Monday, October 2, 1899. An action in the Philippines.

 

Troops under cover in a ditch in a rice field, October 2, 1899.  The troops above are from an unidentified unit, but are equipped with obsolescent trapdoor Springfield .45-70 rifles.  The ones below are Kansas state troops are are even more antiquated in their equipment, still wearing blue wool shirts, although many troops still did at this time.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 10, 1899. The second Yakutat Bay earthquake.

Labels: 1890s, 1899, Alaska, Geology

Thursday, July 6, 1899 Ordered home.

Today In Wyoming's History: July 6: 1899  The Wyoming Battalion received its orders in the Philippines to return to the U.S. Attribution:  On This Day.

Kansas state infantry, February 1899.

They were undoubtedly mighty glad to receive them as well.

The Philippine Insurrection is all but forgotten by 99% of Americans. Those who do remember it have some particular connection with it or are students of history.

They Wyoming Battalion was a battalion of infantry augmented by a battery of artillery.  The infantry was drawn from volunteers from Buffalo, Douglas, Sheridan and Evanston, commanded by Maj. Frank M. Foote of Evanston.  The artillery came from Cheyenne.  They had volunteered for action in Cuba, not the Philippines, but the U.S. Army was so small, there was no way to exploit the Navy's defeat of the Spanish Navy in the Far East other than through using volunteer troops who had not been committed to Cuba.  During their service the unit suffered high causalities, losing 3 men in combat, 12 died of disease, and 75 men became unfit for service due to wounds, illnesses and injuries. As with the remainder of the U.S. Army during the Spanish American War, many more soldiers from Wyoming died of disease and illness caused by poor sanitation and diet and inadequate medical care, and from numerous tropical diseases, than were ever felled by a foe’s bullet.

Coming before the Dick Act, these units fit into an odd category between the Regular Army, which they were not part of, and existing state militia units, which they were also not part of.  State raised, they are regarded as National Guard units today, which makes sense in that their history more closely aligns with the National Guard, and the Guard found itself doing recruiting to fill out its ranks for the Punitive Expedition, World War One, and even in the lead up to World War Two.

The Philippine Insurrection, indeed the US presence in the Philippines in general, was controversial from the onset. A strong anti-colonial impulse in the US, natural for a nation which had once been a foreign colony, had operated against going to war with Spain in the first place, as members of Congress feared that Cuba would be annexed to the US as a colony.  Preventing that from occurring had been a condition of the declaration of war, but other Spanish possessions had been omitted as they were completely out of mind.  To naval strategists, including the Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, striking at Spanish possession is the Pacific and Far East made perfect sense, but to most Americans it simply wasn't something that was likely to occur. As a result of this, nothing had addressed Spain's Far Eastern territories.

Given this, the war was not universally popular from the start. The use of state troops contributed to that, as the troops had not enlisted for service in a colonial enterprise.  To address some of this, the Army, now freed of combat in Cuba, began to replace state units with regular troops.  This did not address all the problems, however, particularly as the Army began to increasingly resort to harsh measures, giving rise to atrocities.  The war was officially declared over on July 4, 1902, although in reality it continued on at least until 1915.

A good argument can be made that the Spanish American War as the US's first modern war.  It came about rapidly and haphazardly, like many wars following it did.  The long range implications of the war were not foreseen, including that the war would give rise to a long, unexpected war following it.  The initial war was popular, but as the implications of it lingered on, the war succeeding it was not.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 1, 1899. "Birth" of Indiana Jones.

Labels: 1890s, 1899, Movies, Movies In History

Thursday, May 4, 1899. The Battle of Santo Tomas and the remarkable Elanor Pray.

 

The 1st Nebraska advancing during the Battle of Santo Tomas

The Battle of Santo Tomas was found in this day at Santo Tomas, Pampanga.  The battle resulted in the complete route of the large Filipino force, its second defeat in recent days, and the wounding of General Antonio Luna, a primary Filipino commander.

Like many battles of the Philippine Insurrection, the battle was fought, on the American side, by state volunteers, who were, for all intents and purposes, National Guardsmen.  In this case, the US forces consisted of the 20th Kansas, the 1st Montana, 1st Nebraska and 51st Iowa.

Elanor Pray, an American from Maine who was living in Vladavostock where her husband was posted to the "American store" sent a letter with photographs of some of the local scenes and her observations of them.

I think you will be interested in the photo of our premises here even if it does have to be curved to make the thing come together. Fred took it from the roof of the new P[ost] O[ffice] and the building half completed in front of us belongs also to the P.O." 

