HistoryGuy
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If you want to know a little bit about the Scouts.........
The American Army’s initial involvement with training indigenous troops in the Philippines turned out to be one of its longest running and most unique. From 1899 to 1902, a state of war existed in the Philippine Islands as a revolutionary army under Emilio Aguinaldo battled for independence against American troops who vanquished the Spanish garrison of the Archipelago. This was the war of the Philippine Insurrection, which began after the Battle of Manila on 4 February 1899. Following the example of U.S. Army commanders in making use of the services of friendly Native Americans during the Indian wars, Filipinos from various tribes were employed in a wide variety of capacities, to include guides, interpreters, boatmen, teamsters, and trackers.
A letter from 1st Lt. Matthew A. Batson of the 4th Cavalry dated 16 July 1899 provides the earliest official record of any proposal to employ Filipinos as armed scouts. American soldiers, particularly mounted troops like Batson’s unit, often encountered significant delays when moving cross country due to a lack of suitable bridges. Lieutenant Batson wanted to hire expert native boatmen capable of building a hasty bridge using native canoes to provide U.S. units with the capability to cross the innumerable streams encountered when patrolling. In his proposal, Lieutenant Batson recommended arming the native boatmen so they could protect themselves against unexpected insurgent attack.
Maj. Gen. Henry W. Lawton, the 1st Division commanding general, accepted Batson’s proposal. General Lawton then requested War Department permission to form a company of 100 armed Macabebe scouts. Their earlier willingness to fight for Spain, which marked them for retaliation by other Filipinos, attested to their remaining loyal to the Americans. Convinced of the concept’s worth, Lawton directed Batson to begin forming several units of indigenous troops even before an initial response arrived from Washington. On 10 September 1899, Lieutenant Batson organized the first company of Macabebe Scouts, followed eleven days later by a second company. Three more company-sized units were created in October after permission arrived from the War Department to create several units. The men were considered as civilian employees of the Quartermaster Department, paid from civil funds, and officered by personnel temporarily detached from the U.S. Regular Army.
Most of the initial group of native scouts had served with the Spanish colonial army, which meant they were fairly well trained and disciplined. Their utility as boatmen proven in combat, the U.S. Army decided to create a native cavalry unit to augment American mounted patrols. On 3 April 1900, President William McKinley authorized the creation of a Filipino cavalry squadron under Lieutenant Batson. In a move to encourage other regular officers to serve with the native scouts, Batson received a temporary boost in grade to Major, U.S. Volunteers. On 24 May 1900, Maj. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, the Philippine Division’s commanding general, issued General Order No. 25 authorizing the formation of a cavalry battalion of four troops, each with a maximum of 120 men, engaged to serve until 30 June 1901 unless sooner discharged. Between May and December 1900, a company of Ilocano native scouts was also formed in northern Luzon, spurring MacArthur to modify General Order No. 25 in order to establish a fixed uniform rate of pay and allowances, declaring the scouts subject to military discipline, guaranteeing them regular rations, and stipulating that pay and allowances would come from public civil funds.
The utility of the scout concept was soon proven under fire, thus setting the stage for the formation of additional units. In late January 1901, authority was given for an additional battalion of Macabebe Native Scouts, a battalion of Cagayan Native Scouts, and a second company of Ilocano Native Scouts. MacArthur also approved using Native Scouts against insurgents operating in the Department of Southern Luzon. The Native Scout initiative received legislative recognition on 2 February 1901 when Congress retroactively authorized President McKinley to enlist Filipinos into the service of the U.S. Army as scouts. The bill permitted scouts to be organized into companies, squadrons, and battalions led by non-commissioned and commissioned officers selected from the ranks of the Regular Army. Duty with indigenous troops offered a powerful career incentive for non-commissioned officers, who were authorized to be promoted to lieutenant rank while serving with the scouts. In addition, regular officers were formally authorized to be promoted one rank while commanding scout units. The total number of “enlisted men in said native organizations shall not exceed twelve thousand,” which also counted toward the enlisted strength of the U.S. Army.
Volunteer units in the Philippines were mustered out on 3 July 1901, a development which led to Volunteer officers with the Native Scouts being replaced with Regular officers. The changeover sparked yet another reorganization of scout units by the Commanding General, Department of Northern Luzon. The new directive authorized a mounted scout battalion of four companies, the Lepanto Native scouts with ten numbered companies, the Cagayan Native scouts with four companies, the Macabebe Native Scouts with seven companies, and the Ilocano Native Scouts with seven companies. The companies were capped at 50 men apiece for the Lepanto Scouts and 100 men for the other units. Each company was authorized two U.S. lieutenants. All of the Filipinos were expected to sign a collective contract stating, “We the undersigned do severally agree that we will well and faithfully serve the United States of America as scouts in the Philippine Native Scouts for the period of six months unless sooner discharged.” Beginning on 1 October 1901, Native Scouts entering the service of the United States did so for a formal three year enlistment. Rather than paying them using insular department funds, their pay would now come from Regular Army appropriations.
