Call Number:

Item 0008

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

1 volume (176)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0097, Item 0008, Edward E. Brown, Biography of my campaign in the Phillippines, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1899-1901 (inclusive)

Creator:

Brown, Edward E.

Form:

Diaries

Abstract:

This diary was kept by soldier Edward E. Brown of Company B, 35th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army, during the Philippine-American war, for the period 1899-1901.

Edward E. Brown was from Jackson, Michigan, and served in Company B, 35th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army, during the Philippine Insurrection, 1899 to 1901. There is a note on the inside front cover of Brown's diary that says to deliver this book to D. L. Brown at a specific address in Jackson, Michigan. The back cover bears a reference to Thelma Brown of Canandaigua, New York.

After the defeat of Spain by the United States in the Spanish-American War, the United States acquired, among others territories, the Spanish colony of the Philippines in 1898. The subsequent occupation by the U.S. military led to tensions and resentment among Philippinos who had supported the U.S. in their war with Spain and had hoped for an independent nation after the end of the war. This led to the Phillipine-American War, also known as the Philipine Insurrection, 1899-1901. The conflict quickly transitioned from a conventional war between the First Philippine Republic and the United States into a guerrila war during which counter-insurgency tactics were implemented by U.S. forces. The conflict ended in 1901 with the defeat of Philippine forces.

Biographical information derived from collection.

This diary was kept by soldier Edward E. Brown of Company B, 35th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army, during the Philippine-American war, for the period 1899-1901. The short diary entries begin by documenting Brown's departure on a troop transport from Portland, Oregon, a stop in Honolulu, Hawaii, and arrival in San Fernando, Phillipines. The rest of the entries focus largely on skirmishes with insurgents, casualties within the regiment, constant bouts of sickness, the poor quality of availaible food, and other perils faced by U.S. troops. At one point Brown mentions the torture of eighty-nine Philippino prisoners by American forces through use of the "agua" or water cure, a common method of torture used during the Philippine-American War. After his tour in the Phillipines was over, Brown's regiment was seen off by General Arthur MacArthur (father of General Douglass MacArthur) and stopped in Nagasaki, Japan, before returning to the United States.

In the back of the diary, Brown charted his latitute, longitude, and distance from Manilla, Phillipines, Nagasaki, and San Francisco while travelling back to the United States in 1901.

The diary is bound, with entries written in red ink. Approximately half of the pages are used and there is laid-in a page presumably torn from a book, listing several facts such as the highest railroad, national cemeteries, and sovereigns of England.