My kind of guy
lol...yep, lots and lots of controversy about the "Hero or Butcher of Samar". Certainly don't know everything about Waller but after sorting out the "yellow press" issue and the hike from hell the guy is still my hero. When he finally broke out of the jungle, he when right back in leading a rescue party with a 105 fever to save his Marines. However, now that I know Presley founded a family tradition of good whiskey...I may have to reconsider.Originally Posted by Dayuhan
"If you want a new idea, look in an old book"
"Butcher of Samar" was of course exaggerated; there' little in the record to suggest that Waller actually tried to carry out the infamous orders he got from "Howlin' Jake". Executing the 11 porters might seem to justify the title but by the standards of the day that was pretty normal. I'll give him points for going back with a rescue party (though experience of tropical fevers leads me to suspect that the 105 is an exaggeration), but taking 9 days to find the group left behind... well, that's how it was in those days. Reading period sources really does give the impression that the American forces were far from prepared for jungle operations!lol...yep, lots and lots of controversy about the "Hero or Butcher of Samar". Certainly don't know everything about Waller but after sorting out the "yellow press" issue and the hike from hell the guy is still my hero. When he finally broke out of the jungle, he when right back in leading a rescue party with a 105 fever to save his Marines. However, now that I know Presley founded a family tradition of good whiskey...I may have to reconsider.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
H.L. Mencken
Who went Where and When ?
From the March Across Samar (Wiki article) [Weller and his officers (on to Basey) in bold; Porter and Williams (back to Lanang) in italics]:
So, no great mystery about why the relief party from Basey could not find Porter and Williams - they were going back to Lanang.The detachment started from Lanang on the morning of December 28, 1901, and was composed of the following personnel: Major Littleton W. T. Waller, Captain David D. Porter, Captain Hirim I. Bearss, First Lieutenant A. S. Williams, Second Lieutenant A. C. DeW. Lyles, U. S. Army (Aid sent by General Smith), Second Lieutenant Frank Halford, 50 enlisted U. S. Marines, 2 native scouts and 33 native carriers.
...
After a conference with his officers, Major Waller decided to take Lieutenant Halford and thirteen of the men who were in the best condition and push forward as rapidly as possible and send back a relief party for the main column, which was placed under the command of Captain Porter with instructions to go slowly and follow Major Waller's trail. The advance column was afterwards joined by Captain Bearss and a corporal ...
...
Near this point the party came upon the camp which Captain Dunlap had established to await their arrival. Major Waller's party went aboard Captain Dunlap's cutter and started for Basey, where they arrived on January 6, 1902...
... Immediately after the arrival of the detachment at Basey, a relief party was sent back to locate Captain Porter's party. The following day Major Waller joined this relief party, and remained out nine days searching for signs of Captain Porter without success. ... Upon returning to Basey, Major Waller was taken sick with fever. ...
...
Meanwhile Captain Porter had decided to retrace the trail to Lanang and ask for a relief party to be sent out for his men, the most of whom were unable to march. He chose seven marines who were in the best condition and with six natives, set out January 3 for Lanang. He left Lieutenant Williams in charge of the remainder of the detachment with orders to follow as the condition of the men would permit. ...
...
On January 11, Captain Porter reached Lanang and reported the situation to Captain Pickering, the Army Commander at that place. A relief expedition was organized to go for the remainder of the marines but it was unable to start for several days because of the swollen Lanang River. ...
....
Lieutenant Williams and his men slowly followed Captain Porter's trail, leaving men behind one by one to die beside the trail when it was no longer possible for them to continue. One man went insane; the native carriers became mutinous and some of them attacked and wounded Lieutenant Williams with bolos. Williams later testified that their mutinous behavior left the Marines in daily fear of their lives; the porters were hiding food and supplies from the Marines and keeping themselves nourished from the jungle while the Marines starved. The 11 porters were placed under arrest when Williams' command reached Lanang. ... After having left ten marines to die along the trail, Lieutenant Williams was finally met by the relief party on the morning of January 18 and taken back to Lanang.
