Americans betrayed the Filipinos. The Filipinos had placed the Spanish under siege in Manila while our navy had them blockaded. We led the Filipinos to believe we were supporting their independence from Spain. The Spanish, when they finally surrendered, were saved the humiliation of surrendering to the locals. Marines came in and the Filipinos were told they could not march on the city. Some time later, we “caught” Filipinos trying to attack us one night. With a well orchestrated artillery barrage, in self defense of course, we hit the Filipino army outside of Manila. If we were caught by surprise, how did we light up the Filipino army as if it was a well coordinated attack? A British observer at the time noted and reported as such.
Mostly correct.
Just quibbles -
- Dewey and the generals played a cagey game with Aguinaldo, making implied promises without commitment.
- Taking Manila was as stated a token act, a pretense on both sides. This was arranged between the US and the Spanish commanders. Neither was willing to have the Filipino armies enter Manila. The Spanish above all were fearful of a general massacre.
- It was the US Regular Army and the state regiments of US Volunteers that entered Manila, not the Marines. Many Manila streets were, even in my day, still named after the US Volunteer regimenrs - Colorado, Dakota, etc.
- The US- Filipino battles outside Manila, a huge fight that shattered the Philippine Army, were tactically very interesting, and moreso as examples of battles late in the age of rifles, before artillery dominated. This is very under-researched and there really isnt a good treatment of it, though there is a huge lot of material on it. It certainly wasnt won by an artillery bombardment, the US hadn’t the artillery for that, but the US certainly did use artillery effectively in supporting infantry attacks.