or equipment, many having only what they stood up in, or at most, having a spare shirt and a singlet tied up in a handkerchief. We talk about the shortcomings of our War Office officials, and certainly they sometimes give examples of wooden-headed stupidity, and are behind the age in many particulars. But for deliberate inhumanity, for utter callousness to human suffering, to loss of health and life, I think the Spanish War Office could hardly be outdone. And I speak of their misdeeds from personal knowledge in the Philippines and in Cuba. What an enormous amount of suffering was caused to the working-people of Spain by the sending to Cuba and to the Philippines of over 200,000 men in 1895–96. Never in this generation were men shipped away so destitute of clothing, provisions, surgeons and medical comforts. Never have I seen troops in the field with such wretched equipment, or so devoid of transport, tents, and supplies.Whatever successes they achieved were secured by the inborn valour of the troops, and by extraordinary exertions on the part of the generals and staff to improvise on the spot what the national treasury should have supplied them with at the commencement of hostilities.The raw recruits having been drilled and exercised with the rifle were organised in fifteen battalions and called Cazadores (chasseurs). These battalions, with four regiments of native infantry and some native volunteers, were formed into brigades under Generals Cornell, Marina, Jaramillo and Galbis. The first three brigades constituted a division, which was placed under the command of General Lachambre, an officer of great energy, and of long experience in the Cuban wars.By the beginning of 1897 the Tagal rebellion had concentrated its forces in the province of Cavite. Embers of rebellion still smouldered in other provinces of Luzon,but many rebels from outlying places had thrown in their lot with those of Cavite, and in great numbers, very indifferently supplied with arms and ammunition, but amply with provisions, they confidently awaited the long-prepared attack of the Spanish forces behind the formidable entrenchments that their persevering labour had raised. In the interval they had organised themselves after a fashion, and had instituted a reign of terror wherever they held sway.The organisation of the rebels in the province of Cavite was of a somewhat confused nature, and seemed to respond to the ambition and influence of particular individuals rather than to any systematic principle.Thus Silang was declared a vice-royalty under Victor Belarmino, styled Victor I.The rest of the province was divided into two districts, each ruled by a council; the first was Imus and its vicinity, under Bernardino Aguinaldo with ministers of war, of the treasury, of agriculture and of justice.The second was San Francisco de Malabon, presided over by Mariano Alvarez, with ministers of state as above.But above the kingdom of Silang and the two republics, the President of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, held sway as lieutenant of the Generalissimo Emilio Aguinaldo. He resided in his palace at San Francisco, and from there dictated his orders. The supreme power was in the hands of Aguinaldo.All these authorities exercised despotic power, and certainly ill-treated and robbed their own countrymen who did not desire to join them, far more than the Spaniards have ever done in the worst of times. They frequently inflicted the death-penalty, and their so-called courts-martial no more thought of acquitting an accused person than a regimental court-martial in England would. The terrible President of the Katipunan ultimately became a victim of one of these blood-thirsty tribunals.Their military organization was curious. The province was sub-divided into military zones. First Silang, second Imus, third Bacoor, fourth San Francisco de Malabon, fifth Alfonso. Each zone had an army which consisted of all the population able to work, and was divided into two parts, the active or fighting force and the auxiliary but non-combatant part. The active force was divided into regiments and companies, and these last into riflemen and spearmen, there being commonly five of the latter to oneof the former. Besides the usual military ranks, they instituted the following functionaries:Minister of MarineMarcelo de los Santos.Principal Chaplain to the ForcesEladio Almeyda.Intendant-General of TaxesSilvestre Aguinaldo.General of ArtilleryCrispulo Aguinaldo.Inspector of Ordnance FactoriesEdilberto Evangelista.General of EngineersJudge Advocate GeneralSantos Nocón.All the above held the rank of lieutenant-general. The badges of rank were as follows:Rebel Badges of Rank.Generalissimo,Kon the hat or cap.Z. L. I. B.on the arm.on the left breast.Lieutenant Generals,Marshals,Brigadiers,Colonels,Majors,KKKThe Ministers,KThe Secretary to the Generalissimo,K K KThe rebels occupied the whole of the province of Cavite, except the fortified town of that name containing the naval arsenal, and a small strip on the shores of the Laguna where the Spanish troops were posted.Cornell’s brigade was at Calamba and Marina’s brigade at Biñan. They had outlying detachments amounting to 1500 men at Santa Cruz, Santo Domingo, Tayabas, and along the line from Tanáuan to Bañadero, leaving each brigade 4000 men for the advance into the rebel territory. The divisional troops numbered about 1300, making a total of 9300 combatants.The brigade under Jaramillo had its headquarters in Taal, Batangas Province, with outlying detachments at Batangas, Calacá, Lián Balayan and Punta Santiago, and a force holding the line of the Pansipit River, altogether amounting to 1000 men, leaving 1600 free to operate.Besides this a fourth brigade, not belonging to the division, having General Galbis as brigadier, was extended along the northern bank of the Zapote River, under the immediate orders of the governor-general. The Lakes of Bay and Bombon (Taal) were guarded by armed steam-launches and other small craft, whilst the gunboats of the squadron patrolled the sea coast. The rebel province was thus held in a grip of iron.On the 12th February, 1897, General Lachambre reported himself ready to advance. General Polavieja ordered Jaramillo to attack the rebel trenches at Bayuyungan on the 14th, and to keep up the attack until Lachambre had seized Silang, when he was to attack Talisay on the Lake of Taal. The marines at Dalahican were ordered to attack Noveleta, whilst Lachambre was to advance on the 15th, the two brigades taking different routes, but converging on Silang.The march was extremely difficult, and the nine-centimètreguns were only taken through, at the cost of most strenuous efforts. The enemy tenaciously defended every favourable position, and were only driven off at the cost of many lives.On the 19th, Silang, one of the principal rebel towns, was taken by assault and at the point of the bayonet, after a preparatory bombardment in which the artillery fired 105 rounds of shell, whilst 25,000 rifle cartridges were used by the infantry.The rebels lost 2000 men killed and wounded, whilst the Spanish losses were 12 killed and 70 wounded. The town was strongly entrenched and stoutly defended, and its capture with so small a loss may justly be called a creditable operation. Marina’s brigade attacked from the south and Cornell’s brigade from the east.The action lasted from 7 to 11.30A.M.The rebels were