LUKBAN
they saw blood on the ground, showing that a number had been hit. At some distance away, they found one dead rebel. But they found the bush too thick to penetrate.
“ The greatest care had to be taken in hunting for the bolomen, who were concealed in the high grass along the roadside. They would not move until a soldier was about to step upon them, when they would jump up and attack most fiercely,” wrote Gilmore. In the skirmish on that road, he reported that 12 rebels were killed within five feet of the road, while only one of his men got a bad cut on his leg from the fearsome ba-id.
The planned ambush of the rebels did not succeed because the soldiers discovered it before it could be executed. Rebel riflemen were supposed to have been stationed across the river and to shoot them while they were fixing the bridge, so that their attention would be diverted. The bolomen waiting at the bush were supposed to attack them from the rear. But the bolomen were discovered too soon. According to Gilmore’ s report, 13 rebels were killed as a result of that fiasco.
Burning towns, wasted food
In the succeeding days of May that year, Gilmore and his troops continued to lay waste on the villages and towns in the northern coast of Samar, burning them and confiscating and destroying all the rice that they came upon, in order to deny support to the rebel forces of Lukban. In return, they only earned the ire of the native population, stoking the smouldering fires of rebellion in the countryside.
His trip to Palapag with 75 troops on May 12 was uneventful. But at San Miguel, a village some distance from La Granja, they saw a number of bolomen. The villagers deserted it as they approached. The rebels had erected a new barracks and had three or four houses where they stored rice and palay. Gilmore counted 30 to 40 houses in the village. These he ordered burned with all the palay and rice. Two more villages nearby were similarly destroyed.
All the three villages were said to be full of insurgents. A number of the dead at Catarman were recognized as natives from there. Such villages, they learned, served as stopovers for people coming over from Luzon. At Laguan which now served as a principal garrison in the area, many of the soldiers were suffering from diarrhea and ulcerated feet caused by lack of socks. Since the arrival of the American battalion in the island, it had been accordingly impossible to get socks despite repeated requests.
“ I consider that the present situation on this island is rather serious. The whole north and east coasts are in rebellion, and as the palay crop has just been
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