What happened to 2nd Lt. Lyles, U. S. Army (not mentioned in Wiki past the 1st paragraph) ? He was eaten by hungry Marines, of course.
The Charge and Specification vs Waller read (emphasis added):
I don't know if the time line is credible. Williams reaches Lanang on 18 Jan, with the 11 porters being arrested there. The porters are in Basey on 20 Jan, to be executed there. Dayuhan: how long would it take to get from Lanang to Basey - by quickest means of 1902 travel ?CHARGE: Murder, in violation of the 58th Article of War. SPECIFICATION: In that Major Littleton W.T. Waller, United States Marine Corps, being then and there detached for service with the United States Army by authority of the President of the United States, did, in time of war, willfully and feloniously and with malice aforethought, murder and kill eleven men, names unknown, natives of the Philippine Islands, by ordering and causing his subordinate officer under his command, John Horace Arthur Day, 1st Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps, and a firing detail of enlisted men under his said command, to take out said eleven men and shoot them to death, which said order was then and there carried into execution and said eleven natives, and each of them, were shot with rifles, from the effects of which they then and there died. This at Basey, Island of Samar, Philippine Islands, on or about the 20th day of January, 1902.
BTW: The Porter lineage is interesting:
RegardsDavid Dixon Porter (1877-1944) (USMC; MOH; Maj.Gen.; Capt. at Samar)
his father: Carlile Patterson Porter (1846–1914) (USMC; Lt.Col.)
his father: David Dixon Porter (1813-1891) (USN; Admiral)
his father: David Porter (1780-1843) (USN; Commodore)
his father: David Porter (1754 - 1808) (Cont. Navy, Rev War; Capt.)
Mike
PS: In truth, Dewitt Lyles testified at Waller's court-martial (called by Waller) - ATROCITY ON TRIAL: THE COURT-MARTIAL OF LITTLETON WALLER (by Christopher Thomas Dean, 2009; pp. 69-70 pdf), which found Waller Not Guilty (11-2). A separate jury found Lt. Day (who commanded the firing squad) also Not Guilty.
Last edited by jmm99; 02-27-2012 at 02:04 AM.
Interesting how a thread on a space expedition gets to walking across Samar... anything is possible I guess.
Linear distance (the place once called Lanang, mouth of the Lanang river, is now called Llorente) is a bit under 35 miles. Even today you'd have to walk. Obviously you wouldn't walk in a straight line: central Samar has large areas of limestone karst country that just need to be avoided, cliffs, caves, sinkholes, very dense vegetation.
Small fit group with a good local guide, 2-3 days. 80 loaded people with unreliable guides or guides they don't trust could blunder around out there forever, going in circles.
When I first read about this expedition, long ago, it struck me as sheer lunacy, driven mainly by that late 19th century explorer drive, the whole "boldly go where no (white) man has gone before" thing. No logic to it at all. The telegraph route was superfluous; they were already laying cable from Basey to Balangiga and from Balangiga there's a perfectly easy coastal/plain route to Llorente.
December is the start to the east coast rainy season, weather would have been miserable and working up rivers not feasible. Worst possible time to do it. A group that size is an outright liability in the jungle, slows everything down and you can't possibly feed them. My understanding from accounts is that even a few days in the expedition was obviously in trouble, moving way too slowly, running out of food, and poorly equipped for conditions. The logical (though possibly not heroic) choice would have been to recognize it as a bad job, go back and plan again. I don't half blame the porters for the mutiny; they'd probably been press-ganged to start with and they must have felt they were at the mercy of a bunch of lunatics bent on suicide.
It's really not a unique story, though on a greater scale than mot like it. Most US casualties during that war were from disease, not combat; inexperience in the tropics was far more fatal than the insurrectos. You had whole units out in tropical rainy seasons in wool socks and boots, doing daily marches. A week of that and your feet are rotting and infected, and antibiotics weren't in the picture...
