The Capture and Looting of Lipa by US Troops in 1900 during the Fil-American War

In December of the year 1899, almost a year after the Philippine-American War had broken out, after clearing the Bulacan towns of Baliuag and San Miguel de Mayumo of Filipino rebels, General Henry Ware Lawton began devising an ambitious plan to sweep down to the south of Luzon, including Batangas¹.

Whilst in the middle of his preparations, Lawton was summoned back to Manila by General Elwell Stephen Otis, Military Governor of the Philippines². If at all Lawton was given the opportunity to discuss the plan with the governor, it was probably disapproved because the former “was forced to cool his heels at Manila for two weeks.”

Afterwards, he was sent to San Mateo in the province of Rizal on “a comparatively minor expedition” – that is, given his rank and stature – to pursue a small group of Filipino rebels. The operation in San Mateo took place in the middle of a typhoon. While the fighting was taking place, Lawton was shot through the lungs just moments after dragging a wounded young officer to safety.

He would expire not long after, and History would remember him as “the highest ranking American officer to fall in battle in either the Spanish-American or Philippine-American wars³.”

A fortnight after Lawton’s death, Otis “authorized a more conservative execution of Lawton’s plan for dealing with the insurgents in the area south of Manila.” The command of Lawton’s former division⁴ was transferred to Major General John C. Bates.

The division was divided into two brigades⁵ under the command of Generals Theodore Schwann and Loyd Wheaton. The two brigades conducted operations in Cavite and Laguna early in January. By 9 January, Cavite was in American hands⁶.

The following day, the 39^th Infantry Regiment under the command of a Colonel Robert L. Bullard defeated a band of Filipino rebels in Santo Tomas, Batangas. Bates sent the 38^th Infantry Regiment to reinforce Bullard’s troops, “with instructions to continue south towards the town of Lipa.”

The town erstwhile known for its coffee and even gained the status of a Spanish royal estate as Villa de Lipa was taken by the two regiments on 15 January “after a brisk fight in which the artillery figured prominently…”

One hour after Lipa was captured Bullard and one Colonel Anderson, commander of the 38^th Infantry, heard rumors that American prisoners were being held by Filipino rebels in the pueblo or town of Rosario eight kilometers south of Lipa. Acting impulsively, the two quickly organized a small party which also included a lieutenant colonel, a major, a captain, two lieutenants and four enlisted men and rode on horseback for Rosario by mid-afternoon.

Needless to say, no American prisoners were found. However, the group relieved a Spanish officer stationed in the town, and from the latter, they obtained information about $20,000 in funds belonging to the Filipino rebels. They took the money and rode back to Lipa that same afternoon.

In the meantime, while the party was away in Rosario, troops under the command of Bullard and Anderson must have gone house to house, terrorizing the locals and robbing them of their valuables “in violation of all orders.” One Colonel Cornelius Gardner of the 30^th Infantry, reporting on Anderson’s 39^th Infantry, reported one battalion⁷ “loaded down” – i.e. weighed down or carrying heavy weight – with “booty from Lipa.”

Bates, Commanding General of the entire division, was unimpressed with the actions of the two colonels and reported:

“This exploit in which two colonels left their regiments in violation of their responsibilities as commanders, in obedience to an impulse of enterprising courage, is so peculiar that it is impossible to praise it without combining rebuke with approbation or to censure it without expression of admiration for the dash and gallantry displayed.”

The behavior of the looters, however, was easier to explain. Majority of the soldiers brought over to the Philippines did not belong to the regular army. Instead, they were “state volunteers” who were shipped overseas to augment the United States Army and were known as the United States Volunteers.

Few of these soldiers had received any military training prior to being shipped overseas and whatever training they received upon conscription was hasty and insufficient. The indiscipline and disregard for orders, therefore, is not difficult to understand.

From Lipa, American troops left for the town of Batangas on 16 January, arriving there that same day despite engaging Filipino rebels in minor skirmishes along the way. Not long after, the Americans started setting up garrisons in the principal towns of Batangas Province.