discouraged, but still, on the 22nd, they delivered an attack as if they would retake the town, and pressed on with great fury. They killed four of the Spaniards and wounded twenty-one, but in the end were driven off, leaving 400 dead on the ground. The houses in Silang were found fully furnished and provisioned. In the house of the so-called Viceroy of Silang, Victor Belarmino, the principal ornament of the sala was a chromo-lithograph portrait of the Queen Regent.The church-doors were wide open and the altars profusely illuminated. On the sacristy table lay the priestly robes and ornaments, ready, doubtless, for the celebration of a Te Deum for the expected victory. But he who was to wear them, the celebrated Tagal Bishop, lay with a bullet through his heart across the parapet he had fiercely defended.Lachambre preserved the best houses around the church and convent and utilised them as storehouses, hospital, and barracks, burning the rest of the town as a punishment to the rebels. He then garrisoned and fortified the post and connected it with the telegraph line.On the 24th Lachambre marched from Silang, his main body advancing by the direct route to Perez Dasmariñas parallel to the River Casundit, a flanking force of three companies guarding the left of the column, whilst Lieutenant Colonel Villalon, with a battalion and a half having started an hour earlier than the main body, took the road to Palimparan, having the Rio Grande on his right, and byhis advance protecting the right flank of the column. Villalon advanced rapidly, and, brushing aside all opposition, rushed Palimparan with a loss of one killed and one wounded, killing seven of the rebels in the attack. Here he bivouacked, and at sunset was joined by another force consisting of half a brigade under Colonel Arizon, detached from General Galbis’ force on the Zapote River.In the meantime the main body had advanced to within three miles of Perez Dasmariñas and bivouacked at the hamlet called Sampalcoc. On the following day Perez Dasmariñas was taken by assault, after a short bombardment by the mountain batteries. The rebels were strongly entrenched, and made a stout resistance. They had flooded the rice fields to the east of the town and rendered them impassable.The town was attacked from the south and west, but it took hours of hard fighting for the Spaniards to break in, and even then the rebels fought hand to hand, and many preferred death to surrender. Those who fled were taken in flank by Arizon’s force, which approached the northern end of the town from the eastward. The loss of the Spaniards was 21 killed and 121 wounded, whilst the natives left 400 dead at the foot of their defences, and a great number were killed outside the town.The early part of the defence was directed by Aguinaldo, but he fled when the Spanish forces closed up, leaving Estrella, an ex-sergeant of the Guardia Civil, in his place. Estrella fled later on when the Spaniards had entered the town. Unintimidated by this rude lesson, the rebels that same night fired into the town, and on the 27th they attacked a column which went out to make a reconnaissance towards Palimparan, and gave a mountain battery a chance, which they promptly took, of getting at a dense body of them with case. The artillery fired 22 rounds in this action, and the infantry used 63,000 cartridges. The Spanish loss was two killed and ten wounded, whilst the rebels lost at least 300.The church, convent, and stone homes round the Plaza of Perez Dasmariñas were loopholed and prepared for defence, and occupied by a garrison of two companies of infantry. Owing, however, to the difficulty of bringing up supplies, the division could not resume its advance till the 7th March. Then the division took the eastern road to Imus, whilst the half brigade under Arizon marched by aparallel road on the right flank, which converged upon the Imus road at Salitran, a village with a large stone estate-house belonging to the Recollets, strongly entrenched and held by the rebels.On arriving within range two guns of Cornell’s brigade opened fire on the estate-house from an eminence, but after the fifth round the Spanish flag was shown from the house, it having been occupied by Arizon’s force arriving from the east after a very slight resistance, for the rebels seemed to have no one in command. They had prepared for an attack from the east, but when they found the Spaniards arriving in great force upon their right flank, enfilading their strong entrenchments, they became demoralised and took to flight.The scouts now reported that a formidable entrenchment a mile and a quarter long, was occupied by the rebels about a mile north of the village. This entrenchment, called Anabo II., covered both the roads to Imus, and each flank rested on a deep ravine—the eastern end had a redoubt, and the western end a flanking epaulement.The ground in front was perfectly open, and there was difficulty in making a flanking attack, so General Zabala, with a half brigade, made a direct attack. The fighting line gradually advanced, taking such cover as thepilápilesof the rice-fields could give, until they arrived within 100 yards of the parapet, when Zabala, waving high his sword, gave the order for the assault, falling a moment after pierced through the breast by a shot from alantaca. Two captains fell near him, but the lieutenants led their companies to the assault; the cazadores sprang across the ditch and clambered up the high parapet with the agility and fury of leopards, bayoneting those of the defenders who remained to fight it out, and sending volley after volley into those who had taken to flight.The Spanish loss was 11 killed and 33 wounded, whilst 200 of the rebels were killed. This heavy loss did not however appear to intimidate them in the least, for on the 8th they made two desperate attempts to retake the position, in both of which they came within close range of the Spaniards, who poured repeated volleys into them by word of command, whilst the mountain-guns played upon them withease. In this action the Spaniards lost 5 killed and 25 wounded, and they calculated the rebel killed at 300.
Chapter X.The Insurrection of 1896–97.Combat at San Juan del Monte—Insurrection spreading—Arrival of reinforcements from Spain—Rebel entrenchments—Rebel arms and artillery—Spaniards repulsed from Binacáyan—and from Noveleta—Mutiny of Carabineros—Prisoners at Cavite attempt to escape—Iniquities of the Spanish War Office—Lachambre’s division—Rebel organization—Rank and badges—Lachambre advances—He captures Silang—Perez Dasmariñas—Salitran—Anabo II.
Combat at San Juan del Monte—Insurrection spreading—Arrival of reinforcements from Spain—Rebel entrenchments—Rebel arms and artillery—Spaniards repulsed from Binacáyan—and from Noveleta—Mutiny of Carabineros—Prisoners at Cavite attempt to escape—Iniquities of the Spanish War Office—Lachambre’s division—Rebel organization—Rank and badges—Lachambre advances—He captures Silang—Perez Dasmariñas—Salitran—Anabo II.
Combat at San Juan del Monte—Insurrection spreading—Arrival of reinforcements from Spain—Rebel entrenchments—Rebel arms and artillery—Spaniards repulsed from Binacáyan—and from Noveleta—Mutiny of Carabineros—Prisoners at Cavite attempt to escape—Iniquities of the Spanish War Office—Lachambre’s division—Rebel organization—Rank and badges—Lachambre advances—He captures Silang—Perez Dasmariñas—Salitran—Anabo II.