In early 1904, the U.S. Army created the 1st Provisional Battalion of Native Scouts, consisting of a company each of Ilocanos, Visayans, Tagalogs, and Macabebes, for special duty at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, Missouri. Under the command of Maj. Frank de L. Carrington, the 434-man unit sailed from Manila on 15 February, arriving at St. Louis on 17 April after a train trip across the Rocky Mountains. Maj. William H. Johnston, who assumed command from Carrington soon afterward, supervised the scouts during the summer and fall as they entertained crowds with drill exhibitions at the 47-acre Philippine exhibit. Although the scouts received the same wages as American soldiers while in the United States, 137 of them declined to reenlist when their terms expired that fall. These personnel were sent back to the Philippines in late September. Major Johnston’s battalion then took part in President Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration in January 1905 before departing for the Philippines.
Upon its return to Manila, the 1st Provisional Battalion discovered that several major changes were occurring. The first involved redesignating Native Scout units as Philippine Scouts. In addition to the new title, all separate companies were being assembled into battalions. Rather than operating as auxiliaries assisting U.S. units during counterinsurgency operations, the Scout units were transitioning into a conventional military force. As a result, the Scouts were assembling on regular military cantonments rather than remaining dispersed in smaller garrisons throughout the islands. This process took time because it also involved the movement of families and recruiting of new personnel from regions near the cantonments. The 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 7th Battalions, Philippine Scouts, were organized in February 1905, followed by the 8th Battalion later that year, the 9th, 10th and 11th Battalions in 1908, the 12th Battalion in 1909 and the 13th Battalion in 1914.
With the suppression of most insurgent bands, U.S. Army planners also reoriented the Scout mission to one of defending the Archipelago against external threats. As early as 1906, American planners assumed that Japan posed the most dangerous threat to the Philippines. Manila Bay, a splendid thirty-by-thirty mile harbor on the shores of which sat the capital city and a seaport with excellent commercial infrastructure, represented the most valuable prize for any potential invader of the Philippines. In 1916 an Army-Navy committee proposed that the city and bay should be held as long as possible by local units. The scouts were envisioned to play a major role in this defensive effort as the Philippine garrison awaited reinforcements arrived from the Continental United States.
A select few of the Scouts were also being groomed for leadership roles during this period. While Filipino non-commissioned officers had long been the norm, almost a decade passed before Filipino officers were allowed to serve in Scout units. The first Filipino, Vicente P. Lim, entered West Point in 1910. Two years later, 24-year-old Lt. Estaban B. Dalao became the first Filipino to be commissioned into the Philippine Scouts. Over the next eight years, Dalao was joined by fourteen more Filipinos, two of which graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and six, to include Lim, from the U.S. Military Academy. Although this initiative provided an upward career path within the Philippine Scouts, Filipinos were rarely provided with meaningful command opportunities.
The American declaration of war against the Central Powers resulted in the Filipino people offering to raise troops to fight for the United States and also pay for the construction of a destroyer and submarine. The Philippine legislature passed a Militia Act on 12 April 1917 authorizing the mustering of a National Guard division. The proposed organization would consist of three infantry regiments, a cavalry troop, two field artillery batteries, and two coast artillery companies. With a few weeks, construction of training camps began as over 25,000 Filipinos volunteered for military service. Yet when the Governor General sought formal authority for his actions, the Chief of the Militia Bureau protested any reference to the unit as a National Guard organization because it really represented “a volunteer organization for war purposes.”
Although the Chief of the Militia Bureau’s reaction might be construed as an exercise in semantics, few within the U.S. Army envisioned a pressing reason to create another Philippine military force given the existence of the Constabulary and Scouts. The fact that a Filipino division had to travel almost ten thousand miles by ship to reach Europe, also influenced the views of a War Department hobbled by shipping shortages as it struggled to transport men and material to France. Despite lack of official sanction, a number of U.S. officers of the Philippine garrison assisted the Governor General’s efforts to organize the new unit. In addition to filling critical staff functions, American troops trained 200 Filipino officer candidates and 100 prospective Filipino non-commissioned officers from late July through mid-September at a camp near Manila.
A lack of legislative approval, rather than War Department misgivings, prevented the U.S. Army from providing more support to the Filipino volunteers. Approval did not come until the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation allowing the Philippine volunteer division to be federalized in late 1917. On 26 January 1918, President Wilson proclaimed that the Filipino volunteers could be “organized and called into United States service in the same manner as the National Guard of the States…” However, statutory recognition of the Philippine volunteer division did not make it a part of the National Guard system of the United States. The administration of the troops, which remained solely with the Philippine government, did not involve the Militia Bureau.
A week after hostilities ended in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation calling the Infantry Division, Philippine National Guard, into Federal service for one month’s training beginning on 20 November. Nine days later the State Department notified the War Department of the President’s proclamation. On 29 November, the War Department formally notified the Governor General that the division would be called into service at reduced strength. Meanwhile, in accordance with the President’s proclamation, the Philippine National Guard division had already begun assembling. Although the division mustered out on 19 December, it’s members continued training for two more months before the unit formally disbanded.
Although the Filipino volunteer unit had encountered many obstacles, World War One resulted in significant changes within the Philippine Scouts. Roughly 14,400 U.S. troops, of which 5,733 were Scouts, were stationed in the Philippines when America joined the Allied powers. Within a few weeks, many American soldiers were transferred from the Philippines to join units destined for service in France. By April 1918, the strength of the U.S. garrison fell to 9,300 officers and men. To offset the reduced number of U.S. troops, President Woodrow Wilson authorized an additional four battalions and eighteen separate companies of Philippines scouts. The increased force structure resulted in Scout authorizations increasing to 314 officers and 8,129 enlisted personnel.
In addition to creating new Scout units, the existing formations were reorganized into four provisional infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, a field signal battalion, and an engineer battalion. Twelve of the new separate companies were used to form the headquarters, supply, and machinegun companies of the provisional infantry regiments. The remaining six companies provided the artillery regiment with a headquarters and supply component and the manpower for field signal and engineer units. The reorganization marked a major milestone in the evolution of the Scouts as they were transformed from a light infantry force to an all-arms organization with organic artillery, machinegun, engineer, and signal units.
Although the cessation of hostilities on 11 November 1918 led to the dissolution of the 3d Philippine Regiment and signal unit, another eighteen months passed before additional force reductions were mandated. The delay in part reflected the post-war debate over the size and organization of the United States Army. The War Department wanted the ability to rapidly expand in the event of a future conflict by creating a robust standing army and mandating Universal Military Training for all male citizens. That proposal, however, gained little support in Congress because no one believed that a major land war would occur for several decades. As a result, Congress capped the U.S. Army at 17,726 officers and 280,000 enlisted men when it passed the National Defense Act of 4 June 1920. The act also created the Army of the United States consisting of the Regular Army, National Guard, and Organized Reserves.
The new legislation posed a challenge because the Scouts were not Regulars, National Guard, or Reservists. As a result, the War Department decided to integrate them within the Regular Army by transferring the colors of four regiments slated for inactivation to the Scouts. The 43d, 45th, 57th, and 62d Infantry were thus chosen to be sent to the Philippines. All four had been formed in 1917, but had not seen combat duty in France. A number of the officers from each regiment would accompany their colors and records to the Philippines. The influx of new officers proved necessary because the National Defense Act also had a significant impact within the commissioned ranks of the Philippine Scouts. It stipulated that all officers in the Scouts holding U.S. citizenship had to be reintegrated into the Regular Army. Of the 188 officers who applied, only 62 were eligible for an equivalent Regular Army commission. The applications of 95 officers were rejected while 31 others withdrew their paperwork or retired from active duty. Most of the officers failing to meet the eligibility requirements were retained while the Adjutant General sought alternative methods to reintegrate them.
The officers and colors of the incoming U.S. regiments began disembarking at Manila on 3 December 1920. With the stroke of a pen, the 1st Philippine Infantry (Provisional) became the 45th Infantry (Philippine Scouts) soon afterward while the 2d Philippine Regiment (Provisional) became the 57th Infantry (Philippine Scouts). In January 1921, the Philippine Department formed the 62d Infantry (Philippine Scouts) using personnel from the 4th Philippine Regiment (Provisional). Two months later, the separate 2d, 8th, and 13th Battalions were combined to form the 43d Infantry (Philippine Scouts). In May 1921, the War Department redesignated the 1st Philippine Field Artillery (Mountain) as the 25th Field Artillery (Philippine Scouts). That same month, the provisional Philippine engineer units were formed into the 1st Battalion, 14th Engineers (Philippine Scouts). The Philippine Division, consisting of a mix of U.S. and Scout units, was then activated at Fort William McKinley on 8 June 1921.
< Message edited by HistoryGuy -- 6/20/2013 12:00:05 AM >
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