Fighting erupted between forces of the United States and those of the Philippine Republic on February 4, 1899, in what became known as the 1899 Battle of Manila.
On the evening of February 4, 1899, Private William W. Grayson fired the first shot of the Philippine-American War at the corner of Sociego Street and Tomas Arguelles Street. A study done by Ronnie Miravite Casalmir places the event at this corner, not at Sociego-Silencio where they erroneously have the marker. The Ronnie Miravite Casalmir Study debunks the previous findings of Dr. Benito Legarda which was the basis for the erroneous placement of the marker at Sociego-Silencio. According to Ronnie Miravite Casalmir, the smoking gun for the Sociego-Arguelles corner is the presence of Blockhouse 7 in the background of Grayson's reenactment photo. The orientation of this Blockhouse 7 image lines up with the corner of Sociego and Arguelles when compared with the known photo of Blockhouse 7 taken from the same direction. In addition, the distance estimate of Lieut. Whedon placed the 100-yard distance from Santol at Sociego-Arguelles, not Sociego-Silencio. This meant that when Lieut. Whedon ordered the detachment at Santol to patrol 100 yards, he meant them to patrol all the way to Sociego-Arguelles. Col. Stotsenburg corroborated Lieut. Whedon's distance estimate. Prof. Ambeth R. Ocampo calls the evidence presented by Ronnie Miravite Casalmir as new and compelling.https://opinion.inquirer.net/189453/same-street-different-corner Prof. Ocampo agrees that this evidence shows that the marker should be moved one block away, from Sociego-Silencio to Sociego-Arguelles.http://www.philamwar.com/thefirstshotofthephilamwarwasnotonsociegosilencio.html Maj. Lillian A. Pfluke (Ret.), West Point Class of 1980, and founder of the American War Memorials Overseas Inc. also agrees and has a note on their U.S. War Memorials website that the proper placement of the marker should be at the adjoining intersection of Sociego Street and Arguelles Street where the incident actually occurred.https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/monument_details.php?SiteID=2286&MemID=2999
On June 2, 1899, the First Philippine Republic officially declared war against the United States. The war officially ended on July 2, 1902, with a victory for the United States. However, some Philippine groups—led by veterans of the Katipunan, a Philippine revolutionary society—continued to battle the American forces for several more years. Among those leaders was General Macario Sakay, a veteran Katipunan member who assumed the presidency of the proclaimed Tagalog Republic, formed in 1902 after the capture of President Emilio Aguinaldo. Other groups, including the Moro, Bicol and Pulahan peoples, continued hostilities in remote areas and islands, until their final defeat at the Battle of Bud Bagsak on June 15, 1913.
During the war, the United States Army conducted nine military campaigns. Two additional campaigns were conducted after the official end to the war on July 4, 1902 in connection with the Moro rebellion, which continued until 1913. Some other significant actions occurred outside of organized campaigns, both during the war itself and in the post-war period.
During Philippine–American War The first battle of the Philippine–American War is the Battle of Manila in February, 1899, a few months after the December 1898 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish–American War and in which Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. (The cession of the Philippines involved a payment of $20 million from the United States to the Spanish Empire.) The Philippine–American War continued into 1902.
Manila campaign (February 4 – March 17, 1899) The Manila Campaign was conducted between, February 4 and March 17, 1899. During the Spanish–American War, Emilio Aguinaldo organized a native army in the Philippines and secured control of several islands, including much of Luzon. Cession of the Philippines to the United States on December 10, 1898 via the Treaty of Paris disappointed many Filipinos, and on February 4, 1899 Aguinaldo's followers clashed with American troops. The Americans, numbering about 12,000 combat troops under Major General Elwell Otis, defeated Aguinaldo's force of some 40,000 men and suppressed an attempted uprising in Manila.
American columns pushed north, east, and south from Manila to split the insurgent forces and seize key towns. The column pushing north, commanded by Major General Arthur MacArthur, captured the town of Caloocan.. The column pushing east, commanded by Brigadier General Loyd Wheaton, pushed out of Manila and gained control of the Pasig River, which connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay, permanently interrupting communications between insurgent forces in north and south Luzon.. The column pushing south, commanded by Brigadier General Henry Lawton, was tasked with a long raid along Laguna de Bay; its mission assignment was limited because of manpower shortages due to primacy of the northern theater..
The Manila campaign split the Filipino forces in two, one section north and the other south of Manila, joined only by a narrow corridor running through the towns of Pasig, Pateros, Taguig and Muntinlupa between American lines and the shore of Laguna de Bay. This denied Aguinaldo direct control of Filipino forces south of Manila, in the most revolutionary provinces of Batangas, Laguna and Cavite. Antonio Luna continued as commander of the northern section, and Aguinaldo appointed Mariano Trías commander of the southern section..
Significant battles: Manila campaign Battle of Manila (February 4–5, 1899): American and Filipino forces clash and the Americans drive the Filipino army out of the Manila area. Battle of Caloocan (February 10, 1899) American troops under General Arthur MacArthur capture the town of Caloocan north of Manila, securing the southern terminus of the Manila to Dagupan railway (the Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan) and capturing a significant amount of rolling stock. Second Battle of Caloocan (February 22–24, 1899) Failed Filipino counterattack.
Iloilo campaign (February 8–12, 1899) The Iloilo campaign was conducted between February 8 and 12, 1899. Although control of Luzon was the principal military objective in 1899, measures were also taken to establish American control over other important islands. Iloilo on Panay island was occupied on February 11, Cebu City on the island of Cebu on February 26, Bacolod on Negros on March 10, and Jolo in the Sulu Archipelago on May 19. US forces, consisting of General Marcus P. Miller's brigade and Capt. Frank F. Wilde's naval squadron, took Iloilo from Filipino forces under General Martin Delgado, Panay's Federal State of the Visayas, and Ananias Diokno, leaving the city a "blackened ruin".. The city was destroyed by a "combination of arson, naval bombardment, and street fighting".. Brig. Gen. James F. Smith arrived Bacolod on 4 March as the Military Governor of the Sub-district of Negros, after receiving an invitation from the president of the provisional government, Aniceto Lacson.. Commodore George Dewey ordered the Petrel, under the command of Capt. Charles F. Cornwell, into Cebu City's harbor on 21 Feb., followed by Elwell S. Otis assigning on 14 March, troops from the 23rd Infantry, under Maj. Greenleaf A. Goodale, and Lt. Col. Thomas R. Hamer as military governor for the Cebu subdistrict of the Visayas Military District..
Malolos campaign (March 24 – August 16, 1899) On March 17, 1899, General Otis reorganized his 8th Corps, breaking it into a defensive force for Manila and an offensive force to pursue operations against Aguinaldo's forces north of Manila..
The Malolos campaign was conducted between March 24 and August 16, 1899. General MacArthur's column advanced along the Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan railroad to the north. Malolos the capital of the First Philippine Republic government, was the first objective. MacArthur's column captured Malolos on March 31, but Aguinaldo had decamped and transferred his capital to San Fernando, Pampanga on the same day.For the date of the transfer of the Philippine Republic capital to San Fernando, see . on May 5, and the stronghold of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija (which was held only temporarily) on May 15. The advantage gained through capture of Malolos was exploited by advancing to Angeles City, which was captured on August 16.
MacArthur sent one brigade up the Manila–Dagupan railway line while another brigade forded the Quingua River and moved up a wagon road to the west. Otis intended for Lawton to advance west to Baliuag as a blocking force, but Lawton believed he was to move north to Norzagaray to draw Filipino forces away from a defense of Luna's stronghold at Calumpit..
At Calumpit, where Luna's main force was located, thousands of laborers had strengthened the formidable natural defenses with trenches roofed by steel rails or boilerplate for protection from shrapnel and the construction of breastworks at several points. Some 4,000 soldiers defended Calumpit itself, with another 3,000 guarding the flank at Baliuag., citing , , and . Luna had deployed much of his army along the railway line south of Calumpit, and on the night of April 10–11 he launched a series of assaults on garrisons along the railroad, driving the Americans back but failing to rout them..
Otis had intended to launch his offensive on April 24, but action began a day early, on April 23, when American scouts examining the approaches to Quingua were pinned down. Battle developed as American forces were committed to support the scouts. American forces overran Quingua in fierce fighting on April 23 and 24, putting them in position to threaten Calumpit.. On April 25, American forces assaulted Luna's stronghold, which fell after a day of heavy fighting.
The American advance northwards stopped at Calumpit while negotiations aimed at ending hostilities were conducted. Colonel Manuel Arguelles, representing Aguinaldo, arrived in Lawton's camp to request a three-week armistice for Aguinaldo to call together his scattered government to discuss terms. Lawton sent him on to Otis, who refused a truce but did wire Lawton and MacArthur to hold their positions..
On May 2, Aguinaldo's representatives proposed a three-month cease-fire, couched in language which required Otis to acknowledge the Philippine Republic as a sovereign nation. Otis refused the truce on those terms, but gave the delegate a copy of President McKinley's plan for a Philippine civil government, which would include an advisory council and judiciary selected from Americans and Filipinos.For more information, see History of the Philippines (1898–1946)#First Philippine Commission and Schurman Commission. Aguinaldo's delegates were won over. Aguinaldo's cabinet headed by hard-liner Apolinario Mabini was ousted and replaced with a "Peace cabinet" headed by Pedro Paterno, which sent the delegates back to Manila to discuss surrender terms with Otis. General Luna, however, arrested the delegates and Paterno's cabinet and restored Mabini and the hardliners. Negotiations collapsed, and Otis resumed his offensive.
American forces resumed military action, capturing San Fernando, Pampanga on May 4., but by that time the capitol of the insurgent Philippine Republic had moved to San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. Between February 4 and May 4, MacArthur's troops had pushed American lines over 40 miles north. Their supply lines were in shambles and barely half the troops were still fit for active duty. Exhausted American troops recuperated in San Fernando for the rest of May and MacArthur's forces solidified their control of the railroad corridor linking San Fernando to Manila.
Significant battles: Malolos campaign Battle of the Tuliahan river (March 25, 1899) – an unsupported frontal assault against a well prepared and heavily defended position..