The Inhabitants of the Philippines

by Frederic H. Sawyer

On the 19th, Silang, one of the principal rebel towns, was taken by assault and at the point of the bayonet, after a preparatory bombardment in which the artillery fired 105 rounds of shell, whilst 25,000 rifle cartridges were used by the infantry.

The rebels lost 2000 men killed and wounded, whilst the Spanish losses were 12 killed and 70 wounded. The town was strongly entrenched and stoutly defended, and its capture with so small a loss may justly be called a creditable operation. Marina’s brigade attacked from the south and Cornell’s brigade from the east.

The action lasted from 7 to 11.30 A.M. The rebels were discouraged, but still, on the 22nd, they delivered an attack as if they would retake the town, and pressed on with great fury. They killed four of the Spaniards and wounded twenty-one, but in the end were driven off, leaving 400 dead on the ground. The houses in Silang were found fully furnished and provisioned. In the house of the so-called Viceroy of Silang, Victor Belarmino, the principal ornament of the sala was a chromo-lithograph portrait of the Queen Regent.

The church-doors were wide open and the altars profusely illuminated. On the sacristy table lay the priestly robes and ornaments, ready, doubtless, for the celebration of a Te Deum for the expected victory. But he who was to wear them, the celebrated Tagal Bishop, lay with a bullet through his heart across the parapet he had fiercely defended.

Lachambre preserved the best houses around the church and convent and utilised them as storehouses, hospital, and barracks, burning the rest of the town as a punishment to the rebels. He then garrisoned and fortified the post and connected it with the telegraph line.

On the 24th Lachambre marched from Silang, his main body advancing by the direct route to Perez Dasmariñas parallel to the River Casundit, a flanking force of three companies guarding the left of the column, whilst Lieutenant Colonel Villalon, with a battalion and a half having started an hour earlier than the main body, took the road to Palimparan, having the Rio Grande on his right, and by his advance protecting the right flank of the column. Villalon advanced rapidly, and, brushing aside all opposition, rushed Palimparan with a loss of one killed and one wounded, killing seven of the rebels in the attack. Here he bivouacked, and at sunset was joined by another force consisting of half a brigade under Colonel Arizon, detached from General Galbis’ force on the Zapote River.

In the meantime the main body had advanced to within three miles of Perez Dasmariñas and bivouacked at the hamlet called Sampalcoc. On the following day Perez Dasmariñas was taken by assault, after a short bombardment by the mountain batteries. The rebels were strongly entrenched, and made a stout resistance. They had flooded the rice fields to the east of the town and rendered them impassable.

The town was attacked from the south and west, but it took hours of hard fighting for the Spaniards to break in, and even then the rebels fought hand to hand, and many preferred death to surrender. Those who fled were taken in flank by Arizon’s force, which approached the northern end of the town from the eastward. The loss of the Spaniards was 21 killed and 121 wounded, whilst the natives left 400 dead at the foot of their defences, and a great number were killed outside the town.

The early part of the defence was directed by Aguinaldo, but he fled when the Spanish forces closed up, leaving Estrella, an ex-sergeant of the Guardia Civil, in his place. Estrella fled later on when the Spaniards had entered the town. Unintimidated by this rude lesson, the rebels that same night fired into the town, and on the 27th they attacked a column which went out to make a reconnaissance towards Palimparan, and gave a mountain battery a chance, which they promptly took, of getting at a dense body of them with case. The artillery fired 22 rounds in this action, and the infantry used 63,000 cartridges. The Spanish loss was two killed and ten wounded, whilst the rebels lost at least 300.

The church, convent, and stone homes round the Plaza of Perez Dasmariñas were loopholed and prepared for defence, and occupied by a garrison of two companies of infantry. Owing, however, to the difficulty of bringing up supplies, the division could not resume its advance till the 7th March. Then the division took the eastern road to Imus, whilst the half brigade under Arizon marched by a parallel road on the right flank, which converged upon the Imus road at Salitran, a village with a large stone estate-house belonging to the Recollets, strongly entrenched and held by the rebels.