Balangiga Massacre Triggers Samar Pacification - Scorched Earth Retaliation

Filipino resistance fighters in Balangiga, Samar conduct a surprise attack on Company C of the U.S. 9th Infantry Regiment, killing 54 American soldiers in what becomes described as the “worst defeat of United States Army soldiers since the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.” The attack occurs over five months after Emilio Aguinaldo’s April 19 “Peace Manifesto” acknowledging American sovereignty, revealing that resistance continues on islands like Samar where U.S. forces have closed ports to prevent supplies reaching Filipino forces under General Vicente Lukban. American interests are eager to control Samar’s Manila hemp trade—vital for U.S. Navy rope and agricultural industries—which is financing Philippine resistance. The villagers make their move between 6:20 and 6:45 AM when Valeriano Abanador grabs Private Adolph Gamlin’s rifle, stunning him and firing at the mess tent as church bells peal and conch shells blow, signaling communal laborers to rush American sentries and soldiers eating breakfast.

The Balangiga incident provokes shock in the U.S. public, with newspapers equating it to Custer’s last stand. President Theodore Roosevelt orders Military Governor General Adna Chaffee to pacify Samar, and Chaffee appoints Brigadier General Jacob H. Smith to accomplish the task. Smith instructs Marine Corps Major Littleton Waller and 315 Marines with infamous orders: “I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn, the better it will please me… The interior of Samar must be made a howling wilderness…” Smith specifically orders killing of every male over ten years old, earning the nickname “Howling Wilderness Smith.” American columns march across the island destroying homes, shooting people and draft animals in systematic retaliation. Major Waller reports that over eleven days his men burn 255 dwellings, shoot 13 carabaos, kill 39 people, and take 18 prisoners. Filipino historians estimate the Samar pacification results in approximately 2,000 Filipino civilian deaths and over 200 homes burned.

General Smith is eventually subject to court-martial for “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline,” but like Major Edwin Forbes Glenn (who received only one month suspension and $50 fine for using water cure torture), faces minimal consequences for war crimes. The Balangiga attack and subsequent American retaliation remain among the longest-running and most controversial issues between the Philippines and United States, with conflicting interpretations by American and Philippine historians. The episode epitomizes the brutality of American counterinsurgency in the Philippines: military forces responding to legitimate resistance with indiscriminate civilian targeting, scorched earth tactics violating the 1899 Hague Conventions, and commanders issuing explicitly genocidal orders yet escaping meaningful accountability through military justice systems designed to protect officers rather than enforce law. The pacification demonstrates how economic interests (hemp control) drive military operations disguised as security responses, with Filipino civilians bearing the cost of American imperial ambitions through mass killing and property destruction that constitute clear war crimes under any reasonable interpretation of international law.