The First Shot: Quiet, silence, and a bridge

I have always wondered why we remember only a few things from classroom and textbook history and forget the rest. In college, we used “History of the Filipino People” by Teodoro A. Agoncillo and Milagros C. Guerrero, a textbook that has surprisingly outlived its shelf life and remains in use four decades after I entered college.

The eighth edition (1990) that I have at hand, reprinted in 2008 and 2012 based on WorldCat, has Agoncillo as sole author. Agoncillo’s chapters have been retained as is from the fifth edition (1977), and the chapters by Milagros Guerrero replaced by others who are only acknowledged in the Introduction and not on the cover as coauthors. The eighth edition was brought up to date with a new chapter on Edsa 1986, which is uncanny because the sole author, Teodoro Agoncillo, died in January 1985!

One of the sections I clearly remember from the Agoncillo and Guerrero version concerns “The San Juan Bridge Incident.” On Feb. 4, 1899, enemy soldier Private Willie Grayson of the Nebraska Volunteer Infantry Regiment shot and killed a Filipino soldier. That shot started the Philippine-American War. I remember the date, place, and name of Grayson, but only learned the name of the fatality, Corporal Anastacio Felix, much later. Then in 2004, the National Historical Commission moved the location of the incident from a bridge in San Juan to an obscure spot in Sampaloc, Manila—the corner of two inappropriately named streets: Sociego (Quiet) and Silencio (Silence). This correction of history was brought about by the research of the late Dr. Benito Legarda, but it has been challenged by people who insist that the event happened on the bridge in San Juan.

Grayson gave this account: “That night, about eight o’clock, Miller and I—there were two of us—were cautiously pacing our district. We came to a fence and were trying to see what the Filipinos were up to. Suddenly, near at hand, on our left, there was a low but unmistakable Filipino outpost signal from Blockhouse No. 7. It was immediately answered by a similar whistle about twenty-five yards to the right. Then a red lantern flashed a signal from Blockhouse No. 7. We had never seen such a sign used before.

“In a moment, something rose up slowly not 20 feet in front of us. It was a Filipino. I yelled ‘Halt!’ and made it pretty loud, for I was accustomed to challenging the officer of the guard in approved military style. The man moved. I challenged him with another loud ‘Halt!’ Then he imprudently shouted ‘halto!’ at me. Well, I thought the best thing to do was to shoot him. He dropped. If I didn’t kill him, I guess he died of fright.

“Two Filipinos sprang out of the gateway about 15 feet from us. I called ‘Halt!’ and Miller fired and dropped one. I saw that another was left. Well, I think I got my second Filipino at that time. We retreated to where our six other fellows were, and I said: ‘Line up fellows, the niggers are in here all through these yards.’ We then retreated in the pipeline and got behind the water main and stayed there all night. It was some minutes after our second shots before the Filipinos began firing.”

Nowhere in Grayson’s account did he mention being on a bridge, and in photographed reenactments Grayson does not stand on a bridge, either. Perhaps one of the culprits in this misinformation was David Barrows’ textbook “History of the Philippines” (1905), which stated:

“The Filipino forces were impatient for fighting, and attack on the American lines surrounding Manila began on the night of February 4th [1899]. It is certain that battle had been decided upon and in preparation for some time, and that fighting would have been begun in any case, before the arrival of reinforcements from America; but the attack was precipitated a little early by the killing at San Juan Bridge of a Filipino officer who refused to halt when challenged by an American sentry. On that memorable and dreadful night, the battle raged with great fury along the entire circle of defenses surrounding the city…”

In a 2014 geospatial study utilizing maps and testimonies of the period, the conclusion was that the first shot happened somewhere on a trail leading from Santol to Blockhouse No. 7 (Sociego Street). While its remains uncertain that the present Silencio corner Sociego is the exact site of the First Shot, it definitely did not happen on San Juan Bridge.

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Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu