Battle of Pulang Lupa, September 13, 1900

From 1899-1901 during the Philippine American War there were numerous encounters
between Philippine and American Forces. In seven of the engagements where Filipinos
had the upper hand that spelled victory, two of them occurred in the island of
Marinduque. (These were the Battle of Paye, and the Battle of Pulang Lupa).

The other Filipino victories took place in the Battle of San Mateo (Morong), Siege of
Catubig (Samar), Battle of Makahambos Hill, Battle of Mabitac, Battle of Balangiga
(Samar).

The Battle of Pulang Lupa, however, is considered a milestone in Philippine History.

This was the engagement that sent shock waves through the American high command
and was considered the worst defeat suffered by the Americans during that war.

This battle however, led to the first application in the Philippines of concentration camps
in the island’s town centers, a highly coercive measure that finally led to the surrender
of the Filipino soldiers led by Lt. Col. Maximo Abad with his remaining men on April 15,
1901.

The success of this population concentration first experimented in Marinduque was then
applied to other provinces in the country including Batangas, Laguna and Samar.

Of the harshness and hardships suffered by the people of Marinduque, Gov. Gen.
William H. Taft, future U.S. president said: “The severity with which the inhabitants have
been dealt with would not look well if a complete history were written out”.

Some details of that history appears in The U.S. Army's Pacification of Marinduque,
Philippine Islands, April 1900-April 1901 by Andrew J. Birtle.

On the Battle of Pulang Lupa that took place on September 13, 1900, Birtle wrote
in part:

“While the Boac garrison cowered, Shields endeavored to maintain some semblance of
pressure on the guerrillas, making thirteen expeditions during July and August. None of
these operations went more than ten miles from Santa Cruz, which, like Boac, was
down to about twenty-five percent of its pre-occupation population. Protected by the
people and the island's difficult topography, Abad easily avoided Shields. In August,
however, Shields made some headway on the civil front, organizing the election of a
pro-American mayor and arresting twenty-five civilians on charges of aiding the
guerrillas.

"On 11 September, Shields decided to take advantage of a visit by the gunboat U.S.S.
Villalobos. Leaving Lieutenant Wilson and forty-one men to hold Santa Cruz, he loaded
fifty-one enlisted men, a hospital corps-man, and his black servant onto the gunboat
and sailed to Torrijos, disembarking that evening. The next day he had his first contact
with insurgent forces since his company had been on the island, dispersing a band of
twenty guerrillas and destroying their cuartel.

"On the thirteenth, Shields led his detachment into the mountains with the intention of
returning to Santa Cruz. Well informed about Shields's movements, Abad had
concentrated nearly his entire force of approximately 250 riflemen and 2,000 bolomen
along a steep ridge overlooking the trail. Shields walked right into the ambush. A fire
fight ensued for several hours before Shields ordered a retreat into a covered ravine.
What began as a slow withdrawal quickly turned into a race down a rocky stream bed,
as the Americans scrambled to escape the pincers that were moving to surround them.
After retreating for about three and a half miles, the beleaguered detachment entered a
rice field near the barrio of Massiquisie (Masagisi). Here renewed enemy fire forced the
Americans to take cover behind some paddy dikes. Shields fell seriously wounded.

"After ordering that a message be passed to the senior NCO, Sergeant James A.
Gwynne, to lead the command out of the closing trap, Shields raised a white flag to
surrender himself and the other wounded. The insurgents thought the flag meant that
the command was surrendering. So too did Gwynne, who later claimed never to have
received the escape order, and thus the entire force lay down its arms. All told, the
Insurgents killed four Americans and captured fifty, six of whom, including Shields, were
wounded. Shields later claimed that the Filipinos lost thirty dead, though this number
was never confirmed.

"After months of hiding, Abad in a few short hours had destroyed nearly a third of the
entire American garrison on Marinduque.”