The Augustinians take credit to themselves that one of their order, Father Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, discovered the existence of the revolutionary conspiracy, on the 19th August. But already on the 5th of July a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil had declared in a written report that there were over 14,000 men belonging to the valley of the Pasig, affiliated to the conspiracy.A council of the authorities was convened on the 6th of August, but nothing was done. On that same date, however, the Governor of Batangas telegraphed that a discovery of arms, ammunition and Republican flags had been made at Taal. In consequence of this, General Blanco ordered some arrests to be made.On the 19th, Father Gil gave information to General Blanco that he had discovered the existence of a secret revolutionary society, and two days later Blanco reported to the Government in Madrid that there existed a vast organization of secret societies.At this time the garrison of Manila consisted of some 1500 men, most of them being natives. As arrests were being continually made, the members of the Katipunan, or those suspected of being such, left their homes and took to the woods although very poorly equipped with fire-arms.On 30th August a party of the rebels under SanchoValenzuela, Modesto Sarmiento, and others had a fight with some native cavalry and Guardias Civiles at San Juan del Monte near Manila. The rebels lost heavily in killed, their chiefs were taken prisoners and shot on the 4th September, at the Paseo de la Luneta.A Spanish artilleryman was murdered by some rebels at Pandacan about this time, and martial law was proclaimed.The Guardia Civil, all native soldiers, was now concentrated in Manila abandoning their outlying posts. After many vacillations and contradictory cablegrams to the Government in Madrid, General Blanco now definitely asked for large reinforcements.On September 1st, the people of Noveleta revolted and killed a captain and a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil and three days later the rebels penetrated to the town of Caridad, close to Cavite.Early in September rebels were in arms, and dominating great part of the Provinces of Manila, Cavite, Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga and Nueva Écija.By the middle of the month rebel bands appeared in Tarlac, Pangasinán, Laguna, Morong and Tayabas.On the 9th September, the Cavite rebels attacked San Roque, which is close to the town of Cavite, and burned part of it. On the 12th, thirteen persons who had been convicted by a court-martial of complicity in the revolt were shot in Cavite.The cables from General Blanco to the Madrid Government were all this time misleading and contradictory, and showed that he had no grasp of the state of affairs. These dispatches were subjected to severe criticism in theHeraldo, a Madrid newspaper.By the middle of September troops arrived from Zamboanga and other southern stations, and the garrison of Manila was brought up to 6000 men, two-thirds of whom were natives. Reinforcements were sent to Cavite, for the rebels were in great force about Silang, Imus, and Noveleta.On the 17th September another attack was made by the rebels on San Roque, but was repulsed.On the 1st October the mail steamerCataluñaarrived with a battalion of marines from Spain, greatly to the delight of the Spaniards, who gave the force an enthusiastic reception.Next day the ss.Monserratarrived with more troops, and from this time forward troops kept pouring in.Still General Blanco remained on the defensive in and around the city of Manila and the town of Cavite, and repulsed attacks made by the rebels on the magazines at Binancáyan and Las Piñas.The rebels were now firmly established over the rest of the Province of Cavite. The natural features of this part of Luzon made the movements of regular troops extremely difficult. The country abounds in rivers which run from south to north parallel to each other at short distances. They run at the bottom of deep ravines, which present excellent positions for defence. Many of these rivers have dams across them and the sluices in these might be opened by the defenders, or the dams could be blown up in case a column of the assailants should be entangled in the ravine below, when they would inevitably be overwhelmed in the descending torrent.In places the country could be flooded and thus be rendered impassable for troops.But the industry of the rebels, skilfully directed, had added enormously to these natural advantages. From the reports of eye-witnesses I can affirm that the entrenchments of the Tagals were colossal. Tagals and Boers have demonstrated that a competitive examination is not necessary to enable fighting-men to entrench themselves. The Tagal lines ran from the delta of the Zapote River to Naic in an almost unbroken line, approximately parallel to the coast.They were doubled and trebled in front of villages or towns and across the roads.The trace wasen crémaillère, the section being 6 feet thick at the top and 8 feet high, the exterior face vertical, with a revetment of bamboos fastened together with rattans. It was in fact a bank of earth built up against a strong bamboo fence.The defenders fired through loop-holes left in the parapet, and were very well covered, but they could only fire straight before them and horizontally.The defences of the towns had thicker and loftier parapets; in some cases there were three tiers of loop-holes properly splayed.The insurgents were very insufficiently armed, and at first there were ten men to a rifle. The man who wasreputed the best shot carried the rifle and cartridge belt, and if he was killed or wounded in an engagement, the next best shot took the weapon and continued the fight. In the early actions there was scarcely ever a rifle left on the ground by the insurgents.The only cannon the rebels had at first were some ancient brass swivel guns called falconetes or lantácas, which they took from the estate-houses at Imus and Malabon.They also had some brass mortars like quart pots, which are used for firing salutes on feast days. These they fastened at an angle to blocks of wood, thus making small howitzers, quite effective at short range. They loaded these with the punchings from boiler-plates and broken cooking-pots.They showed a considerable ingenuity in making cannon out of any materials at hand. They would take a steel boiler-tube, a stay tube for choice, say about three inches bore and a quarter of an inch thick. Plugging up one end and drilling a touch-hole, they would drive this tube into a hole bored in a log of hard wood turned on the outside to a taper, then they drove eight or nine wrought-iron rings over the wood. They drilled through the wood to suit the touch-hole and the gun was ready.They fitted no trunnions, but mounted this rude cannon upon a solid block of wood.In other cases they made some wire guns by lapping steel boiler-tubes with telegraph-wire.Towards the end of the campaign of Lachambre’s division against the rebels, some modern field-pieces of eight centimètres were captured from them, but it is not clear where these came from.To supplement their scanty stock of rifles, they made some hand-guns of gas-tube. These were fired by applying a match or lighted cigar to the touch-hole, and would seem to be very clumsy weapons. But I may say that when on a visit to the estate of Palpa, in Peru, I saw a Chinaman who was in charge of the poultry corral, kill a hawk hovering, with a similar gun.The Spanish Military and Naval Authorities now took the revolt very seriously, and on the 8th November the squadron comprising theCastilla,Reina Cristina, and other vessels, and the guns of the forts at Cavite and Puerto Vaga, opened upon the rebel position at Cavite,Viejo, Noveleta, Binancáyan, and other places within range, and kept it up for hours. The next morning the firing was resumed at daylight, supplemented by the guns from launches and boats well inshore. Troops were landed under the protection of the squadron, and advanced against the entrenchments of Binancáyan. They delivered three frontal attacks with great gallantry, reaching the parapet each time, but were beaten back, leaving many dead upon the ground. No flanking attack was possible here for the parapet extended for many miles each way.A simultaneous attack was made upon Noveleta by a column of 3000 Spanish and native infantry under Colonel Fermin Diaz Mattoni.This force started from Cavite and marched through Dalahican and along the road to Noveleta. This road is a raised causeway running through a mangrove swamp, having deep mud on each side impassable for troops. This is at least a mile of swamp, and the troops advanced along the causeway and crossed a bridge which spanned a muddy creek.No enemy was in sight, and the town was not far off. Suddenly the head of the column fell into a most cunningly devised pitfall. The road had been dug out, the pit covered with wattle, and the surface restored to its original appearance. The bottom of the pit was set with pointed bamboo stakes