Battle of Manila (1899)

Battle of Manila
Part of the Philippine–American War
U.S. soldiers of the First Nebraska volunteers, company B, near Manila in 1899.
Date February 4–5, 1899 Location Manila, Philippines Result US victory
Belligerents
United States	Philippine Republic
Commanders and leaders
Elwell S. Otis Arthur MacArthur, Jr. Thomas M. Anderson	Emilio Aguinaldo Antonio Luna
Strength
19,000 United States troops 8,000 in Manila 11,000 outer defenses	15,000 Filipino troops
Casualties and losses
55 killed 204 wounded	238 killed 306 captured

The Battle of Manila, the first and largest battle of the Philippine–American War, was fought on February 4–5, 1899, between 19,000 Americans and 15,000 Filipinos. Armed conflict broke out when American troops, under orders to turn away insurgents from their encampment, fired upon an encroaching group of Filipinos. Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo attempted to broker a ceasefire, but American General Elwell Stephen Otis rejected it and fighting escalated the next day. It ended in an American victory, although minor skirmishes continued for several days afterward.

After the surrender of Manila to American forces by the Spanish in 1898, General Aguinaldo demanded occupation of a line of blockhouses on the Zapote Line, which had been the Spanish defensive perimeter. General Otis initially refused this, but later said that he would not object unless overruled by higher authority. It was estimated at the time that there were about 20,000 Filipino troops surrounding Manila, with their distribution and exact composition only partially known.

U.S. Army forces numbered some 800 officers and 20,000 enlisted men. Of these, some 8,000 were deployed in Manila and 11,000 in a defensive line inside the Zapote line. The remaining American troops were in Cavite or in transports off Iloilo.

Sources generally agree that the first shots were fired by Private William Walter Grayson, an Englishman who had emigrated to America c. 1890, had enlisted as a volunteer soldier in Lincoln, Nebraska, in May 1898, a month after the Spanish–American War erupted, and had deployed with his unit to the Philippines in June 1898. Grayson's unit, the First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry under Colonel John M. Stotsenburg, had been encamped in Santa Mesa, Manila, since December 5, 1898. During the time of their encampment, there had been incidents on and around the San Juan Bridge, located just to the east of their encampment area.

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