Talk:Battle of Manila (1899)

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May I request that one of the authors produce sources that state the Americans deliberately provoked the Manila battle?

That wouldn't be to hard to find. All well documented Phil-Am war sites and books have accepted this as the start of the war. Some do however have many misconceptions about this, and do state taht the Filipions attacked first, but this was only fed to the public to justify war between the to countries. Also, considering the casualties, some sites have confused 'casualties' as deaths, and have Filipino KIA as 3000 so don't edit it. 2000-3000 is the number of killed, wounded, or captured during the battle.

As the former anon who aked the question above, I still would like a documented source (probably a book) that shows the Americans provoked the battle. I haven't done a great deal of research into the matter yet, but the sources I do have seem to imply that either there was a misunderstanding or the Filipinos started the fight. CJK 23:25, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

Quote from William Grayson, this is his account of the incident outside of Manila-the first shots of the Philippine American War.

About eight o’clock, Miller and I were cautiously pacing our district. We came to a fence and were trying to see what the Filipinos were up to. Suddenly, near at hand, on our left, there was a low but unmistakable Filipino outpost signal whistle. It was immediately answered by a similar whistle about twenty-five yards to the right. Then a red lantern flashed a signal from blockhouse number 7. We had never seen such a sign used before. In a moment, something rose up slowly in front of us. It was a Filipino. I yelled “Halt!” and made it pretty loud, for I was accustomed to challenging the officer of the guard in approved military style. I challenged him with another loud “halt!” Then he shouted “halto!” to me. Well, I thought the best thing to do was to shoot him. He dropped. If I didn’t kill him, I guess he died of fright. Two Filipinos sprang out of the gateway about 15 feet from us. I called “halt!” and Miller fired and dropped one. I saw that another was left. Well, I think I got my second Filipino that time....

Can we have some background to this battle. It is not well referenced. Thanks. --Dumbo1 01:24, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

In response to whoever created a new version of this article, I would appreciate it if you would leave it alone. Your article to me seems just a tad bit biased. For instance, your claim that Aguinaldo tried to sue for peace, but at the same time issued a declaration of war against the Americans is false. In fact, Aguinaldo's message to Otis was that he did NOT wish war between the two countires, but that he and his army were ready to fight if the American forces continued showing aggression towards his forces. Otis took this as a declaration of war, there was never one issued before the actual fighting started.

"Some Filipino units, tense and expectant of launching all-out war on the Americans"

It was never in the strategy of Aguinaldo or anyother Filipino officers to start a war with Americans. The Filipinos did however expect something because of the treatment they were receiving from the American forces. Aguinaldo even had one of his emmisaries behind American lines when the fighting started! Does this sound like an action one would take before an attack?

"Being checked at all parts of the line, and the attack not part of the planned event, Aguinaldo attempted to call a truce the next day, but at the same time issued a previously prepared proclamation declaring war on the Americans"

This is farse as explained above. If anything the Americans were held in check.

Your version of this is farse. I'm changing it back to the way it was before. The correct version.