Lukban Lukban | Page 68

LUKBAN
they saw blood on the ground , showing that a number had been hit . At some distance away , they found one dead rebel . But they found the bush too thick to penetrate .
“ The greatest care had to be taken in hunting for the bolomen , who were concealed in the high grass along the roadside . They would not move until a soldier was about to step upon them , when they would jump up and attack most fiercely ,” wrote Gilmore . In the skirmish on that road , he reported that 12 rebels were killed within five feet of the road , while only one of his men got a bad cut on his leg from the fearsome ba-id .
The planned ambush of the rebels did not succeed because the soldiers discovered it before it could be executed . Rebel riflemen were supposed to have been stationed across the river and to shoot them while they were fixing the bridge , so that their attention would be diverted . The bolomen waiting at the bush were supposed to attack them from the rear . But the bolomen were discovered too soon . According to Gilmore ’ s report , 13 rebels were killed as a result of that fiasco .
Burning towns , wasted food
In the succeeding days of May that year , Gilmore and his troops continued to lay waste on the villages and towns in the northern coast of Samar , burning them and confiscating and destroying all the rice that they came upon , in order to deny support to the rebel forces of Lukban . In return , they only earned the ire of the native population , stoking the smouldering fires of rebellion in the countryside .
His trip to Palapag with 75 troops on May 12 was uneventful . But at San Miguel , a village some distance from La Granja , they saw a number of bolomen . The villagers deserted it as they approached . The rebels had erected a new barracks and had three or four houses where they stored rice and palay . Gilmore counted 30 to 40 houses in the village . These he ordered burned with all the palay and rice . Two more villages nearby were similarly destroyed .
All the three villages were said to be full of insurgents . A number of the dead at Catarman were recognized as natives from there . Such villages , they learned , served as stopovers for people coming over from Luzon . At Laguan which now served as a principal garrison in the area , many of the soldiers were suffering from diarrhea and ulcerated feet caused by lack of socks . Since the arrival of the American battalion in the island , it had been accordingly impossible to get socks despite repeated requests .
“ I consider that the present situation on this island is rather serious . The whole north and east coasts are in rebellion , and as the palay crop has just been
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