chose to ignore what was going on until the night of July 31, when they opened on the Americans with artillery and infantry fire. Notwithstanding orders to the contrary, the fire was returned and some casualties resulted. This was repeated on succeeding nights. General Greene was anxious to advance, but General Merritt's orders were to hold the trenches and avoid bringing on an engagement. Owing to the bad weather, it had not yet been possible to disembark all of General MacArthur's brigade, which had arrived on July 25, and Admiral Dewey still advised delay.

The Monterey arrived on August 4. By this time the Americans, while on the defensive in the trenches, had suffered a loss of twelve killed and twenty-two wounded. On the following day Greene held a conference with Merritt and Dewey and urged an immediate advance. Dewey advised waiting until the Monterey could be overhauled and the Monadnock had arrived, but finally said:33 "The decision rests with you. If you burn the blue light on the beach the Raleigh will immediately open fire, the Charleston will go to her assistance, and the Boston and Monterey will follow if the engagement continues. All three ships have steam up every night and these orders have been given to their captains, but I hope you will not burn the light unless you are on the point of being driven out."

Merritt agreed with Dewey, and Greene returned with orders to do no more than hold the trenches. That night three more men were killed and seven wounded, and it was decided to hasten the action of the Spanish commander. Dewey and Merritt sent a joint letter to the governor-general stating that, “If the night attacks continue, at the end of forty-eight hours an attack of the land and naval forces would take place, and that the notice was given in order to enable the noncombatants to be removed to a safe place." The governor-general replied that he was surrounded by insurgents and had no place to send his people. But so potent was the fear of the naval guns that not another shot

33 Dewey, Autobiography, p. 272.

was fired on the trenches during the six days which followed before the surrender of the city.

The shipping people and the residents of Manila took the forty-eight hours' notice seriously, and on the morning of the ninth all the foreign ships left their anchorage and steamed out into the bay. Foreigners moved their persons and as much of their property as was possible aboard their national warships. Red Cross flags blossomed out at unexpected places. But the fateful hour of noon passed and nothing happened. The stage was not yet arranged and additional arguments instead of shells were sent into the city.

The attention of the authorities was called again to the heiplessness of the city and a peremptory demand for surrender was made. The governor-general declined to surrender and asked permission to communicate with his government in Madrid. This, of course, was refused, and the next two days were devoted to the serious work of preparation for the assault, which was to be made on the morning of August 13.

The plan of battle contemplated that at 10:10 A. M. the cruisers should take their positions and open fire on Fort San Antonio de Abad, which was well south of the city. Immediately thereafter the field artillery in front of the Spanish trenches would join. After the firing had continued for a reasonable time the Olympia would move up in front of the city and display the international signal, which means, "surrender." If this was answered according to program by the display of a white flag the troops would then move forward and take possession. It was not contemplated that the troops should bring on an actual battle.

The Memorandum for General Officers, issued on the twelfth regarding "the possible action on August 13," specified definitely that this white flag might be expected to appear "on the angle of the walled city," and concluded with the statement that, “It is intended that these results shall be accomplished without loss of life." If for any reason the white flag failed to appear, the troops were to await further orders from General Merritt. No one but the commanding general and admiral knew whether

there was to be an assault. These careful plans may have been humanitarian and designed to save life, but the general innocuousness of the whole proceedings suggests the order given by the Spanish Ministry to Admiral Camera, who was directed to return to Spain and "when the torpedo boat destroyers have rejoined your squadron, start for Cadiz with the Pelayo, etc., keeping close to the shore, so as to be seen from Spanish cities, exhibiting when near them the national flag illuminated by search-lights, which are also to be thrown upon the cities."

Long before the navy opened fire on the morning of the thirteenth, the troops were in position and eager to advance. The artillery fire brought no response. The guns on the Luneta sulked, and Antonio de Abad was as silent as a tomb. After the fire had continued for some time, General Greene, who had received orders changing those of the previous day, sent one regiment forward along the water-front and took possession of the deserted fort and trenches. The Spaniards retired to their second line of trenches without offering any substantial resistance, and Greene's brigade pushed forward along the shore and through Malate to the open space in front of the walled city known as the Luneta.