which inflicted serious wounds upon those that fell upon them.At the moment of confusion the rebels opened a withering fire from concealed positions amongst the mangroves upon the column standing in the open.The Spaniards and native troops made great efforts to get forward, but could not stand the fire and had to retire. When they got back to the bridge it was down, and they had to wade across the creek under a close fire from the rebels hidden amongst the mangroves. In this action the Spaniards are said to have lost 600 killed and many hundreds wounded. The loss fell principally on the 73rd and 74th Regiments of Native Infantry.The rebels were greatly encouraged, and got possession of a large number of rifles, with ammunition and accoutrements.Both these attacks were made under the direction of General Blanco, who witnessed them from a lofty staging erected within the lines ofDalahican. After these disastershe resumed the defensive, except that the squadron and the batteries at Cavite and Puerto Vaga frequently bombarded the rebel positions.At this time thousands of natives were in prison in Manila awaiting their trial. A permanent court-martial had been organised to try the suspects. Great numbers were shot, and many hundreds were transported to the Caroline Islands, to Ceuta, and Fernando Pó. Wealthy natives were mercilessly blackmailed, and it is reported that those who were discharged had to pay large sums for their release.The Spanish Volunteers in Manila committed many arbitrary and even outrageous actions, and aroused the hatred of the natives far more than the regular troops did. They allowed their patriotism to carry them into most lamentable excesses.On the 25th February a rising and mutiny of the Carbineers or Custom-House Guards took place in Manila at the captain of the port’s office. The scheme miscarried and was only partially successful. The officer on duty was shot, and also the sergeant, and the rebels made off with some rifles and ammunition.The volunteers and some troops hastily called together pursued the rebels through Tondo as far as the Leper Hospital, till nightfall, the last volley being fired at 6.15 P.M. In this affair the mutineers lost a great many men, but some of them got away and joined the rebels.Blanco had not been severe enough with the rebels or suspected rebels to please the friars. His management of the attacks upon Noveleta and Binancáyan had been faulty, and his health was bad. It was not surprising, having the priests against him, and the military dissatisfied, that he was recalled. He left at the end of 1896. General Polavieja, an officer who had risen from the ranks by his military talents, and who, when serving in Cuba, had very accurately gauged the situation, and had made a remarkably clever report to the government, was sent out to replace Blanco. Polavieja was inexorable with the rebels and their sympathisers. Military executions took place about once a week for two months. Francisco Roxas, a mestizo ship-owner, Numeriano Adriano, and many other mestizos and natives were shot at the Paseo de la Luneta.On December 6th the prisoners in Cavite jail rose, murdered their jailer, and attempted to escape. Onehundred and fifty prisoners were concerned in this affair. Of these, forty-seven were shot in the streets of the town, and twenty-one were captured, whilst thirteen were shot in the bushes behind Cañacao. Those recaptured were tried for prison-breaking, and were all shot the next morning.By the beginning of 1897, a large number of troops had arrived from Spain. They were, however, largely conscripts, raw youths who had never handled a rifle, mere raw material in fact, sent out without uniform or equipment, many having only what they stood up in, or at most, having a spare shirt and a singlet tied up in a handkerchief. We talk about the shortcomings of our War Office officials, and certainly they sometimes give examples of wooden-headed stupidity, and are behind the age in many particulars. But for deliberate inhumanity, for utter callousness to human suffering, to loss of health and life, I think the Spanish War Office could hardly be outdone. And I speak of their misdeeds from personal knowledge in the Philippines and in Cuba. What an enormous amount of suffering was caused to the working-people of Spain by the sending to Cuba and to the Philippines of over 200,000 men in 1895–96. Never in this generation were men shipped away so destitute of clothing, provisions, surgeons and medical comforts. Never have I seen troops in the field with such wretched equipment, or so devoid of transport, tents, and supplies.Whatever successes they achieved were secured by the inborn valour of the troops, and by extraordinary exertions on the part of the generals and staff to improvise on the spot what the national treasury should have supplied them with at the commencement of hostilities.The raw recruits having been drilled and exercised with the rifle were organised in fifteen battalions and called Cazadores (chasseurs). These battalions, with four regiments of native infantry and some native volunteers, were formed into brigades under Generals Cornell, Marina, Jaramillo and Galbis. The first three brigades constituted a division, which was placed under the command of General Lachambre, an officer of great energy, and of long experience in the Cuban wars.By the beginning of 1897 the Tagal rebellion had concentrated its forces in the province of Cavite. Embers of rebellion still smouldered in other provinces of Luzon,but many rebels from outlying places had thrown in their lot with those of Cavite, and in great numbers, very indifferently supplied with arms and ammunition, but amply with provisions, they confidently awaited the long-prepared attack of the Spanish forces behind the formidable entrenchments that their persevering labour had raised. In the interval they had organised themselves after a fashion, and had instituted a reign of terror wherever they held sway.The organisation of the rebels in the province of Cavite was of a somewhat confused nature, and seemed to respond to the ambition and influence of particular individuals rather than to any systematic principle.Thus Silang was declared a vice-royalty under Victor Belarmino, styled Victor I.The rest of the province was divided into two districts, each ruled by a council; the first was Imus and its vicinity, under Bernardino Aguinaldo with ministers of war, of the treasury, of agriculture and of justice.The second was San Francisco de Malabon, presided over by Mariano Alvarez, with ministers of state as above.But above the kingdom of Silang and the two republics, the President of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, held sway as lieutenant of the Generalissimo Emilio Aguinaldo. He resided in his palace at San Francisco, and from there dictated his orders. The supreme power was in the hands of Aguinaldo.All these authorities exercised despotic power, and certainly ill-treated and robbed their own countrymen who did not desire to join them, far more than the Spaniards have ever done in the worst of times. They frequently inflicted the death-penalty, and their so-called courts-martial no more thought of acquitting an accused person than a regimental court-martial in England would. The terrible President of the Katipunan ultimately became a victim of one of these blood-thirsty tribunals.Their military organization was curious. The province was sub-divided into military zones. First Silang, second Imus, third Bacoor, fourth San Francisco de Malabon, fifth Alfonso. Each zone had an army which consisted of all the population able to work, and was divided into two parts, the active or fighting force and the auxiliary but non-combatant part. The active force was divided into regiments and companies, and these last into riflemen and spearmen, there being commonly five of the latter to oneof the former. Besides the usual military ranks, they instituted the following functionaries:Minister of MarineMarcelo de los Santos.Principal Chaplain to the ForcesEladio Almeyda.Intendant-General of TaxesSilvestre Aguinaldo.General of ArtilleryCrispulo Aguinaldo.Inspector of Ordnance FactoriesEdilberto Evangelista.General of EngineersJudge Advocate GeneralSantos Nocón.All the above held the rank of lieutenant-general. The badges of rank were as follows:Rebel Badges of Rank.Generalissimo,Kon the hat or cap.Z. L. I. B.on the arm.on the left breast.Lieutenant Generals,Marshals,Brigadiers,Colonels,Majors,KKKThe Ministers,KThe Secretary to the Generalissimo,K K KThe rebels occupied the whole of the province of Cavite, except the fortified town of that name containing the naval arsenal, and a small strip on the shores of the Laguna where the Spanish troops were posted.Cornell’s brigade was at Calamba and Marina’s brigade at Biñan. They had outlying detachments amounting to 1500 men at Santa Cruz, Santo Domingo, Tayabas, and along the line from Tanáuan to Bañadero, leaving each brigade 4000 men for the advance into the rebel territory. The divisional troops numbered about 1300, making a total of 9300 