ANNUAL REPORT OF MAJ. GEN. E. S. OTIS, U. S. V., COMMANDING DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC AND EIGHTH ARMY CORPS, MILITARY GOVERNOR IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. HDQRS. DEPT. PACIFIC AND EIGHTH ARMY CORPS, AND OFFICE U. S. MILITARY GOVERNOR IN PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, Manila, P. I., August 31, 1899. The ADJUTANT-GENERAL UNITED STATES ARMY, Washington, D. C. In SIR: I have received instructions from the Major-General Commanding the Army to submit an annual report of the military operations of the troops of this command, also from the War Department to furnish a report of the affairs of this military government. The matters connected with each of these subjects are so closely related as to make the rendition of separate and independent reports very difficult without producing in each much which the other must contain. I have, therefore, concluded to embrace in a single narration with comment, as necessary explanation may appear to me to demand, the conditions which have presented themselves, both military, civil, or political, and the means which have been adopted to meet them. doing this only the general features of the more important events can be touched upon, as an attempt to detail causes, effects, and the action which has been applied by the military authorities would involve a very extended recounting of facts and a lengthy discussion of theories. The time which I am directed to cover in these reports may properly be divided into two periods-the first extending from June 30, 1898, to February 4, 1899, the date upon which the then rebellious subjects of Spain attacked at Manila, without cause, the forces of the United States, which, under the protocol of August 12, 1898, and likewise the articles of capitulation of the following day, were lawfully in possession of the city, bay, and harbor of Manila. The second period extends from February 4, 1899 (when these open and declared hostilities were inaugurated), to the present date. The events of a portion of the first period, in so far as the concentration of troops at San Francisco and the transportation of those sent out to the Philippines, to and including July 15, 1898, are concerned, together with all action of troops preliminary to, and attendant upon, the capture of Manila on August 13, 1898, and thereafter to the end of that month, have been ably reported by my predecessor, Major-General Merritt. But a brief reference to the preparations made by the Government, as solely affecting the Army, in its efforts to meet existing or anticipated conditions in the Philippines resulting from, or likely to arise in, the war with Spain, is pertinent here in order to present intelligently the services of troops in these islands. The Philippine problem, so unexpectedly and suddenly thrown upon the Government for solution by the destruction of the Spanish fleet in the harbor of Manila on May 1, 1898, when the concentration of all its troops and military stores was being hastily made on the southern 1 |