LUKBAN
sent to the church, and started removing the church furniture to a safer place. When the church furniture was returned, there were little signs of the fire except for the charred ceiling and part of the rafters. But the edifice was intact. 9
A good number of American soldiers, which Lukban estimated at 2,000, immediately disembarked, and as soon as they had landed, opened fire under the protection of the guns of their vessels, advancing to Lukban’ s batteries. The latter answered their fire, engaging them until the next day despite the superiority of numbers of the invaders. 10
Hunger soon took its toll on Lukban’ s soldiers, forcing them to withdrew to the arsenal which was about two miles from the town.“ We inflicted a loss of about 300 on the enemy, of which fact the natives of Catbalogan are witnesses, as they saw the enemy remove their dead in carts drawn by mules. On our side, we suffered the loss of our artillery man who was shot while trying to set fire to the convent; another was killed by the explosion of one of our guns, an artillery officer had his head grazed by a bullet and a corporal of the same corps was wounded,” said Lukban in his report. 11
Leaving a force to put out the fire, Major Allen launched into full scale attack of suspected Lukban’ s forces now holed up the nearby mountains, where there were said to be some 120 rifles and 8 field guns. Unfamiliar with the fighting style of the more experienced Americans, several of Lukban’ s men were killed and their guns captured. The emplacement, Allen discovered, was abandoned. 12
Later that evening, a party of insurgents attempted to approach the town, but the Nashville fired several rounds of shrapnel and shell from her 4-inch gun and drove the insurgents off. Through the night, the Nashville and Helena used their search lights to sweep the hills, shores, and waters around Catbalogan. During the night, other troops were landed under Col. Arthur Murray, 43 rd Infantry, U. S. V., to occupy the hills during Major Allen’ s absence who went after Lukban. 13
General Kobbe himself soon landed in Catbalogan to establish his headquarters. The town was garrisoned, parents and relatives of soldiers with the revolutionary forces were held hostage. People suspected of giving aid to insurrectos were arrested, tortured or killed. Catbaloganons were urged to return to the heavily garrisoned town.
When the Americans learned that Leon Arteche was designated as presidente municipal of Catbalogan by Lukban, he was arrested and brought to Manila where he was imprisoned at Fort Santiago. He was later released and allowed to return to Catbalogan, only to find his son Guillermo Arteche together with Cayetano Sosing and Francisco Conge taken by the Americans to Tinaogan, a barrio of Zumarraga, where they were tortured to get information on Lukban’ s forces. Later, the three
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