The Philippine Insurrection 1899–1902

Quartermaster Fred Tuttle’s letters and journal, which have never been published before, provide a personal, unvarnished insight into the Philippine Insurrection of 1899 to 1902, and the US Navy’s brutal methods of suppressing it. Using USS Vicksburg as his mobile headquarters, General Jacob Smith directed a scorched-earth campaign, burning villages and executing prisoners. Tuttle, who was serving aboard the Vicksburg, witnessed first-hand the capture of Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the insurrection, and the crushing of the rebellion in the southern islands. Back in the USA, the Philippine Insurrection was at the center of a debate between imperialists and anti-imperialists, with both President William McKinley and Senator Albert Beverage lending their considerable weight to the former group. Beverage believed that the US should annex the Philippines since, in his view, the inhabitants were uneducated and not capable of governing themselves. Conversely, Mark Twain asserted that for the US to govern another nation without consent would constitute a violation of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and lead to the corruption of the US's democratic institutions. Away from the debating halls and opinion columns, Fred Tuttle’s fascinating eyewitness account reveals, in shocking detail, what an imperialist policy meant on the ground.