combatants.The brigade under Jaramillo had its headquarters in Taal, Batangas Province, with outlying detachments at Batangas, Calacá, Lián Balayan and Punta Santiago, and a force holding the line of the Pansipit River, altogether amounting to 1000 men, leaving 1600 free to operate.Besides this a fourth brigade, not belonging to the division, having General Galbis as brigadier, was extended along the northern bank of the Zapote River, under the immediate orders of the governor-general. The Lakes of Bay and Bombon (Taal) were guarded by armed steam-launches and other small craft, whilst the gunboats of the squadron patrolled the sea coast. The rebel province was thus held in a grip of iron.On the 12th February, 1897, General Lachambre reported himself ready to advance. General Polavieja ordered Jaramillo to attack the rebel trenches at Bayuyungan on the 14th, and to keep up the attack until Lachambre had seized Silang, when he was to attack Talisay on the Lake of Taal. The marines at Dalahican were ordered to attack Noveleta, whilst Lachambre was to advance on the 15th, the two brigades taking different routes, but converging on Silang.The march was extremely difficult, and the nine-centimètreguns were only taken through, at the cost of most strenuous efforts. The enemy tenaciously defended every favourable position, and were only driven off at the cost of many lives.On the 19th, Silang, one of the principal rebel towns, was taken by assault and at the point of the bayonet, after a preparatory bombardment in which the artillery fired 105 rounds of shell, whilst 25,000 rifle cartridges were used by the infantry.The rebels lost 2000 men killed and wounded, whilst the Spanish losses were 12 killed and 70 wounded. The town was strongly entrenched and stoutly defended, and its capture with so small a loss may justly be called a creditable operation. Marina’s brigade attacked from the south and Cornell’s brigade from the east.The action lasted from 7 to 11.30A.M.The rebels were discouraged, but still, on the 22nd, they delivered an attack as if they would retake the town, and pressed on with great fury. They killed four of the Spaniards and wounded twenty-one, but in the end were driven off, leaving 400 dead on the ground. The houses in Silang were found fully furnished and provisioned. In the house of the so-called Viceroy of Silang, Victor Belarmino, the principal ornament of the sala was a chromo-lithograph portrait of the Queen Regent.The church-doors were wide open and the altars profusely illuminated. On the sacristy table lay the priestly robes and ornaments, ready, doubtless, for the celebration of a Te Deum for the expected victory. But he who was to wear them, the celebrated Tagal Bishop, lay with a bullet through his heart across the parapet he had fiercely defended.Lachambre preserved the best houses around the church and convent and utilised them as storehouses, hospital, and barracks, burning the rest of the town as a punishment to the rebels. He then garrisoned and fortified the post and connected it with the telegraph line.On the 24th Lachambre marched from Silang, his main body advancing by the direct route to Perez Dasmariñas parallel to the River Casundit, a flanking force of three companies guarding the left of the column, whilst Lieutenant Colonel Villalon, with a battalion and a half having started an hour earlier than the main body, took the road to Palimparan, having the Rio Grande on his right, and byhis advance protecting the right flank of the column. Villalon advanced rapidly, and, brushing aside all opposition, rushed Palimparan with a loss of one killed and one wounded, killing seven of the rebels in the attack. Here he bivouacked, and at sunset was joined by another force consisting of half a brigade under Colonel Arizon, detached from General Galbis’ force on the Zapote River.In the meantime the main body had advanced to within three miles of Perez Dasmariñas and bivouacked at the hamlet called Sampalcoc. On the following day Perez Dasmariñas was taken by assault, after a short bombardment by the mountain batteries. The rebels were strongly entrenched, and made a stout resistance. They had flooded the rice fields to the east of the town and rendered them impassable.The town was attacked from the south and west, but it took hours of hard fighting for the Spaniards to break in, and even then the rebels fought hand to hand, and many preferred death to surrender. Those who fled were taken in flank by Arizon’s force, which approached the northern end of the town from the eastward. The loss of the Spaniards was 21 killed and 121 wounded, whilst the natives left 400 dead at the foot of their defences, and a great number were killed outside the town.The early part of the defence was directed by Aguinaldo, but he fled when the Spanish forces closed up, leaving Estrella, an ex-sergeant of the Guardia Civil, in his place. Estrella fled later on when the Spaniards had entered the town. Unintimidated by this rude lesson, the rebels that same night fired into the town, and on the 27th they attacked a column which went out to make a reconnaissance towards Palimparan, and gave a mountain battery a chance, which they promptly took, of getting at a dense body of them with case. The artillery fired 22 rounds in this action, and the infantry used 63,000 cartridges. The Spanish loss was two killed and ten wounded, whilst the rebels lost at least 300.The church, convent, and stone homes round the Plaza of Perez Dasmariñas were loopholed and prepared for defence, and occupied by a garrison of two companies of infantry. Owing, however, to the difficulty of bringing up supplies, the division could not resume its advance till the 7th March. Then the division took the eastern road to Imus, whilst the half brigade under Arizon marched by aparallel road on the right flank, which converged upon the Imus road at Salitran, a village with a large stone estate-house belonging to the Recollets, strongly entrenched and held by the rebels.On arriving within range two guns of Cornell’s brigade opened fire on the estate-house from an eminence, but after the fifth round the Spanish flag was shown from the house, it having been occupied by Arizon’s force arriving from the east after a very slight resistance, for the rebels seemed to have no one in command. They had prepared for an attack from the east, but when they found the Spaniards arriving in great force upon their right flank, enfilading their strong entrenchments, they became demoralised and took to flight.The scouts now reported that a formidable entrenchment a mile and a quarter long, was occupied by the rebels about a mile north of the village. This entrenchment, called Anabo II., covered both the roads to Imus, and each flank rested on a deep ravine—the eastern end had a redoubt, and the western end a flanking epaulement.The ground in front was perfectly open, and there was difficulty in making a flanking attack, so General Zabala, with a half brigade, made a direct attack. The fighting line gradually advanced, taking such cover as thepilápilesof the rice-fields could give, until they arrived within 100 yards of the parapet, when Zabala, waving high his sword, gave the order for the assault, falling a moment after pierced through the breast by a shot from alantaca. Two captains fell near him, but the lieutenants led their companies to the assault; the cazadores sprang across the ditch and clambered up the high parapet with the agility and fury of leopards, bayoneting those of the defenders who remained to fight it out, and sending volley after volley into those who had taken to flight.The Spanish loss was 11 killed and 33 wounded, whilst 200 of the rebels were killed. This heavy loss did not however appear to intimidate them in the least, for on the 8th they made two desperate attempts to retake the position, in both of which they came within close range of the Spaniards, who poured repeated volleys into them by word of command, whilst the mountain-guns played upon them withease. In this action the Spaniards lost 5 killed and 25 wounded, and they calculated the rebel killed at 300.
The Augustinians take credit to themselves that one of their order, Father Mariano Gil, parish priest of Tondo, discovered the existence of the revolutionary conspiracy, on the 19th August. But already on the 5th of July a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil had declared in a written report that there were over 14,000 men belonging to the valley of the Pasig, affiliated to the conspiracy.
A council of the authorities was convened on the 6th of August, but nothing was done. On that same date, however, the Governor of Batangas telegraphed that a discovery of arms, ammunition and Republican flags had been made at Taal. In consequence of this, General Blanco ordered some arrests to be made.
On the 19th, Father Gil gave information to General Blanco that he had discovered the existence of a secret revolutionary society, and two days later Blanco reported to the Government in Madrid that there existed a vast organization of secret societies.
At this time the garrison of Manila consisted of some 1500 men, most of them being natives. As arrests were being continually made, the members of the Katipunan, or those suspected of being such, left their homes and took to the woods although very poorly equipped with fire-arms.
On 30th August a party of the rebels under SanchoValenzuela, Modesto Sarmiento, and others had a fight with some native cavalry and Guardias Civiles at San Juan del Monte near Manila. The rebels lost heavily in killed, their chiefs were taken prisoners and shot on the 4th September, at the Paseo de la Luneta.
A Spanish artilleryman was murdered by some rebels at Pandacan about this time, and martial law was proclaimed.
The Guardia Civil, all native soldiers, was now concentrated in Manila abandoning their outlying posts. After many vacillations and contradictory cablegrams to the Government in Madrid, General Blanco now definitely asked for large reinforcements.
On September 1st, the people of Noveleta revolted and killed a captain and a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil and three days later the rebels penetrated to the town of Caridad, close to Cavite.
Early in September rebels were in arms, and dominating great part of the Provinces of Manila, Cavite, Batangas, Bulacan, Pampanga and Nueva Écija.
By the middle of the month rebel bands appeared in Tarlac, Pangasinán, Laguna, Morong and Tayabas.
On the 9th September, the Cavite rebels attacked San Roque, which is close to the town of Cavite, and burned part of it. On the 12th, thirteen persons who had been convicted by a court-martial of complicity in the revolt were shot in Cavite.
The cables from General Blanco to the Madrid Government were all this time misleading and contradictory, and showed that he had no grasp of the state of affairs. These dispatches were subjected to severe criticism in theHeraldo, a Madrid newspaper.
By the middle of September troops arrived from Zamboanga and other southern stations, and the garrison of Manila was brought up to 6000 men, two-thirds of whom were natives. Reinforcements were sent to Cavite, for the rebels were in great force about Silang, Imus, and Noveleta.
On the 17th September another attack was made by the rebels on San Roque, but was repulsed.
On the 1st October the mail steamerCataluñaarrived with a battalion of marines from Spain, greatly to the delight of the Spaniards, who gave the force an enthusiastic reception.
Next day the ss.Monserratarrived with more troops, and from this time forward troops kept pouring in.
Still General Blanco remained on the defensive in and around the city of Manila and the town of Cavite, and repulsed attacks made by the rebels on the magazines at Binancáyan and Las Piñas.
The rebels were now firmly established over the rest of the Province of Cavite. The natural features of this part of Luzon made the movements of regular troops extremely difficult. The country abounds in rivers which run from south to north parallel to each other at short distances. They run at the bottom of deep ravines, which present excellent positions for defence. Many of these rivers have dams across them and the sluices in these might be opened by the defenders, or the dams could be blown up in case a column of the assailants should be entangled in the ravine below, when they would inevitably be overwhelmed in the descending torrent.
In places the country could be flooded and thus be rendered impassable for troops.
But the industry of the rebels, skilfully directed, had added enormously to these natural advantages. From the reports of eye-witnesses I can affirm that the entrenchments of the Tagals were colossal. Tagals and Boers have demonstrated that a competitive examination is not necessary to enable fighting-men to entrench themselves. The Tagal lines ran from the delta of the Zapote River to Naic in an almost unbroken line, approximately parallel to the coast.
They were doubled and trebled in front of villages or towns and across the roads.
The trace wasen crémaillère, the section being 6 feet thick at the top and 8 feet high, the exterior face vertical, with a revetment of bamboos fastened together with rattans. It was in fact a bank of earth built up against a strong bamboo fence.
The defenders fired through loop-holes left in the parapet, and were very well covered, but they could only fire straight before them and horizontally.
The defences of the towns had thicker and loftier parapets; in some cases there were three tiers of loop-holes properly splayed.
The insurgents were very insufficiently armed, and at first there were ten men to a rifle. The man who wasreputed the best shot carried the rifle and cartridge belt, and if he was killed or wounded in an engagement, the next best shot took the weapon and continued the fight. In the early actions there was scarcely ever a rifle left on the ground by the insurgents.
The only cannon the rebels had at first were some ancient brass swivel guns called falconetes or lantácas, which they took from the estate-houses at Imus and Malabon.
They also had some brass mortars like quart pots, which are used for firing salutes on feast days. These they fastened at an angle to blocks of wood, thus making small howitzers, quite effective at short range. They loaded these with the punchings from boiler-plates and broken cooking-pots.
They showed a considerable ingenuity in making cannon out of any materials at hand. They would take a steel boiler-tube, a stay tube for choice, say about three inches bore and a quarter of an inch thick. Plugging up one end and drilling a touch-hole, they would drive this tube into a hole bored in a log of hard wood turned on the outside to a taper, then they drove eight or nine wrought-iron rings over the wood. They drilled through the wood to suit the touch-hole and the gun was ready.
They fitted no trunnions, but mounted this rude cannon upon a solid block of wood.
In other cases they made some wire guns by lapping steel boiler-tubes with telegraph-wire.
Towards the end of the campaign of Lachambre’s division against the rebels, some modern field-pieces of eight centimètres were captured from them, but it is not clear where these came from.
To supplement their scanty stock of rifles, they made some hand-guns of gas-tube. These were fired by applying a match or lighted cigar to the touch-hole, and would seem to be very clumsy weapons. But I may say that when on a visit to the estate of Palpa, in Peru, I saw a Chinaman who was in charge of the poultry corral, kill a hawk hovering, with a similar gun.
The Spanish Military and Naval Authorities now took the revolt very seriously, and on the 8th November the squadron comprising theCastilla,Reina Cristina, and other vessels, and the guns of the forts at Cavite and Puerto Vaga, opened upon the rebel position at Cavite,Viejo, Noveleta, Binancáyan, and other places within range, and kept it up for hours. The next morning the firing was resumed at daylight, supplemented by the guns from launches and boats well inshore. Troops were landed under the protection of the squadron, and advanced against the entrenchments of Binancáyan. They delivered three frontal attacks with great gallantry, reaching the parapet each time, but were beaten back, leaving many dead upon the ground. No flanking attack was possible here for the parapet extended for many miles each way.
A simultaneous attack was made upon Noveleta by a column of 3000 Spanish and native infantry under Colonel Fermin Diaz Mattoni.
This force started from Cavite and marched through Dalahican and along the road to Noveleta. This road is a raised causeway running through a mangrove swamp, having deep mud on each side impassable for troops. This is at least a mile of swamp, and the troops advanced along the causeway and crossed a bridge which spanned a muddy creek.
No enemy was in sight, and the town was not far off. Suddenly the head of the column fell into a most cunningly devised pitfall. The road had been dug out, the pit covered with wattle, and the surface restored to its original appearance. The bottom of the pit was set with pointed bamboo stakes which inflicted serious wounds upon those that fell upon them.
At the moment of confusion the rebels opened a withering fire from concealed positions amongst the mangroves upon the column standing in the open.
The Spaniards and native troops made great efforts to get forward, but could not stand the fire and had to retire. When they got back to the bridge it was down, and they had to wade across the creek under a close fire from the rebels hidden amongst the mangroves. In this action the Spaniards are said to have lost 600 killed and many hundreds wounded. The loss fell principally on the 73rd and 74th Regiments of Native Infantry.
