Combat· Philippine-American War
USS Brooklyn prisoner rescue at Gulf of Ragoy
One of the largest prisoner-recovery operations of the war, carried out by a small Marine landing party.
In late February 1900, Lieutenant Philip Brown, with about twenty Marines and sailors from the cruiser USS Brooklyn, went ashore in the Gulf of Ragoy region of southern Luzon to free a large body of captives held by the Filipino insurgents. The operation succeeded beyond its size: more than five hundred Spanish and American prisoners were recovered and brought out, and not a single American was lost in the process. The rescue was a striking example of the unconventional work that fell to Marine landing parties throughout the Philippine war, the small detachment landed from a warship to strike inland on a special mission, here the liberation of hundreds of prisoners. It cost no casualties and freed a remarkable number, one of the cleaner and more humane successes of a generally grim conflict.
Podcast episodes on Philippine-American War
Record no. 484