The official raising of the American flag over Manila--August 13, 1898

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: The official raising of the American flag over Manila--August 13, 1898
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 9 (No. 8) August 1929
Year: 1929
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Fulltext: August, 1929 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 5 The Official Raising of the American Flag Over Manila—August 13, 1898 The American occupation of Manila, Satur day, August 13, 1898, was effected from the south. Details of the negotiations between the American and Spanish commanders were still pending during the American advance, and Major General Wesley Merritt maintained his headquarters on the ss. Zafiro, where two com panies of the Second Oregon were on duty, until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the Zafiro lying off Parañaque beach. Other companies of the Second Oregon were on the transport Kwong Hoi. Company A, commanded by Captain H. L. Heath, was among them. When Merritt, commanding the American forces, decided to come ashore, the Zafiro and the Kwong Hoi moved northward and entered the river and the Second Oregon disembarked on the south bank of the river, formed, and pro ceeded to the Ayuntamiento and the Plaza de Armas (now Plaza de McKinley), entering the city through Puerto Postigo. To the Ayuntamiento the Spaniards were coming, to surrender; Americans were taking their places in the trenches round about the city. Anxiety and confusion prevailed through out the day among the Spaniards, by no means all of whom, even of the officers,' were informed in full as to the arrangements for the occasion; officers hardly knew what their own conduct should be, much less what commands to give their men, until quite late in the action. After landing and establishing headquarters in the Ayuntamiento, Merritt got word that confusion was such at Fort Santiago that trouble might arise there in the official raising of the American colors and taking possession of the citadel. Flag Lieutenant Bromby, from the Olympic, had come ashore with the flag to hoist it over Fort Santiago, and he applied for troops to assist him. Merritt had Captain Heath and his company detailed to this duty; they ac cordingly proceeded to the fort about 4:30 o’clock, lowered the Red and Gold from where they were still flying at full mast over a redoubt, and, when Bromby appeared, raised aloft, in the place of the Spanish colors, the Stars and Stripes. Bromby took the Spanish flag away with him. Captain Heath detailed a lieutenant and a squad of men as color guard, and returned to the Ayuntamiento with the rest of the company. The flag remained at full mast all night. Át that time, of course, Captain Heath had no idea who Bromby was; he was merely complying with his duty to assist in the raising of the flag. About the same time, the Stars and Stripes and Merritt’s blue headquarters flag were raised over the western balcony of the Ayuntamiento. Our data are directly from Captain Heath and from Millet’s The Expedition to the Phil ippines, Captain Heath corroborating Millet’s account. Captain Heath’s subsequent career has been in the Philippines, where everyone knows him in business and as a director of the Chamber of Commerce who helped in its or ganization and was for several years its president. He is now a director and a vice-president. On Sunday, August 14, 1898, he returned to Fort Santiago and took quarters with his company in the ordnance department, to look after Spanish war materials there. On Monday he went on a tour of investigation into the fort proper, and found a Spanish soldier still on guard at the Carlos gate. Guardia, no más, the man explained, letting the American pass. Captain Heath’s duties and quarters were soon changed, and, until Thursday, July 25, only a few days ago, when he courteously went with the editor of the Journal to point out the precise spot where the American tolors were officially raised over the Philippines, he had not been back to the place once—duty had not called him there. He has since been back again, Occupied by Dewey after the Battle of Manila Bay, May 1, 1898.—Commandant’s residence. however, with a delegation from the Philip pine Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who will, with the consent of the proper officials, mark with a bronze tablet the spot where the flag was raised. The resistance the color guard encountered when it lowered the Red and Gold and raised in their stead the Stars and Stripes, was the resentment of an artillery colonel’s daughter —young, red-haired and beautiful. She would have flung the men from the wall, or have im molated herself to redeem the situation; but at last her family, especially her old father, was able to quiet her and get her into the house, which is still standing as it stood then. Back at the Ayuntamiento, where the Span iards were coming in, Captain Heath saw another sight that remains vivid in his memory. A major of engineers rode in at the head of his men. His manner was correct, eyes front, head high, shoulders straight and