Sunday, March 5, 2017

Bud Dajo Massacre

  1. The First Battle of Bud Dajo, also known as the Bud Dajo Massacre, in southwestern Philippines was a counter insurgency action fought by the United States Army against Moros that started in March 5, 1906, during the Moro Rebellion.
  3. The first battle at Bud Dajo happened during the final days of General Leonard Wood's term as governor of the Moro Province. 
  4. The assault force consisted of "272 men of the 6th Infantry, 211 [dismounted] men of the 4th Cavalry, 68 men of the 28th Artillery Battery, 51 Philippine Constabulary, 110 men of the 19th Infantry and 6 sailors from the gunboat Pampanga."
  5. The battle began on March 5, as mountain guns fired 40 rounds of shrapnel into the crater.
  6. Out of the estimated 800 to 1,000 Moros at Bud Dajo, only 6 survived.
  7. During this battle, 750 men and officers, under the command of Colonel J.W. Duncan, assaulted the volcanic crater of Bud Dajo (Tausūg: Būd Dahu), which was populated by 800 to 1,000 Tausug villagers, including women and children. 
  8. According to Herman Hagedorn (who was writing prior to World War II), the position held by the Moros was "the strongest which hostiles in the Philippines have ever defended against American assault."
  9. Although the engagement was a victory for the American forces, it was also an unmitigated public-relations disaster. 
  10. Considering the perspective that the engagement was a massacre, however, then the engagement had no victor. 
  11. Whether a battle or massacre, it was certainly the bloodiest of any engagement of the Moro Rebellion, with only six of the hundreds of Moro surviving the bloodshed.
  12. Estimates of American casualties range from fifteen killed to twenty-one killed and seventy-five wounded.

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