LUKBAN standing on!”
Chaffee’ s attitude probably influenced those of his subordinates. He had his apprehensions, and his anger was not muted but felt on the surface. He wanted his soldiers to be‘ stern and inflexible’ so that the masses of Samar who had supported Lukban would be afraid. Every hostile act in Samar’ s villages had to be dealt with“ quickly and severely”. America’ s honor was hurt in the Balangiga massacre, and it would take more than two battalions to retrieve the lost weapons and ammunition captured by the insurgents. But he promised that the face of Samar would be different when the reinforcements would arrive. Chaffee was heard saying his troops“ will start a few cemeteries for hombres in Southern Samar.” This vengeful frame of mind would impact on Gen. Smith, Samar’ s new American commander. 3
Jake‘ Howling’ Smith
Chaffee’ s choice to replace Gen. Hughes was just in his mould. Smith had the right character Chaffee desired of his commander for Samar. Smith’ s attitude toward waging the‘ hard war’ was quite well known. He never liked the natives. He even boasted to reporters that fighting the Filipino insurgents was‘ worse than fighting Indians’ back home. He made no secret of his harsh methods. In one article to the newspapers in Manila, he stated that the Balangiga massa cre was the result of“ officers who loved the Little Brown Brother,” evidently referring to the officers of Company‘ C’ who fraternized with the locals in Balangiga. 4
Early in his career, Smith already showed tendencies that did not befit an officer and a gentleman. Enlisting in the Union Army in 1861, he quickly acquired a commission as a volunteer officer in the Second Kentucky Regiment. Wounded at Shiloh, he was placed into quasi-retirement and served the remainder of the war as a recruiter. In 1867 he obtained a Regular Army captaincy, and in 1869 Smith tried to convert a temporary major’ s appointment as a judge advocate into a permanent one. In the confirmation process, the Judge Advocate General of the Army discovered that Smith had used his position as wartime recruiter to engage in profiteering through recruit bounties and speculation in gold, diamonds, and whiskey. 5
Smith’ s temporary judge advocate appointment was revoked when it was discovered that he had lied about his wartime conduct. Smith spent the next 27 years as a Captain on the frontier, and his service record reflects three separate general courts-martial for insubordination to his commanding officer, conduct unbecoming an officer arising from
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