Combat· Philippine-American War
Banictican Ambush and Morong Raid
The sharpest loss of the Subic Bay operations, and the gallantry that answered it.
On 16 February 1900 a small Marine water detail of about ten men from Olongapo, under Corporal Wallace Sullivan, was ambushed by insurgents at Banictican; Sullivan and Private C.M. Welsh were killed. Sergeant Harry Harvey led a seven-man relief party out to the spot, engaged the enemy, and recovered the bodies of the fallen, conduct for which he won the Medal of Honor and promotion to gunnery sergeant. The next day Captain Draper led a larger force, more than a hundred Marines, on a punitive raid against the insurgent town of Morong in reprisal. Further small operations followed over the next weeks around the bay. The two days at Banictican and Morong cost the heaviest Marine losses of the Subic Bay fighting, two killed, and showed the constant peril of the patrol and water-detail work in guerrilla country.
Podcast episodes on Philippine-American War
Record no. 487