soldierly; but tears which he could not check streamed down his trenchburnt cheeks. Relief was the general attitude of the weary men, some 11,000 all told, including two or three regiments of Macabebe troops, many of whom were afterward sent to Spain, at their own request, along with the repatriated Spaniards. In the building of the ordnance department where Captain Heath was on provost duty, at the beginning were some 200 halberds—equip ment of the Spanish guards that used to be on duty at the fort, at Plaza Militar, at Malaca ñang and the Ayuntamiento. Officers among the Americans wanted these, but had to procure official permits to get them—which, one by one, they did until the souvenirs were all gone. Amer ica paid for the Spanish military property. The staff on which the flag was raised over Fort Santiago stood at the northeast angle of the coping on the southernmost redoubt on the western wall of the fort, a location almost directly opposite the main entrance of the office building of the ordnance department. Outside the redoubt, toward the bay shore, over which it frowned in close proximity during Spanish times, is a bastion surrounding a powder house, or polverin, still utilized as such. Batteries of bronze muzzle-loading 15-centimeter cannon are still in place over both redoubt and bastion. Fort Santiago has fared well in the hands of the American army, and Major General Douglas MacArthur, now commanding general of the Philippine department, is interesting himself in the history of the old place. He will no doubt contribute to its preservation. Never theless, carelessness crops up; as, on the day the redoubt was visited, for the better accommoda tion of some new tennis courts on the wall nearby an old guadalupe coping some two feet in height was being removed, and the symmetry of this section of the wall thus destroyed. Would that the coping, immaterial as it is, might stand as it was under Spain; it is quite a part of the city’s priceless historical treasure. The courtesy of Colonel Odus C. Horney, ordnance officer, and of Major Glenn P. Wil helm, of the department intelligence staff, must be acknowledged. Colonel Horney furnished the Journal several memoranda, valuable source material for future articles; Major Wilhelm showed the way to the redoubt and rendered much other assistance. Let us make the rounds of the guns, spiked but otherwise ready for firing. Their carriages are a product of old Seville; with wooden blocks under the breeches, their crews could Set them at various angles, for longer or shorter range, and the approaches to the fort on this side, from every direction, land or sea, could be defended by their concentrated fire. Beginning where the flag was raised, we shall circle from right to left round the redoubt, then in the same manner round the parapet of the outer bastion. On the redoubt, the first of the cannon is the Marciano, No. 1793, Seville, 1788. Then come Teodosio and D. Diego de Sangran. Next The result of over half a century of refining experience SOCONY MOTOR OILS AND MOTOR GASOLINE Remember that SOCONY is Standard IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 6 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL August, 1929 is Pedro 3° de Aragon, No. 8791, Seville, 1857, and next Alfonso el Católico. Then San Aquino, March 8, 1793, Seville; San Anacleto, April 6, 1793, Seville; Aster.opeo, Almirante Lezo, El Miserable and San Boromeo. The El Miserable was cast in Manila, at the fundición from which calle Fundición takes name, October 4, 1803. Search did not discover El Horroroso, which Captain Heath recalled as being somewhere on the walls of the fort when the Americans oc cupied the place. Maybe it is among the his torical relics the Spaniards had sent back to Spain. Its proportions were gigantic. Regularity in numbering the pieces cast at Manila does not seem to have been followed, but perhaps they were quite numerous. On the outer bastion, the first gun is El Misera ble, duplicating the name of one on the redoubt; it too is a Manila product, dating October 12, 1803, two days prior to its fellow of the inner defenses. The next is the Carlos Boromeo, Fundición de Manila, 21 de Die., 1788, No. 1; so here, perhaps, is something dating the Manila foundry. The next is the San Catalino de Zena, Manila, April 30, 1796, No. 100. Then come, right to left as we make the round, El Acogido, Seville, September 5, 1783; San Lazaro, Manila, December 16, 1803; Agrabiado, Seville, Decem ber 5, 1783, No. 1274; Alexandro, Seville, Decem ber 19, 1783, No. 2163 (disclosing how busy the Seville foundry then was); Agraciado, Seville, October 3, 1783, No. 1254; and finally the Nati vidad de N. S., or Birth of Our Lady, Manila, September 8, 1798. It is raining, preparing to deluge the city as it did thirty-one years ago while Dewey’s fleet covered the American advance up the beach. Well, enough data for an article. Let’s go! Philippine Raw Products For America’s Factories G. C. Howard U. S. Trade Commissioner, Manila If the raw material users of the United States were to meet in convention to outline specifi cations for an ideal source of present