The Gatling Guns in the Philippine-American War
Last May, the U.S. Navy uncovered from their archives rare photos of that short-lived war called the Spanish-American War, ignited when U.S.S. Maine, an American warship, exploded in Havana, Cuba. For those who know Philippine history, this war would alter the course of history for the Philippines and introduce Filipinos to a new imperial superpower, the United States of America.
The photo above is part of the collection the U.S. Navy uncovered in pristine condition, and shows a glimpse of Manila as viewed by the Americans. Take this photo here, as the Battery D, 6th U.S. Artillery pose for the photo, and their backdrop, the Ayuntamiento de Manila in Intramuros.
Curious still are the guns featured here.
Known as Gatling Guns, the weapon is the prototype of the modern machine gun, invented by American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling in 1861. These guns were used in the American Civil War and in the Spanish-American War.
Seeing that the Filipinos, like Cubans, were fighting for independence from Spain, the Americans saw an opportunity to lend aid to the Philippine Revolution, much like how France aided the Americans in their War of Independence against Britain. But then again, a country does not help another without something it wants in return.
After Spain’s defeat in the Philippines (on land by the Filipino forces led by Emilio Aguinaldo, and at sea by the American navy), all these surplus Gatling guns were on standby in Manila (then, Intramuros) in 1898.
It was when the Filipino revolutionaries, who won virtually the entire countryside and regions of the Philippines, were never allowed by the Americans to enter the walled city of Intramuros on August of 1898 (which was Manila then) that some Filipinos became suspicious. From the start of the American military presence in Manila on August 13, 1898 to December 1898, American reinforcements and Gatling guns kept pouring in. It was only when the 1898 Treaty of Paris was concluded on December of that year, annexing the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Marianas to the U.S., that the real intention of the Americans was revealed. Aguinaldo filed a diplomatic protest, but even the republic’s ambassador, Felipe Agoncillo, was denied audience.
Tensions escalated that climaxed in the outbreak of the Philippine-American War on February 4, 1899. These Gatling guns were put to good use and had a devastating effect on the Filipino forces, who, while having military organization, had outdated weapons, many of which were captured from the Spanish. These were also installed on American gunboats to fire upon Filipino forces on land.
On February 5, President Aguinaldo tried to quell the war by sending a message of peace to Major General Elwell Otis, leader of the American army in Manila. Otis only replied, “Fighting, having begun, must go on to the grim end.”
In a letter to Hong Kong addressed to Galicano Apacible on February 16, 1899, Apolinario Mabini, the prime minister of the new Philippine republic, wrote:
“What we wanted to avoid at all costs, came after all. On the evening of the 4th, when we were feeling so carefree because the commissioners of General Otis had just formally assured ours in signed agreements, drawn during the conferences about which I have already informed you in previous letters, that the aggression will not start with them, the Americans unexpectedly attacked all our lines in the neighborhood of Manila.
Otis is making it known that the aggression came from us, but even the foreigners themselves do not believe it. All the details point out that the attack had been premeditated and prepared on the part of the Americans… at six o’clock on the afternoon of the same day, the boat Laguna de Bay, which the Americans had covered with armor and mounted with cannon, had fired its boiler, and at eight o’clock that night, the Americans started the attack and said ship bombarded Santa Ana… Our soldiers, caught by surprise and without a commander to lead them, fought like brave men and they only gave up their posts when their munitions gave out and they were overcome with exhaustion and hunger… We are determined not to accept armistice if the Americans do not acknowledge beforehand the independence and integrity of all the Philippine Islands in the form and conditions that shall be fixed during the period of the armistice.“
Manuel L. Quezon, who would be the next president of the country after Aguinaldo, recounted his experience as captain and later as major in the Filipino army under General Tomas Mascardo:
"The war against the Americans was no war at all. It was slaughter, pure and simple. We had no weapons to speak of, and did not know how to handle few that we had. Our army had no discipline, no organization. We had men willing to die, and thousands upon thousands died heroically, while others survived through a miracle.”
The Philippine-American War lasted from 1899 to 1901 that ended with the capture of President Aguinaldo. Scholars, however, now agree that the defeat of the country’s first republic and the American victory (a stint of successful imperialism energized by American exceptionalism) was more due to the military mistakes committed by Filipinos than American military effectiveness. Mabini, in his memoir “La Revolucion Filipina” recounting the lessons learned after the war, would have agreed. For after all, advanced technology or weaponry, as history testifies, is not the sole indicator of victory in war.
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