LUKBAN
and cultivate rice and other edible plants and attend to the maintenance of those who are fighting in the town and in the center .” 21
Due to the harassment of his troops , the American Maj . Allen returned defeated to Tacloban , Lukban reported . Towards the end of March , Samar was under a colonel of the regular army . They had abandoned Sorsogon , Masbate and Surigao to concentrate in Samar . Thus , Lukban requested Aguinaldo ’ s supreme military command to order the military commanders of said provinces to contract their respective operations in order to prevent reinforcements . He said his intention was to assist them after he had expelled the Americans from Samar . If they did not contract their operations , they would become the principal target ( tanguero ) and they would never be able to assist each other .
But Lukban ’ s biggest tactical victory for that year was yet to come – soon .
Endnotes
1 J . C . Gilmore , Jr ., Major , Forty-third Infantry , USV , Commanding Second Battalion . Hqs . Second Battalion , Report of the War Commission 1900 2 Ibid 3 Ibid 4 Exhibit 1333 , PIR 1197.5 5 Ibid 6 Op . cit ., J . C . Gilmore , Jr . 7 Ibid 8 Ibid 9 Ibid 10 Exhibit 1326 , p . 657 11 Ibid 12 Exhibit 1326 , p . 658 13 Exhibit 1326 , p . 660 14 PIR 1242.3 15 Taylor , pp . 631-632 16 Exhibit 1324 , p . 638-642 17 Exhibit 1326 , P 643 18 Ibid 19 Exhibit 1325 , p . 642 20 Ibid 21 Ibid
55