Little known in the US, Pray's heavily photographed letters have made her well known in Russia, as her long residence there, 1894 to 1930, meant that she's chronicled, and preserved, an entire epic in Russia's history which would otherwise have seen much lost.  She apparently liked the region, as she stayed on after the death of her husband in 1923 and only left in 1930 when her employer closed its facility in the area, which was also experiencing hardening Stalinist repression.

From Vladivostok she moved to China and was interned in World War Two by the Japanese, becoming part of a 1943 prisoner exchange which resulted in her return to the US. She smuggled her papers out in the process.  She died in 1954 at age 85.

Manuel won the Kentucky Derby.

Last prior edition:

Monday, May 1, 1899. Prisoners of the Philippine Republic.

1890s, 1899, Philippine Insurrection, U.S. Navy

Tuesday, April 27, 1899. The Battle of Calumpit

The Battle of Calumpit (Filipino: Labanan sa Quingua), alternately known as the Battles of Bagbag and Pampanga Rivers) concluded with U.S. forces under Arthur MacArthur Jr. combating Filipino forces under General Antonio Luna.  U.S. forces were comprised completely of state militia units, essentially the equivalent of today's National Guard, somewhat, those being the 20th Kansas Volunteers, the Utah Volunteer Light Artillery, the1st Montana Volunteers, the1st Nebraska Volunteers and the 51st Iowa Volunteers. All were probably mustered to fight against the Spanish in Cuba, and not the Filipino's in their native land.

U.S. forces prevailed with Medals of Honor, under the original standards, going to Colonel Frederick Funston, Private (later First Lieutenant) William B. Trembley, and Private Edward White.

The Filipinos, interestingly enough, grossly over reported American losses.

A terrible tornado struck:

The Kirksville Cyclone

Portrait shows event described in Eleanor Pray's letter of April 27, 1899: 

"Yesterday morning I asked Mademoiselle [Lindholm family governess] to go to the bazaar with me to take some photos, and we took Dou Kee with us. I hired a small Korean to stand in front of a stall to be photographed. The Chinese got out like lightning for they say a camera has the evil eye. The Korean wanted also to run away when he found what was up, but the Chinese were quite willing the evil eye should be cast on him so they kept pushing him back and there he stood half scared to death. In a second after I pressed the button, there were Chinese around us ten deep all clamoring to see the picture. When the small Korean found he wasn't killed, and got five kopecks for pay, he was quite in another frame of mind." Another letter, dated May 4, 1899, also mentions this event: "The group of Koreans I took near the Bazaar. They thought I was going to shoot them and the one in the edge of the picture was clearing out for his life but couldn't resist looking back to see what happened to his friends. Before that old man could get up the deed was done and I'll warrant the whole crowd cursed me by all their gods."

A statute of Grant was unveiled in Philadelphia.

Thursday, December 15, 1921. The Amazon Army.

A protest by 500 women in Kansas that began earlier in the week – organized in support of striking mine workers and against new anti-labor legislation that forced unions into arbitration and outlawed strikes in the state – swells to 4,000, stretching a mile long. The women, dubbed the “Amazon Army” by The New York Times, disbanded upon hearing that the militia was on its way. Victory came a year later when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Kansas anti-labor laws unconstitutional.

You can see a photo of them on that site.

The Kansas National Guard was called out to deal with the problem.

April 24, 1919. Oil Town, 130th Field Artillery arrives, Well Dressed Students

Burkburnett Texas, April 24, 1919.

On this day in 1919, Burkburnett Texas got a formal portrait.  Seems like the oilfield was a bit close.

Officers of the 130th.  The officer on the left, as viewed, is carrying a sidearm with that sidearm being a revolver, probably one of the two M1917 revolver types issued during World War One.  Why he's under arms is unclear, unless of course the revolver is one that he owns, in which case it wouldn't have been a M1917.  He's also wearing private purchase "trench boots", high leather boots, rather than the official issue field boots.  Private purchase boots were common for officers.  The officer next to him wears the regulation leather puttees that were common for artillerymen.

The 130th Field Artillery, part of the 35th Division and an artillery unit made up of Kansas National Guardsmen, arrived in New York on April 23 aboard the Mobile.  the Bain News Service published its photographs of the unit on April 24.

The student staff of the Wyoming Student was photographed for this issue of their paper.  

The Wyoming Student was the paper that became The Branding Iron, the student newspaper today and for many years.  The presentation was quite a bit different, with the presentation both then and now being pretty good.  What surprised me about this issue, and why I put it up, was the high standard of dress exhibited by the student staff.  I don't think this would be repeated in a paper today, as I don't think you could find that many young men who owned suits.  Quite a change in a century.