On the right of the line MacArthur's men advanced along the Pasay road, and after capturing the first blockhouse, all but a battalion of the Minnesota regiment (which reached the Luneta) moved through Singalong into the Paco district. Severe fighting occurred in Singalong, and there were heavy losses. The white flag, which had now been raised, was not visible to the men who were entangled in the bamboo thickets and flower gardens, and the firing continued for some time. The Spanish soldiers did not seem to have been notified of the surrender.84

All of the city outside of the walls was soon in the hands of the Americans and Filipinos, and the white flag was flying from the walls. Staff officers were sent in to communicate with the Spanish authorities. General Merritt and General Jaudenes

34 For a good description, see Millet, The Expedition to the Philippines, p. 153, et seq.

agreed on preliminary terms of capitulation, and the city was delivered into the care of the American troops. On the following day formal articles of capitulation were prepared and duly signed.

A capitulation is a surrender upon conditions, a bargain in the common interest of the contracting parties by which one avoids the certain loss involved in the continuance of a hopeless struggle and the forces of the other are released for service elsewhere. After a place has been taken by assault it is too late to ask for conditions; the surrender must then be unconditional. Capitulations are purely military conventions. The commanding officer may include therein stipulations and conditions of a political nature, but they are not effective until approved by the political authorities. Subject to this limitation, any terms may be granted which the importance of the place and the forces surrendered and the bravery of the defendants seem to require.

During the Franco-German War of 1870 the Germans permitted the French who had surrendered Belfort to march out unmolested through the German lines, carrying their arms and baggage, and join the main body of their army some distance away. The capitulation of Manila more nearly resembles that of Belfort than that of Sedan, which is a fair type of the ordinary form.

The conditions granted to the Spaniards were unusually favorable. It was provided that the troops, Spanish and native, capitulated with all the honors of war; that the officers should retain their side arms, horses and private property, including money, but that all public property, including money, should be delivered to the representatives of the United States. Spanish families might leave the city at any time, but all questions relating to the repatriation of officers and men of the Spanish forces and their families, and the expenses connected therewith, were to be referred to Washington.

As a special concession to Spanish susceptibility, it was provided that all persons included in the capitulation should "remain at liberty, the officers remaining in their respective homes," but,

nevertheless, all should be supplied by the United States, according to their rank, with rations and necessary aid as though they were prisoners of war until the conclusion of the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain.

A more unusual concession, however, was that by which the Spaniards, upon the evacuation of the city, by either the Spanish or the Americans, were to receive back all their arms. instrument closed with the solemn words:

The

"This city, its inhabitants, its churches and religious worship, its educational establishments and its private property of all description are placed under the special safeguard of the faith and honor of the American army.'

The capitulation of Manila was inconsistent with the theory that the city had been carried by assault, as claimed by the army.

"So far as the land forces were concerned," says General Anderson, "they took the place by storm, and it has never been made apparent why the Spaniards were allowed the honors of war and why the return of all captured property upon the signing of the treaty of peace was assured to them. The Filipinos assumed that it was because we intended to turn the Spaniards loose on them as soon as we had made satisfactory terms with the Spanish government."

1935

The terms granted the Spaniards and the fact that the surrender was under the form of a capitulation, although the city outside the walls was already in the hands of the American troops,36 was due to the fact that the surrender was all carefully

35 Anderson, "Our Rule in the Philippines," North Am. Rev., CLXX, p. 213.

36 The southern limits of the city of Manila are now near the point where the Spanish line of trenches came down to the old fort. At the time of the battle "Manila" meant the part enclosed within the walls, intramuros, about a mile square. In popular language, Manila to-day means that part within the old walls, and it is common to hear a cab driver directed to go to Manila when he is already in the very center of the business part of modern Manila. Binondo, Paco, Malate, Singalong, Ermite, etc., now sections or wards of Manila, were, while technically a part of the city, in fact, at the time of the battle separate villages or barrios. The American troops never entered the walled city, to which the Spaniards retired, until after the capitulation.