and future imported supplies of tropical raw materials, the result of their most optimistic imaginings would probably read about as follows: (1) A place from which there would be no import duty. (2) A place whose productiveness is unques tionably proven. (3) A place where the possibilities for future expansion are many times greater than present production. Here their ideas might diverge according to the business requirements of the individual. The tire manufacturer would want a land where rub ber would thrive. The perfume manufacturer would require a source for the supply of essentials oils. The confectioners and foodstuffs people would want sugar, tinned fruits, vegetable oils, shredded coconut, coffee, cacao; the rope makers, hemp; cigar makers, tobacco and wrapper leaf. The manufacturing chemists would require a variety of crude drugs such as camphor, quinine, dozens of other products of tropical forestry. Cabinet makers would want hardwoods, tan neries would require tanning extracts, hat makers their fibre, the paint maker, lumbang oil. The oil mills would require copra and peanuts. It is probable that there would be considerable astonishment expressed if one of the delegates to this imaginary convention made the statement that a source exists which answers all of these spe cifications, and still adds to the list. They would possibly be still more astonished were they to learn that they need not leave American ter ritory to fulfill all their requirements for this ideal source of supply for tropical products, only having to turn to the Philippine Islands for a part of their present requirements in these items and for a far greater part of these require ments in the future. A glance at what the Philippines has supplied to the United States in the past, what she is sup plying at present, and at the future possibilities of these fertile and productive Islands should be a great interest to American industrialists who Cólors on the Wall opposite Cuartel de España, Walled City, Manila, in the early years of the American period, before the walls were cleaned and the moat parked. The site is not the identical one, but is similar to the one where the Flag was officially raised. Captain Heath formerly had a picture of the raising of the colors over Fort Santiago, but has lost it. Others should be extant, but none was procurable for this article. Scurrying through the passage under the wall, we leave the guns to the weather. They are bronze, pure stuff that was the pride of Seville’s best craftsmen; and they will be as they are today, as new as when they were shipped from Cadiz round Good Hope, when many more centuries shall have passed. Where they stand changeless, there was the American flag raised up. need tropical products in their manufacturing processes. A scant twenty-five years ago, the Philippines were selling to the United States, annually, goods to the value of a little over $13,000,000. During the year 1927, her exports to the United States topped the $116,000,000 mark. Amer ica’s purchase from the Islands during 1927 included sugar to the value of $48,000,000, co conut products worth $43,000,000, hemp valued at $12,000,000, tobacco and tobacco products having the value of $4,000,000, and miscellan eous items worth $9,000,000, which included such diversified items as reptile skins, hats, embroid ery, coral, canned fruit, glue, pearl buttons, sponges and lumber. We Have The Largest and Most Complete Stock of Drygoods in the Philippines If you need silks, linens, cottons, or notions you can serve yourself bt 1 by choosing from our large stocks We also carry haberdashery, and make men’s suits and shirts Manuel Pellicer y Co., Inc. 44 Escolta, Manila Phone 2-11-06 In spite of this remarkable growth of demand for the products of the Islands which has oc curred in the United States, the ability of the Philippine Islands to supply America’s require ments is still awaiting a test. Only 20 per cent of the available agricultural land of the Phil ippines is under cultivation, and only 41 per cent of her available labor is thus engaged. Much of her land which now lies idle during eight months of the year could be utilized between eight and twelve months. Her available water power is unharnessed. Her mineral deposits are practically untouched. Much of her ter ritory is as yet unexplored. Great areas of her timberlands are virgin, and even the develop ment of her agriculture is as yet mainly on a basis of 2J^ acre farms employing, with few exceptions, only hand labor. The Philippine Islands are, however, gradual ly feeling their way toward modern economic development. Recent indications show that the realization is coming that large, well-organized and efficiently operated business, agricultural and manufacturing entities are far more pro ductive, and far more remunerative to all con cerned that the individual acre, the small home industry and the wayside “tienda.” With this realization are coming the beginnings of adjust ment of the commercial outlook, and the tran sition from a mediaeval to a modern economic and industrial society. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL