The Siege Of Baler Church

Largely because of this isolation, there occurred an event that indelibly stamped the name “Baler” in the annals of the Spanish Army, for it was in that town’s church that a small Spanish garrison was besieged by Filipino insurgents from June 27, 1898, un­til June 2, 1899, almost twelve calendar months. Four officers and fifty men went into the church at the beginning and two of­ficers and thirty-one men marched out at the end of the siege.

The United States gunboat Yorktown made an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the little garrison in April, 1899, and it was on the beach at Baler that Lieutenant Gillmore and his boat’s crew of fourteen men en­countered a greatly superior force of insur­gents. In the fight that followed, two sailors were killed, two mortally wounded, and the rest were captured.

The treaty of December, 1897, which ex­iled Emilio Aguinaldo, had apparently ended the last Filipino uprising against Spanish rule. Of the 23,000 regular troops that Spain had employed to put down this revolt, some 5,000 were sent home after the treaty had been signed.

However, at the time that Admiral George Dewey entered Manila Bay, about 18,000 Spanish soldiers were scattered in small gar­risons throughout the islands.

When Aguinaldo suddenly appeared in Cavite in May, 1898, insurrection flared anew, and the outlying Spanish garrisons in Luzon were quickly besieged by hordes of fanatical natives, and those troops which could not escape, surrendered. The Spanish defense of Baler church was practically the only exception.

The little garrison at this town, out of touch with the outside world, did not know for almost a year after Admiral Cervera’s fleet was destroyed that Spain no longer owned the Philippines.

On the morning of June 27, 1898, the handful of Spanish soldiers in Baler read a sure sign of impending trouble in the ab­sence of the native population from the town. They immediately occupied the church and priest’s house that was joined to it by an inclosed convent. Both were built of stone and fairly well suited for defense.

At this time the Baler garrison was com­posed of Captain Las Morenas, governor of the province, sublieutenants Zayas and Mar­tin, a medical lieutenant, Senor Vigil, and fifty infantrymen. The parish priest, Fray Carreno, also took refuge with the garrison.

The Spaniards were able to store some ammunition and food, including seventy bushels of rice, in the church before the siege. They also sank a well in the convent yard that supplied them with water, though it was of questionable purity.

Captain Las Morenas sent out scouting parties on June 30, and they encountered a strong force of insurgents, which drove in these patrols, surrounded the church and the siege began.

On July 1 a letter, signed by two insur­gent captains, demanding the surrender of the garrison, was received. This demand was refused. The insurgents then dug trenches that completely encircled the church, and from them directed a hot fire at the defenders, who conserved ammunition by replying only when a native exposed him­self.

The garrison received another letter on July 19, from an insurgent captain, Villacorta, which stated that he had just arrived with reenforcements, and proposed that if the Spaniards surrendered, their lives would be spared, but if they resisted further, he would storm the church and show no mercy.

This demand also being refused, the gar­rison was subjected to a bombardment from seven or eight old fieldpieces the insurgents had brought up, which greatly damaged the doors and windows, but injured none of the defenders, for which they could thank the thickness of their stone walls, as well as the glaring inefficiency of the insurgent gun­ners. On August 3, the garrison’s supply of red wine, a regular part of the Spanish soldier’s ration, was exhausted, as was also their stock of tobacco.

The night of the seventh was marked by an attempt on the part of the besiegers to take the church by a surprise attack. The storming party was discovered skulking toward the walls and repulsed. On the twentieth, Villacorta sent two Spanish friars into the garrison with a new demand for surrender. The friars decided to remain with the defenders, and performed duties for which they later met death from the rifles of an insurgent firing squad.

In September two powerful allies joined the insurgent cause in the form of dysentery and beriberi among the Spaniards. The first victim of the latter disease was the parish priest, who died on the twenty-fifth. On October 13, Lieutenant Martin and Surgeon Vigil were both wounded, while on October 18 Lieutenant Zayas died of beriberi. The same disease claimed Captain Las Morenas on November 22, and the command of the garrison then devolved upon Martin.

Martin led a raiding party against the be­siegers on December 14, and succeeded in destroying their front-line trenches as well as burning all the houses near the church, thereby compelling the insurgents to take a more distant position. This withdrawal per­mitted the opening of one of the church doors, and also allowed the Spaniards to go outside for a few yards to gather sprouts and herbs to supplement their scanty fare.

A Spanish officer, Captain Olmedo, ar­rived in Baler on the twenty-ninth, after traversing the difficult mountain trail, with orders for the garrison from the Spanish General, Rios, in Manila, who was in charge of repatriating his country’s soldiery. The captain advanced under a flag of truce from the insurgent trenches, but the besieged, not wishing to reveal their plight, halted him at some distance from the church.

Because General Rois’s orders had been addressed in an irregular way, through a clerical error, Lieutenant Martin suspected a ruse and refused to treat with Captain Olmedo. After vainly trying to convince Martin of his identity and the genuineness of his orders, Olmedo was finally compelled to retrace his difficult journey to Manila with mission unfulfilled.