The rebels were greatly encouraged, and got possession of a large number of rifles, with ammunition and accoutrements.
Both these attacks were made under the direction of General Blanco, who witnessed them from a lofty staging erected within the lines ofDalahican. After these disastershe resumed the defensive, except that the squadron and the batteries at Cavite and Puerto Vaga frequently bombarded the rebel positions.
At this time thousands of natives were in prison in Manila awaiting their trial. A permanent court-martial had been organised to try the suspects. Great numbers were shot, and many hundreds were transported to the Caroline Islands, to Ceuta, and Fernando Pó. Wealthy natives were mercilessly blackmailed, and it is reported that those who were discharged had to pay large sums for their release.
The Spanish Volunteers in Manila committed many arbitrary and even outrageous actions, and aroused the hatred of the natives far more than the regular troops did. They allowed their patriotism to carry them into most lamentable excesses.
On the 25th February a rising and mutiny of the Carbineers or Custom-House Guards took place in Manila at the captain of the port’s office. The scheme miscarried and was only partially successful. The officer on duty was shot, and also the sergeant, and the rebels made off with some rifles and ammunition.
The volunteers and some troops hastily called together pursued the rebels through Tondo as far as the Leper Hospital, till nightfall, the last volley being fired at 6.15 P.M. In this affair the mutineers lost a great many men, but some of them got away and joined the rebels.
Blanco had not been severe enough with the rebels or suspected rebels to please the friars. His management of the attacks upon Noveleta and Binancáyan had been faulty, and his health was bad. It was not surprising, having the priests against him, and the military dissatisfied, that he was recalled. He left at the end of 1896. General Polavieja, an officer who had risen from the ranks by his military talents, and who, when serving in Cuba, had very accurately gauged the situation, and had made a remarkably clever report to the government, was sent out to replace Blanco. Polavieja was inexorable with the rebels and their sympathisers. Military executions took place about once a week for two months. Francisco Roxas, a mestizo ship-owner, Numeriano Adriano, and many other mestizos and natives were shot at the Paseo de la Luneta.
On December 6th the prisoners in Cavite jail rose, murdered their jailer, and attempted to escape. Onehundred and fifty prisoners were concerned in this affair. Of these, forty-seven were shot in the streets of the town, and twenty-one were captured, whilst thirteen were shot in the bushes behind Cañacao. Those recaptured were tried for prison-breaking, and were all shot the next morning.
By the beginning of 1897, a large number of troops had arrived from Spain. They were, however, largely conscripts, raw youths who had never handled a rifle, mere raw material in fact, sent out without uniform or equipment, many having only what they stood up in, or at most, having a spare shirt and a singlet tied up in a handkerchief. We talk about the shortcomings of our War Office officials, and certainly they sometimes give examples of wooden-headed stupidity, and are behind the age in many particulars. But for deliberate inhumanity, for utter callousness to human suffering, to loss of health and life, I think the Spanish War Office could hardly be outdone. And I speak of their misdeeds from personal knowledge in the Philippines and in Cuba. What an enormous amount of suffering was caused to the working-people of Spain by the sending to Cuba and to the Philippines of over 200,000 men in 1895–96. Never in this generation were men shipped away so destitute of clothing, provisions, surgeons and medical comforts. Never have I seen troops in the field with such wretched equipment, or so devoid of transport, tents, and supplies.
Whatever successes they achieved were secured by the inborn valour of the troops, and by extraordinary exertions on the part of the generals and staff to improvise on the spot what the national treasury should have supplied them with at the commencement of hostilities.
The raw recruits having been drilled and exercised with the rifle were organised in fifteen battalions and called Cazadores (chasseurs). These battalions, with four regiments of native infantry and some native volunteers, were formed into brigades under Generals Cornell, Marina, Jaramillo and Galbis. The first three brigades constituted a division, which was placed under the command of General Lachambre, an officer of great energy, and of long experience in the Cuban wars.
By the beginning of 1897 the Tagal rebellion had concentrated its forces in the province of Cavite. Embers of rebellion still smouldered in other provinces of Luzon,but many rebels from outlying places had thrown in their lot with those of Cavite, and in great numbers, very indifferently supplied with arms and ammunition, but amply with provisions, they confidently awaited the long-prepared attack of the Spanish forces behind the formidable entrenchments that their persevering labour had raised. In the interval they had organised themselves after a fashion, and had instituted a reign of terror wherever they held sway.
The organisation of the rebels in the province of Cavite was of a somewhat confused nature, and seemed to respond to the ambition and influence of particular individuals rather than to any systematic principle.
Thus Silang was declared a vice-royalty under Victor Belarmino, styled Victor I.
The rest of the province was divided into two districts, each ruled by a council; the first was Imus and its vicinity, under Bernardino Aguinaldo with ministers of war, of the treasury, of agriculture and of justice.
The second was San Francisco de Malabon, presided over by Mariano Alvarez, with ministers of state as above.
But above the kingdom of Silang and the two republics, the President of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, held sway as lieutenant of the Generalissimo Emilio Aguinaldo. He resided in his palace at San Francisco, and from there dictated his orders. The supreme power was in the hands of Aguinaldo.
All these authorities exercised despotic power, and certainly ill-treated and robbed their own countrymen who did not desire to join them, far more than the Spaniards have ever done in the worst of times. They frequently inflicted the death-penalty, and their so-called courts-martial no more thought of acquitting an accused person than a regimental court-martial in England would. The terrible President of the Katipunan ultimately became a victim of one of these blood-thirsty tribunals.
Their military organization was curious. The province was sub-divided into military zones. First Silang, second Imus, third Bacoor, fourth San Francisco de Malabon, fifth Alfonso. Each zone had an army which consisted of all the population able to work, and was divided into two parts, the active or fighting force and the auxiliary but non-combatant part. The active force was divided into regiments and companies, and these last into riflemen and spearmen, there being commonly five of the latter to oneof the former. Besides the usual military ranks, they instituted the following functionaries:
Minister of MarineMarcelo de los Santos.Principal Chaplain to the ForcesEladio Almeyda.Intendant-General of TaxesSilvestre Aguinaldo.General of ArtilleryCrispulo Aguinaldo.Inspector of Ordnance FactoriesEdilberto Evangelista.General of EngineersJudge Advocate GeneralSantos Nocón.
All the above held the rank of lieutenant-general. The badges of rank were as follows:
Rebel Badges of Rank.Generalissimo,Kon the hat or cap.Z. L. I. B.on the arm.on the left breast.Lieutenant Generals,Marshals,Brigadiers,Colonels,Majors,KKKThe Ministers,KThe Secretary to the Generalissimo,K K K
The rebels occupied the whole of the province of Cavite, except the fortified town of that name containing the naval arsenal, and a small strip on the shores of the Laguna where the Spanish troops were posted.
