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Chapter 2:
Fighting the Moros
It is idle to
suppose that the Moros can be subdued and made into decent citizens by
throwing kisses at them. -- Dean C. Worcester, Member of the Philippine
Commission, 1900-1913 [1]
Following the official end of the insurrection, some of the
nastiest fighting in the Philippines began on the southern-
most Islands in the Sulu Sea. In a twelve-year campaign,
from 1903 to 1915, the thinly-spread U.S. Army, aided by a newly-
recruited force of Filipinos trained in scout companies, attempted to
pacify the factious, bandit-ridden peoples known as Moros.
Inhabiting the huge southern island of Mindanao and the small-
er islands stretching to the southwest through the Sulu Sea, the
Moros raised havoc with other Filipinos, raiding, looting, murdering
and taking slaves. For two and a half centuries the Spanish had been
unable to control them and generally, when possible, left them alone.
When the Spanish abandoned the principal island of Jolo after the
peace treaty was signed, the last vestige of law and order vanished.
The Moro chiefs took it as a license to raise havoc throughout hun-
dreds of islands, ranging from Mindanao to Borneo.
The Moros numbered about 275,000 in the early 1900s. Their
past successes in fighting the Spaniards had led them to develop a
belligerent contempt for all Christians. To add to their fanaticism,
they suspected the Americans were planning to convert them by
force to Christianity In less than three years American troops
fought more than one hundred engagements against them, and
Corporal Holmdahl saw his share of combat.
On August 6, 1903, Major General Leonard Wood was appoint-
ed military governor of the islands dominated by the ferocious tribe.
His jurisdiction covered most of Mindanao, Palawan, Bisalin, Jolo,
and several hundred lesser islands of the Sulu Archipelago. Wood
was both brilliant and controversial. He joined the army in 1886 as
a surgeon in the medical corps. During the Spanish-American war,
he commanded Theodore Roosevelt's famous Rough Rider regi-
ment. After combat in Cuba, he was appointed military! governor of
that island and promoted to brigadier general.
A man of extraordinary energy and driving ambition, he imme-
diately determined to put an end to the Sulu Sea arena of looting,
piracy, slave raids, localized clan warfare, and general disregard for
law and order. In one of his first reports to the U.S. War
Department, he stated he would bring "order out of the chaos exist-
ing among these savage peoples."2 With this he lit the fuse for a
bloody series of fights between the Americans and the Moro clans.
At first General Wood thought the pacification would be easy
and wrote to his friend, Theodore Roosevelt, now president of the
United States, "One clean-cut lesson will be quite sufficient for
them." They are, he wrote, "religious and moral degenerates."
[3] To
beef up his forces in the Sulu area, the 20th Infantry was moved
from Fort McKinley on Luzon to a post at Zamboanga on the
sQuthwest coast of Mindanao. As lawlessness increased on some of
the outer islands, Holmdahl's I Company was ordered to Jolo, a
small island in the Sulu Archipelago, which was a hotbed of muslim
fanaticism.
As the troopship carrying I Company sailed through the
emerald-green seas off the Sulu Archipelago, from its deck
Holmdahl could see neighboring islands whose mountains were
covered with lush green tropical vines. It must have seemed to a
young and romantic soldier like Holmdahl that they were journeying
into a peaceful tropical paradise.
Unknown to most of the troops, however, was that the sleepy
lagoons of these colorful islands harbored the swift craft of fierce
pirates. The small villages built out on pilings were the haunts of
gun-runners, who supplied the wants of Moro bandits. Emil and his
comrades were soon to sample some of the merchandise.
Jolo was inhabited by fanatical muslims, many of whom took
solemn vows to die taking the blood of Christians. \\7ith the blood
of a Christian still warm on their hands, a dead Moro warrior would
immediately fly to the muslim heaven "on a white horse with a green
mane. He will there be washed, fed and waited upon by fifteen or
twenty women forever." [4]
Moros were of medium height, physically robust, and totally
without fear. They had a passion for the gaudy; the men wore tight-
fitting pantaloons, colorful shirts and jackets, topped off with a
bright turban wound several times around the head. From their ears
hung tinkling earrings of metal and seashells.
Their traditional weapons were a razor-sharp, two-handed sword
known as a barong that could cleave a head in a stroke. For thrust-
ing, they used the deadly kris, a straight stiletto-type knife notable
for its wavy steel blade. Sometimes they wore coats of mail crafted
from metal wire and buffalo horn.
According to Major-General Hugh Scott,
In 1903 the Moros were well armed
with Remington rifles, Sniders, muzzle-loaders, spears, barongs, and
lantakas or bronze swivel-guns of two to three-inch caliber of native
manufacture. The Remington rifles were obtained in part from the
Spaniards ...
The Snider rifles were smuggled in from North Borneo. Worse,
when Spanish soldiers dumped cases of Remington ammunition
into the Sulu Sea to keep them from being captured by the
Americans, Moro pearl divers recovered every box. [5]
Christians, particularly Americans, learned to be wary anywhere
the clan known as Juramentados lurked, for at any time they were apt
to run amok, charge, and decapitate a hapless soldier or Filipino
civilian. Juramentado was a corruption of a Spanish verb meaning to
swear an oath, and clan members swore to die while taking the life
of a Christian. When preparing for killing, they shaved their eye-
brows and bound their limbs with strong vines so that they would
not easily bleed to death if wounded. They dressed themselves in a
garment of pure white, received a blessing from a muslim holy man,
and went out searching for a victim. [6]
After I Company arrived at the island, they were stationed in the
main city also called Jolo. This was a former Spanish provincial cen-
ter where nearby pearl fisheries and sugar plantations were the basis
of the economy. Jolo was a
town of lovely broad
avenues, lined with tall
shade trees which blocked
the blazing tropical daylight.
Toward evening, little shops
selling shark fins, pearls,
trinkets, love potions, and
wood carvings were lighted
by small swaying lamps.
Jolo seemed peaceful and
friendly, but could suddenly
turn murderous if a Moro
ran amok.
On one occasion a
Juramentado slipped through
a sewer into downtown Jolo
and sat down to wait for a
Christian to come his way.
When two American sol-
diers sauntered by, he let
out a yell, and foaming at
the mouth and waving his
bolo, charged them. The two soldiers ran into a nearby billiard
saloon and in a tableau that would have been more Mack Sennett
than tragic, if lives had not been stake, the Juramentado chased the
terrified soldiers around a large billiard table. Finally the two ran
out
into the street, pulled their revolvers, and pumped a dozen slugs into
the fanatic before he fell dead.
For all his youth, Holmdahl quickly developed the survival
habits of the veteran soldier. He walked with his eyes sweeping both sides of the street and craned his neck to check for anyone
corning from behind. I t was a habit he retained all his life; indeed,
it probably accounted for his reaching old age.
General Scott later wrote,
The Moro appears to have a nervous system differing from that of a
white man, for he carries lead like a grizzly bear and keeps coming on
after
being shot again and again. The only weapon that seems adequate to
melt
him immediately in his tracks is a 12 -gauge pump-gun loaded with
buck-
shot. One Moro of Jolo was shot through the body by seven army
revolver
bullets, yet kept coming on with enough vitality and force to shear off
the leg
of an engineer soldier more smoothly than it could have been taken off
by
a surgeon. " [7]
This was the foe that young Holmdahl and his comrades were to
face for the next three years.
In a series of short, brutal battles, Holmdahl fought alongside
junior officers who were to make a mark that led them to higher
commandsc Among them were Captain John J. Pershing and Major
Hugh Scott, both to play prominent roles a decade later in the rev-
olution that consumed Mexico. If these two eminent soldiers did
not know the newly-promoted Corporal Holmdahl during those
campaigns, their common experiences may later have proved a valu-
able bond that helped keep the young rover out of a federal prison.8
It was Major Scott who in September 1905, signed at Jolo a certifi-
cation declaring Corporal Holmdahl as proficient in the "Infantry
Drill Regulations of 1904." [9]
In the southern islands, Juramentado fanatics were attacking
American soldiers everywhere. From the 36,000 square miles of
mountains and jungles of Mindanao and the volcanic wastes of Jolo,
they would strike and then fade away into the wild country. Then
they would regroup and prepare to attack again. The Moro fanati-
cism struck close to home when four of Holmdahl's buddies in the
20th were ambushed at the small village of Talai. Sergeant John
McDermott was killed, his head almost severed from his body.
Private Peter Vasey was severely wounded with a bolo slash across
his back. The fact that the other two soldiers killed the attacker was
small consolation. [10]
When American troops retaliated against Moro attacks by send-
ing out search-and-destroy missions, the tribesmen fled their villages
and barricaded themselves in stone-and-earth forts called cottas. As
American troops approached, they rushed to and fro across their
battlements, waving flags and beating gongs until the Americans
came into range. Then they blasted away with their ancient muzzle-
loading Lantacas cannon. Screaming curses and waving bolos, they
climbed over their battlements and charged, hoping to get close
enough to lop off a few infidel heads.
After a few such encounters, American commanders used more
methodical, if not quite so dramatic, tactics. Staying out of range of
the Moros' obsolete cannon, the)T deployed modern field artillery
batteries to blast the cottas. Then they followed up by raking the
smashed forts with Maxim machine-gun fire before sending in the
infantry to mop up any surviving tribesmen. It was during these
campaigns that Holmdahl gained his expertise with machine guns.
Treachery was not an unknown custom among the Moros.
Following a battle in Jolo, a chief named Panglima Hassan was cap-
tured. As he was escorted to jail by troops under the command of
Major Hugh Scott, the chief turned to Scott and begged to be
allowed to see his family, hiding in a nearby house. Scott, moved by
compassion, agreed and led the group to the dwelling.
Suddenly the door flew open, and a "family" of a dozen armed
Moros rushed out shooting. Scott was shot in both hands, losing
one finger on his left hand and two on his right. During the melee,
Hassan and his men escaped by running into the brush. Major Scott
spent four months in an army hospital in Manila pondering his
folly. [11]
In April 1905, Datto Pala, the chief of Sulu Island, invaded Jolo
with a large force, and General Wood, with the 2Oth Infantry and
other troops, marched out to meet him. Eight miles from the vil-
lage of Mayhbun, near a small lake, the Moros dug rifle pits, set up
trip wires, and prancing and yelling along their embankments, defi-
antly invited the Americans to attack. They got their wish.
After three days of shelling the cottas and machine-gunning their
trenches, General Wood gave the order to advance. With a shout,
Corporal Holmdahl and his comrades of the 2Oth went in with bay7-
onets fixed. After vicious hand-to-hand fighting against bolos and
knses, they overran the Moro entrenchments.
During the fighting, seven Americans were killed and twenty
wounded; Datto Pala and 250 of his men were transported into
muslim paradise by Holmdahl and his comrades. [12] Moro casualties
were always frightfully high in these engagements. Anti-colonial
forces in the United States were quick to accuse American soldiers
of practicing genocide, since women and children were often among
the native casualties.
Typical of the criticism was a speech delivered by George Frisbie
Hoar, Republican senator from Massachusetts, who on the Senate
floor fulminated, "You (the American army) make the American flag
in the eyes of a numerous people the emblem of sacrilege in
Christian churches, and of the burning of human dwellings, and of
the horror of the water torture." He further accused the army of
"arson, pillage and torture." [13] It wasn't always a fair criticism.
Captain Frank Ross McCoy, General Wood's aide-de-camp,
wrote after the storming of a Moro camp:
It was most remarkable the fierce dying of the Moros.
At every cotta
efforts were made to get them to surrender or to send out their women and
children. But for an answer a rush of shrieking men and women would
come out cutting the air with bolos and dash among our soldiers like
mad
dogs. We had no choice, they were wiped out. [14]
An article in the Army
News published for soldiers stationed at
the Presidio at Monterrey, California, quoted Brigadier General
Frederick D. Grant in defense of the army in the Moro campaigns:
The Moros are as near barbarous as any
tribe in the Philippines ...
They believe death at the hands of a Christian only brings heaven,
quicker
and more beautiful ... They are never conquered until dead ... Their women
fight as fiercely as the men, and they can wield a kris with quickness
and
strength.
As Grant explained:
There are no distinguishing features in dress and a soldier fighting for
his life is not apt to hold his fire to determine which are men and which
are
women. If he did, it would mean an army funeral.
The Army News further quoted a Manila newspaper that reported
that in one fight, "The Moros, both men and women, assailed the
Americans with hand grenades containing nails, bullets and spear
heads." [15]
The Moros had another trick which resulted in American casu
alties. Before a tactical retreat they covered their "dead" with white
shrouds and left them in their vacated trenches. When Hohndahl
and his comrades leaped into the abandoned trenches and made the
mistake of turning their backs to the deceased enemy, " ...the 'dead'
suddenly sprang to life and plunged a kris into their backs." [16]
The fighting on Jolo was part of the Third Sulu Expedition
which lasted through May 1905. Now twenty-one-years-old and a
hardened veteran, Holmdahl fought in three other engagements at
Tambang Market, Ipal, and Palas Cotta. In his service record was
placed a note stating, "This soldier has military ability and zeal to
fit
him for a commission as an officer in a unit of United States vol
unteers."
On December 15, 1905, Holmdahl was appointed Sergeant of I
Company, 20th Infantry Regiment. He was twenty-two-years-old,
and in a regular army regiment composed of veteran soldiers, he was
very young to hold that rank. [17] In March 1906, the 20th Infantry
was rotated back to the United States. After more than a month on
the troopship U.S.S. Sheridan, Holmdahl arrived in San Francisco
harbor. An army band met them at the dock playing "Home Sweet
Home" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." [18]
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