Battle of the Visayas (1899)

The Battle of the Visayas (1899) was fought between the Philippine revolutionaries and the United States from March 10, 1899 to March 5, 1901 and this is part of the Philippine-American War. The battle was waged to capture the Visayas region in the Philippine Islands by the Americans.

Balangiga massacare
The Balangiga massacre was an incident in 1901 in the town of the same name during the Philippine–American War. It initially referred to the killing of about 48 members of the US 9th Infantry by the townspeople allegedly augmented by guerrillas in the town of Balangiga on Samar Island during an attack on September 28 of that year. In the 1960s Filipino nationalists applied it to the retaliatory measures taken on the island. This incident was described as the United States Army's worst defeat since the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Filipinos regard the attack as one of their bravest acts in the war.

There has been much heated discussion regarding the number of Filipino casualties, for which there are no reliable documentary records. Gen. Jacob H. Smith, who ordered the killing of every male over ten years old during the retaliatory campaign, was subject to court-martial for "conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline". Reprimanded but not formally punished, Smith was forced into retirement from the service because of his conduct.

The attack and the subsequent retaliation remains one of the longest-running and most controversial issues between the Philippines and the United States. Conflicting records from American and Filipino historians have confused the issue. Demands for the return of the bells of the church at Balangiga, taken by the Americans as war booty and collectively known as the Balangiga bells, remain an outstanding issue of contention related to the war. One church bell remains in the possession of the 9th Infantry Regiment at their base in Camp Red Cloud, South Korea, while two others are on a former base of the 11th Infantry Regiment at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

According to some nationalist Filipino historians, the true "Balangiga massacre" was the subsequent American retaliation against the Samar population and guerrillas.