Today in history: Attacking Pasig by land and river
Filipino sharpshooters confronted by gunboats and Gatling guns, 1899
The diary of Alfred Burton Welch (1874-1945), who served with Company D, 1st Washington Volunteer Infantry in the Philippines, mentions the American offensive to capture Pasig; here he provides a glimpse of the tactics and weapons used on March 1, 1899:
On guard from 4 to 6 a.m. Cool –could not move on acct. of s[harp].s[hooters]. Gen. Wheaton came along early and at 9.15 came the order “prepare to attack.” The 6th Art. in the church yard on the rt. opened up with a terrible fire, point being 800 yds in our front, giving a cross fire on them. Gunboat on left took ’em on their rt. flk., advancing along river to even with ruins of Iglasia [Iglesia] de Guad[alupe].G & D opened on woods between these two points. The rebs stood well, but the gats & cannons, & the 600 yds Springfields drove them out, & their loss must have been heavy. Fight lasted until 11 a.m. –and while the Filip sharpshooters are busy again. I can not hear the bugle –bells– whistles –yells &c which I heard at 5 a.m. at the church but away up toward Pasig they are reforming for once in a while a few notes come on a favoring breath of air –“when the wind down the river is fair” A Corp of C. Co was shot in shoulder. Very hot how. On early watch this morn I was strangely lonesome. Came to me all of a sudden.
His entry mentions the ruins of Guadalupe Church in Makati, and the use of American gunboats in the Pasig River to shell shore positions as part of Combats between Manila and Lake Laguna de Bay.
A more detailed account can be found in The Capture of Pasig, 1899.