The coming of March found the besieged almost destitute of clothing and the com­mander issued sheeting and bandage ma­terial from the medical stores. The men made needles from bits of tin, and fashioned wooden sandals to replace their tattered shoes. Timbers of the convent were spar­ingly used for firewood, while the Spanish flag flying above the church was kept re­newed. The last flag used had stripes cut from an acolyte’s red gown sewed on a field of yellow mosquito netting.

On April 11, there occurred an event of great mystery to the defenders. In the early afternoon they distinctly heard gunfire from the sea, although the limited view of the water afforded from the belfry revealed no vessel. However, that night, the beam of a searchlight playing across the sky brought untold joy to the little garrison. They de­cided that the war with the United States was ended and the Spanish government had sent a warship to their aid. The war had ac­tually been terminated about eight months before, and the shots they heard were fired by the U.S.S. Yorktown, sent to learn the fate of the Baler garrison.

The commander of the gunboat sent En­sign Standley and a quartermaster ashore before daylight on the twelfth to reconnoiter and to draw a map locating the church in the town and the insurgent positions. Recog­nizing the danger of this mission, he also sent Lieutenant Gillmore to the beach with an armed party of fourteen men to protect the two scouts. Gillmore’s party walked into a nest of insurgents and, after a sharp fight they were all killed or captured, while Stand- ley secured his information and was brought off to the ship by another boat.

That afternoon the supposed Spanish ves­sel fired a few more shots from her main battery, and thereupon Lieutenant Martin had three rifle volleys fired in the hope that they would be heard on the ship. That night the besieged burned a beacon fire on the belfry. Unfortunately the volleys were not heard, nor the fire seen on the Yorktown.

Just before daylight on April thirteenth, the defenders were cast into the depths of despondency by seeing the searchlight switched off, and by catching a glimpse of the lights of the ship passing across their re­stricted view toward Manila.

The insurgents tried a new piece of strat­egy that afternoon. A man, clad in the uni­form of a United States sailor, approached under a flag of truce and shouted that the war was over, arid the captain of an Ameri­can gunboat, waiting off the beach, was ready to transport the besieged to Manila.

The messenger pointed seaward to an American flag flying on a bare pole near the beach, which, through the trees from the church, might have been taken for a gunboat’s mast. It is probable that this flag had been Lieutenant Gillmore’s boat flag. The garrison, scenting treachery, paid no at­tention to the messenger.

Shortly after midnight of May 27 an at­tempted surprise attack was foiled by an alert sentry, and the insurgents left seven­teen dead about the walls of the church.

On May 28, Lieutenant Colonel Aguilar, another emissary from General Rios, ar­rived and approached the garrison under a flag of truce. Though he had papers that passed him through American and insur­gent lines, and had brought a steamer in which to transport the garrison to Manila, some blunderer had failed to provide him with orders for the besieged.

Having had so many tricks attempted, Lieutenant Martin believed Aguilar’s story to be another hoax, and after trying for two days to satisfy Martin as to the genuineness of his mission, Aguilar was forced to give up and return to Manila. Upon leaving he tossed a bundle of old Spanish newspapers into the convent inclosure.

On the morning of June 1, the intrepid commander decided that his little garrison could hold Baler church no longer. He de­cided to lead his men forth that night in an attempt to cut their way through the lines, and try to reach the nearest Army post. He did not know, of course, that not another Spanish garrison existed in Luzon.

Three soldiers held prisoners for inciting the defenders to desert, were therefore brought forth and shot, and the little band prepared for their nocturnal sally. A clear, moonlit night, however, made it advisable to postpone the attempt for twenty-four hours. During this delay, Lieutenant Martin bethought himself of the bundle of newspapers brought by Colonel Aguilar. Among them were several from Madrid, containing news proving that their bearer had not been in league with the insurgents.

From the columns of these papers, Mar­tin learned that the Philippines, Porto Rico, and Cuba had been lost to Spain, and that the flag on Baler church was the only Span­ish flag flying in all Luzon.

The lieutenant assembled his men and explained the situation to them. It was evi­dent that they must capitulate. A truce was effected with the insurgents and, after ne­gotiations, the depleted command marched out of the church which, for almost a year, they had guarded so faithfully for Alfonso XIII of Spain.

The little garrison had suffered heavy casualties. Two officers, twelve men, and the parish priest had died of disease; two men had been killed in action, two officers and fourteen men had been wounded; three had been executed and two deserted.

In addition to the soldiers who marched out of the church, it will be recalled that there were two friars who had done military duty. Unfortunately for this pair, some of their former parishioners were waiting for them and caused the friars to be seized and shot, on the contention that the terms of capitulation affected only the military.

Lieutenant Martin and his tattered com­mand were permitted to march overland to Manila, where they discovered that the Americans had been in possession for al­most a year; and were, at that time, cam­paigning against the insurgents.

When the brave survivors of the Baler garrison reached Spain, the Queen Regent, in the name of the King and the nation or­dered that thanks be given to each survivor, and that the Cross of San Fernando (the Spanish Victoria Cross carrying with it a pension) be given to those deemed worthy. The Cross of Maria Cristina was bestowed on each man. Surgeon Vigil received addi­tional recognition, and Lieutenant Martin, in addition to his two decorations, was com­missioned a captain in the regular Army.