American Military History

The Philippine-American War took part between 1899 and 1902. The conflict came up as the First Philippine democratic state tried to get freedom from the United States who had invaded their land. The army of the United States carried out nine military campaigns. These campaigns are well discussed on the following part below. Their major battles involved the battle of Manila, Caloocan, Mecauuyan bridge, Malinta, Marilao river, Bacaue river, Quingua, battle of Calumpit and so many others as discussed below (Brands,1992).

The Manila campaigns were performed between, February 4 and March 17, 1899. Emilio Aguinaldo, who had been the leader of the unsuccessful insurrection against Spain in 1896, led the Filipinos to war with the American troops on Feb. 4, 1899. After the Americans got to defeat the Filipinos (Gartner, 1999), they divided themselves into small groups that were led by different major generals .the group that moved to the north was led by General Arthur MacArthur. They got to achieve to incarcerate the Caloocan town.

The other campaign was the Iloilo campaign. Panay Island was taken on Feb. 11. On 26 Feb, Cebu on the Cebu Island was occupied. Bacolod and Jolo followed later. Malolos campaign was accomplished as from March 24 and August 16, 1899. Malolos being the capital city of the First rebellious Philippine Republic government was the main agenda of the army that had been formed by General MacArthur’s. His army moved to the north by the use of the railway line. On their way, they got to fight with the Filipinos whereby as result 90 Filipinos were killed.

The city was captured on March 31 with no resistance. When the American army crossed the threshold, the walls of the structures surrounding it ruptured in a fire that had been lit by the forces of General Luna. On the same day, Aguinaldo transferred his capital city to San Fernando, Pampanga. Through the advantage gained by capturing Malolos, the troop got the psych to go ahead and capture Angeles on Aug 16th. The Luna’s forces were situated at Calumpit. The laborers tried to apply the tactic of digging ditches that they covered with steel(Heuser,2010).

The Laguna de Bay campaign was carried out on 8 -17th April 1899. Henry Lawton captured Filipinos Santa Cruz .on 9th April, the American army clashed with the Filipinos at Pagsanjan. They achieved to push them out. On 12th the forces of General Lawton’s aimed to capture Paete dispersed Filipinos and blocked their way to Paete.

First san Isidro campaign. (21 April-May 30)San Isidro was the temporally home of the Aguinaldo’s insurgent government. The Americans tried to burn the bridge so as to gain access to the town. Aguinaldo left the town on time before they reached and took with him 13 American who had been confined there.

Zapote river campaign was conducted on the 13 June 1899. The main battle in this was the one conducted on the Zapote bridge. The Cavite campaign (7-13 Oct 1899) the Filipinos managed to attack, Calamba, Los Banos, Imus and Bacoor. General Otis later got to send his armies in the same regions to acquire them back.

The Second san Isidro campaign run through 15 Oct -19th Nov. Lawton’s army aimed at recapturing san, Isidro.This time having the support from general Samuel young. It took part between Mac Arthurs forces who managed to acquire Tarlac on 12Nov. they faced storms which caused a rise in the waters in the rivers causing roads to be flooded. The san Fabian campaign(6-19 Nov)general Wheaton drove out the Filipinos from the san Jacinto and connected with Mac Arthurs forces at Dagupan on 20th Nov. Battle of Paye that took place on December 19, 1899, resulted to the death of general Lawton In Luzon. This happened during the reign of Geronimo. The battle that took place at makahambus between the Filipinos and the scouts was the only battle that the Filipinos worn in Mindanao.

When Aguinaldo planned to shift his capital to Bayombong the scouts received the message and planned to arrest him. On 13th Nov, he started the guerrilla war. He got to be captured on March 23, 1901, by general Fredrick Funston. On April 1st, 1901 he swore to accept the united state to rule the Philippines at Malacanang Palace. He surrendered to the Americans on 19th April.

The army experienced some Problems like Shortage of manpower, resistance from the Philippines’, change of weather conditions, they lack food as the Filipinos burnt down the farm products during the guerrilla warfare. The military operations helped the Americans get to colonize the Filipinos fully with no resistance (Linn,2000). They had better fighting tactics than the Filipinos who used knives and arrows. The Americans army faced problems like lack of good coordinations amongst their leaders (Miller,2005), they were also poor at working in different conditions like on rainy times they stopped fighting. The used to attack the sea areas so that they could block the communication among their rebellious communities(Hornfischer,2004).

In the Spanish -American war, they travelled in the sea and crossed regions like the islands Panay island that was a main connection to various. They conquered Malolos together with other pieces of lands; as a result, the Filipinos were displaced to camps. They were confined in some areas where they lived many people and in poor conditions. This resulted in them contracting diseases and later dying as they lacked medication. The Filipinos used guerilla tactics. The American armies used airplanes as their mode of transport (Sexton,1939).

They lacked enough manpower as many of them got killed in the war or captured as captives. They lacked enough arms, the armies were not well trained, as they performed poorly during rainy seasons. They could not work in various weather conditions(Matloff,1996). They were easily affected by diseases, that made them weak and unable to work. The navy army lacked access to weapons. They were not enough for all of them(Hornfischer,2011).