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University of Michigan William L. Clements Library

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Spanish-American War in the Philippines and Philippine-American War Letters and Documents, May 24, 1898-March 5, 1899.

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Containers:
Box 4, Folders 16-21
Abstract:
Includes letters and despatches written by American soldiers and officers with details of service in the Spanish-American War in the Philippines, including the conditions of the sham Battle of Manila (meant to preserve Spanish honour during their surrender). Some references are made to the growing guerrilla insurgency, but most letters relate to the circumstances of the Spanish withdrawal from Manila and rampant disease within the American barracks. Varied printed stationery includes letterhead for the 13th Minnesota Infantry, the 14th U.S. Regiment, the Hospital Corps, the United States Commission to the Philippine Islands, the office of the Spanish Lieutenant-Mayor (Teniente Alcalde) of the Santa Cruz District, the Army and General Captaincy of the Spanish Philippines, the YMCA's Honolulu branch, a Spanish ledger sheet, the Spanish Barracks (Cuartel de Espagna [sic.]), and the Headquarters of the Department of the Pacific (in which "Department of the Pacific" was struck through and replaced with handwritten "Provost Marshal General's Office"); however, despite the existence of Spanish stationery, correspondence and despatches contained herein are all from American soldiers, and the Spanish stationery was confiscated. Additional materials pertain to the escalating Philippine-American War on various stationery, including confiscated Spanish stationery. As the Spanish-American negotiations evolved into an American conquest of the Philippines, U.S. soldiers stationed there wrote about their boredom and still-rampant disease. By 1899 the patronizing language used to describe Filipinos was replaced with anger at the growing resistance, and by January 10, U.S. troops expecting to return home were instead being sent to reinforce strategic U.S. positions in the wake of the escalating guerrilla movement. This triggered fury and at least one planned mutiny when soldiers' payments were withheld. At least some of this anger was redirected at insurgents, with one extensive letter noting that American soldiers had gone rogue and begun to kill injured insurgents rather than allowing them to be transported to the hospital, and another letter noting despair at the length of the war and saying that "some of [the Filipinos] are brave and good men, but the majority are not" and that "I long to see white people again, someone besides soldiers." One letter from Caloocan (in Manila), immediately after the battles and massacre there but before the U.S. depositions and courts-martial, notes that the American soldiers still stationed there were restless and agitated. Additional keyword list: Battle of Manila (1898), guerrilla warfare, counterinsurgency, sham battle, typhoid, malaria, scurvy, yellow fever, war hospitals, mutiny, soldiers' payments, journalism. Partial geographical list: Manila and Manila Bay (Philippines), Iloilo [City] (Philippines), Cavite (Philippines), Caloocan (Manila), New Brighton (Pa.), San Fernando (Pampanga, Philippines), Washington (D.C.), Montgomery (Ala.), Minneapolis (Minn.), West Alexander (Pa.), Jefferson and De Smit (S.D.), Cavite (Philippines), Penn Yan and West Point (N.Y.), San Francisco (Calif.), Sandpoint and Boise City (Ida.), Malate (Manila), Colorado Springs (Colo.), Hartford (Conn.), Philadelphia (Pa.), East Pepperell (Mass.), Lincoln (Neb.), Portland and Hubbard (Ore.), Hudson and Saxeville (Wis.), Des Moines (Iowa), Virginia City (Mont.), Lisbon (Ohio), Knightstown (Ind.).
Extent:
54 items

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