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 Binacayan--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 Dasmarinas--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 Sancho Valenzuela,
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 Ecija.
By the middle of the month rebel bands appeared in Tarlac, Pangasinan,
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 the Heraldo, 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 steamer Cataluna arrived 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. Monserrat arrived 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 Binancayan and Las Pinas.
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 was en cremaillere, 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 was reputed 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 lantacas, 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 centimetres 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 the
Castilla, 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, Binancayan, 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 Binancayan. 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 of
Dalahican. After these disasters he 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 Po. 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 Binancayan 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. One hundred 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 Canacao. 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 one of the former. Besides the usual military ranks,
they instituted the following functionaries:
Minister of Marine Marcelo de los Santos.
Principal Chaplain to the Forces Eladio Almeyda.
Intendant-General of Taxes Silvestre Aguinaldo.
General of Artillery Crispulo Aguinaldo.
Inspector of Ordnance Factories Edilberto Evangelista.
General of Engineers
Judge Advocate General Santos Nocon.
All the above held the rank of lieutenant-general. The badges of rank
were as follows:
Rebel Badges of Rank.
Generalissimo, K on the hat or cap.
Z. L. I. B. on the arm.
Vertically stacked Maltese cross, K, and Maltese
cross on the left breast.
Lieutenant Generals, K in concentric circles with eight segments.
Marshals, K in lower half of concentric circles.
Brigadiers, K in triangle with circle at each corner.
Colonels, Three K's surrounding Maltese cross.
K
Majors, K
K
The Ministers, K
The 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 Binan. They
had outlying detachments amounting to 1500 men at Santa Cruz, Santo
Domingo, Tayabas, and along the line from Tanauan to Banadero, 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, Calaca, Lian 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-centimetre guns 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 11.30 A.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 Dasmarinas 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 by his 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 Dasmarinas and bivouacked at the hamlet called Sampalcoc. On
the following day Perez Dasmarinas 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
Dasmarinas 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 a parallel 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 the pilapiles of 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 a lantaca. 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 with ease. In this action
the Spaniards lost 5 killed and 25 wounded, and they calculated the
rebel killed at 300.