LUKBAN
was very poorly equipped in the soldierly essentials of discipline, training, organization, and morale. Your statement is awaited.”
To which Colonel Hughes of the 9th Infantry replied,“ It may be true, General Chaffee, that Company C of the 9th Infantry, was lax in discipline, training, and morale. I would not be qualified to comment upon the subject as the Company has been under my command for but two weeks. During its previous China service, it was under the direct command of General Adna R. Chaffee, Commanding the Philippine Division!’’ 40
Chaffee had no answer to this. But he did what he had to. He simply replaced Hughes with a man who would implement his policy of retaliation, a man who would gain notoriety for turning Samar into a‘ howling wilderness’- Gen. Jacob Smith.
Endnotes
1 Oswald, Mark. A paper entitled“ The Howling Wilderness Courts-Martial of 1902,” Department of the Army, U. S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA 17013-5050 2 Borrinaga, Rolando O.“ The Balangiga Conflict Revisited”, New Day Publishers, Quezon City, 2013, p. 53 3 Sellers, Michael,“ The Warriors of Samar,” The Balangiga Uprising of 1901,( http:// warriorsofsamar. thejohncarterfiles. com / the-bells / 4 Ibid, p. 55 5 Ibid 6 Young, Kenneth Ray,“ Guerrilla Warfare: Balangiga Revisited”, Readings in Leyte Samar History, Divine Word University of Tacloban, 1979, 251 7 Daza Affidavit. In 1935, Daza gave his version, in Spanish, of the Balangiga incident in a notarized account, probably in response to James O. Taylor’ s“ The Massacre at Balangiga”, published in 1931 as part of a campaign to get the Medal of Honor awarded to the American survivors. The original statement was lost in a fire in 1945 but a copy has survived.
Eugenio Daza y Salazar was born on 15 November 1870 in Borongan, Eastern Samar. His parents Juan Cinco Daza of Catbalogan and Magdalena Campomanes Salazar of Borongan were both prominent in the province. He married Carolina Cinco of Catbalogan and was blessed with seven children. In 1884, he was sent by his parents to Manila to pursue his education. He enrolled at the La Congregacion de la Santisima Virgen de San Luis Gonzaga( Escuela Normal de Maestros) Ateneo de Manila. While studying in Manila he met some prominent personalities of the propaganda movement in the likes of Paciano Rizal, brother of Jose Rizal and Apolinario Mabini. In 1888 he graduated with honors with the degree in Education. After graduation he returned to his province and taught at the Borongan Municipal School. In the later years he established, his own school under the supervision of the Spanish government. His teaching profession was interrupted with the outbreak of the 1896 Philippine Revolution. In 1899 during
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