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
H.L. Mencken
Marching 12 to move three
There are many accounts of the Waller Samar Campaign. My favorite is:
http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/waller-samar-part-i
http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/waller-samar-part-ii
I always thought that Robert B. Asprey was a good historian/writer. Waller definitely bit off more then he could chew...but orders are orders. Rations back in those days were canned bacon, biscuits and crewing tabaco. There was an expectation of living off the land with the help of the native porters. What is interesting is that after the march and when Waller ordered the executions, the Marines were down to 45 effectives. In addition, most of the 300+ Marines were bare foot...Waller had walked his Marines out of their boots from the insurgence patrols. There is also rumors of another pending bolo swarm attack on their base that was playing on Marine's mind.
"If you want a new idea, look in an old book"
Timeline & Communications
The prosecution botched the timeline, which led to inconsistencies as to who did what and when. If the time don't fit, you must acquit !
From Dean's monograph on the court-martial, the 11 arrested porters (guarded by Gy.Sgt. Quick and other Marines) were shipped by USN gunboat from Lanang to Basay, arriving sometime on 20 Jan.
Asprey's MG article (pt II) adds some important detail to the timeline and communications that Waller had:
Where did Asprey find this information ?At this critical juncture-about noon of 18 January -the Army relief party came onto the survivors. Williams and his men were crawling towards them. They reached Lanang that night and by 20 January all hands were in the Army hospital at Tacloban, Leyte.
Capt Porter at once telephoned the terrible story to Maj Waller at Basey. Porter had arrested 11 of the natives and was sending them to Basey under GySgt Quick. Porter believed they should be shot; so did Williams; so did the troops.
Waller knew exactly what Porter was talking about. On 5 January he had been personally threatened by a carrier named Victor and throughout the march his scouts, Slim and Smoke, had failed to report to him when ordered. Victor, who had not gotten through to Porter because the area was full of insurrectos, was discovered to have lied and to have told another guide, "As the Americans will not return to the other party, it will be a good time for us to kill them and flee to the mountains."
After Porter's telephone call and GySgt Quick's personal report, Waller called in the 11 prisoners, who only trembled silently during interrogation. Convinced of their treachery, Waller was also mindful of his overall mission. He was still out of action; the populations of Basey and Balangiga were openly hostile; he had 95 prisoners, and only 45 effective Marines for duty.
His orders to execute the 11 people were carried out that afternoon. The next day he telegraphed BGen Smith on Leyte that he had "expended" 11 natives.
Some reports by Army participants are said (by Google) to be in the Report of the War Department for 1902; and by Marine participants in the Report of the Secretary of the Navy for 1902.
On the other hand, I could spend some time on a matter closer to the theme of Slap's OP - Sigourney Weaver, the Space Marines and Alien.
Regards
Mike
Maybe he should have tried learning their actual names.throughout the march his scouts, Slim and Smoke, had failed to report to him when ordered.
The depiction of native scouts and porters as inept, treacherous, mendacious, and superstitious is a fixture in the literature of colonial-era expeditions. If the scouts and porters had the opportunity to recount their side of the story, one wonders what they might have to say.
This quote:
suggests that while the subject had been discussed, the expedition was not specifically ordered and was undertaken at Waller's own initiative, against the advice of other officers on the scene."remembering the General's [Smith] several talks on the subject and his evident, desire to know the trail and run wires across, coupled with my own desire for some further knowledge of the people and the nature of this heretofore impenetrable country, I decided to make the trail with 50 men and the necessary carriers."
If Waller was indeed "experienced in bush warfare" he would surely have known that it would be impossible to support a column that size by "living off the land". Of course "living off the land" in the parlance of the day meant finding some "savages" and stealing their food, but even that assumption would rely on finding cultivated areas and food to steal.
Of course actions taken at the turn of the century have to be assessed against the conventions of the day, and the writings of historians in the early '60s have to be assessed against the conventions of that day. Still, the arrogance, condescension and outright racism implicit in both the actions and the later "history" (using the term very lightly indeed) are startling, if only in the extent to which they highlight how far we've come (one hopes) since then.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
H.L. Mencken
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks