The Belangiga Massacre-- Part 3: Massacre and U.S. Retaliation "I Want No Prisoners"

Continued from  April 12.

On the morning of September  28, 1901, the villagers made their move.  Filipino prisoners on communal duty overpowered their American guards.  They then attacked other Americans having  breakfast.  Of the 74 men of Company C, 36 were killed including all its commissioned officers.  Twenty-two were wounded and four MIA.

Eight later died of wounds and only four escaped unscathed.  The villagers lost  28 dead and 22 wounded.

American retaliation was swift.  Company G of the 9th U.S. Infantry sailed to the Belangiga, found it abandoned, burned the American dead and then burned the town.

American reaction to the news was horrified, comparing it to Custer's massacre at the Little Bighorn in 1876.  Major General  Adna R. Chaffee, military governor of the Philippines, received a message from  President Theodore Roosevelt to pacify Samar.

General Jacob G. Smith instructed Major Littleton Waller, USMC, :: "I want no prisoners.  I wish you to kill and burn, and the more you kill and burn, the better it will please me....  The interior of Samar must be made a howling wilderness."

As a result of this order, General Smith became known as "Howling Wilderness Smith."

--Cooter