Cornell’s brigade was at Calamba and Marina’s brigade at Biñan. They had outlying detachments amounting to 1500 men at Santa Cruz, Santo Domingo, Tayabas, and along the line from Tanáuan to Bañadero, leaving each brigade 4000 men for the advance into the rebel territory. The divisional troops numbered about 1300, making a total of 9300 combatants.
The brigade under Jaramillo had its headquarters in Taal, Batangas Province, with outlying detachments at Batangas, Calacá, Lián Balayan and Punta Santiago, and a force holding the line of the Pansipit River, altogether amounting to 1000 men, leaving 1600 free to operate.
Besides this a fourth brigade, not belonging to the division, having General Galbis as brigadier, was extended along the northern bank of the Zapote River, under the immediate orders of the governor-general. The Lakes of Bay and Bombon (Taal) were guarded by armed steam-launches and other small craft, whilst the gunboats of the squadron patrolled the sea coast. The rebel province was thus held in a grip of iron.
On the 12th February, 1897, General Lachambre reported himself ready to advance. General Polavieja ordered Jaramillo to attack the rebel trenches at Bayuyungan on the 14th, and to keep up the attack until Lachambre had seized Silang, when he was to attack Talisay on the Lake of Taal. The marines at Dalahican were ordered to attack Noveleta, whilst Lachambre was to advance on the 15th, the two brigades taking different routes, but converging on Silang.
The march was extremely difficult, and the nine-centimètreguns were only taken through, at the cost of most strenuous efforts. The enemy tenaciously defended every favourable position, and were only driven off at the cost of many lives.
On the 19th, Silang, one of the principal rebel towns, was taken by assault and at the point of the bayonet, after a preparatory bombardment in which the artillery fired 105 rounds of shell, whilst 25,000 rifle cartridges were used by the infantry.
The rebels lost 2000 men killed and wounded, whilst the Spanish losses were 12 killed and 70 wounded. The town was strongly entrenched and stoutly defended, and its capture with so small a loss may justly be called a creditable operation. Marina’s brigade attacked from the south and Cornell’s brigade from the east.
The action lasted from 7 to 11.30A.M.The rebels were discouraged, but still, on the 22nd, they delivered an attack as if they would retake the town, and pressed on with great fury. They killed four of the Spaniards and wounded twenty-one, but in the end were driven off, leaving 400 dead on the ground. The houses in Silang were found fully furnished and provisioned. In the house of the so-called Viceroy of Silang, Victor Belarmino, the principal ornament of the sala was a chromo-lithograph portrait of the Queen Regent.
The church-doors were wide open and the altars profusely illuminated. On the sacristy table lay the priestly robes and ornaments, ready, doubtless, for the celebration of a Te Deum for the expected victory. But he who was to wear them, the celebrated Tagal Bishop, lay with a bullet through his heart across the parapet he had fiercely defended.
Lachambre preserved the best houses around the church and convent and utilised them as storehouses, hospital, and barracks, burning the rest of the town as a punishment to the rebels. He then garrisoned and fortified the post and connected it with the telegraph line.
On the 24th Lachambre marched from Silang, his main body advancing by the direct route to Perez Dasmariñas parallel to the River Casundit, a flanking force of three companies guarding the left of the column, whilst Lieutenant Colonel Villalon, with a battalion and a half having started an hour earlier than the main body, took the road to Palimparan, having the Rio Grande on his right, and byhis advance protecting the right flank of the column. Villalon advanced rapidly, and, brushing aside all opposition, rushed Palimparan with a loss of one killed and one wounded, killing seven of the rebels in the attack. Here he bivouacked, and at sunset was joined by another force consisting of half a brigade under Colonel Arizon, detached from General Galbis’ force on the Zapote River.
In the meantime the main body had advanced to within three miles of Perez Dasmariñas and bivouacked at the hamlet called Sampalcoc. On the following day Perez Dasmariñas was taken by assault, after a short bombardment by the mountain batteries. The rebels were strongly entrenched, and made a stout resistance. They had flooded the rice fields to the east of the town and rendered them impassable.
The town was attacked from the south and west, but it took hours of hard fighting for the Spaniards to break in, and even then the rebels fought hand to hand, and many preferred death to surrender. Those who fled were taken in flank by Arizon’s force, which approached the northern end of the town from the eastward. The loss of the Spaniards was 21 killed and 121 wounded, whilst the natives left 400 dead at the foot of their defences, and a great number were killed outside the town.
The early part of the defence was directed by Aguinaldo, but he fled when the Spanish forces closed up, leaving Estrella, an ex-sergeant of the Guardia Civil, in his place. Estrella fled later on when the Spaniards had entered the town. Unintimidated by this rude lesson, the rebels that same night fired into the town, and on the 27th they attacked a column which went out to make a reconnaissance towards Palimparan, and gave a mountain battery a chance, which they promptly took, of getting at a dense body of them with case. The artillery fired 22 rounds in this action, and the infantry used 63,000 cartridges. The Spanish loss was two killed and ten wounded, whilst the rebels lost at least 300.
The church, convent, and stone homes round the Plaza of Perez Dasmariñas were loopholed and prepared for defence, and occupied by a garrison of two companies of infantry. Owing, however, to the difficulty of bringing up supplies, the division could not resume its advance till the 7th March. Then the division took the eastern road to Imus, whilst the half brigade under Arizon marched by aparallel road on the right flank, which converged upon the Imus road at Salitran, a village with a large stone estate-house belonging to the Recollets, strongly entrenched and held by the rebels.
On arriving within range two guns of Cornell’s brigade opened fire on the estate-house from an eminence, but after the fifth round the Spanish flag was shown from the house, it having been occupied by Arizon’s force arriving from the east after a very slight resistance, for the rebels seemed to have no one in command. They had prepared for an attack from the east, but when they found the Spaniards arriving in great force upon their right flank, enfilading their strong entrenchments, they became demoralised and took to flight.
The scouts now reported that a formidable entrenchment a mile and a quarter long, was occupied by the rebels about a mile north of the village. This entrenchment, called Anabo II., covered both the roads to Imus, and each flank rested on a deep ravine—the eastern end had a redoubt, and the western end a flanking epaulement.
The ground in front was perfectly open, and there was difficulty in making a flanking attack, so General Zabala, with a half brigade, made a direct attack. The fighting line gradually advanced, taking such cover as thepilápilesof the rice-fields could give, until they arrived within 100 yards of the parapet, when Zabala, waving high his sword, gave the order for the assault, falling a moment after pierced through the breast by a shot from alantaca. Two captains fell near him, but the lieutenants led their companies to the assault; the cazadores sprang across the ditch and clambered up the high parapet with the agility and fury of leopards, bayoneting those of the defenders who remained to fight it out, and sending volley after volley into those who had taken to flight.
The Spanish loss was 11 killed and 33 wounded, whilst 200 of the rebels were killed. This heavy loss did not however appear to intimidate them in the least, for on the 8th they made two desperate attempts to retake the position, in both of which they came within close range of the Spaniards, who poured repeated volleys into them by word of command, whilst the mountain-guns played upon them withease. In this action the Spaniards lost 5 killed and 25 wounded, and they calculated the rebel killed at 300.