Battle of Manila (1899)

Battle of Manila
	Part of the Philippine–American War
	; U.S. soldiers of the First Nebraska Volunteers, Company B, near Manila in 1899.
Date	February 4–5, 1899
Location	Manila, Philippines
Result	American victory Beginning of the Philippine-American War;
Belligerents
United States United States Military Government of the Philippine Islands;	Philippine Republic
Commanders and leaders
Elwell S. Otis; Arthur MacArthur Jr.; Thomas M. Anderson	Emilio Aguinaldo; Antonio Luna; Luciano San Miguel
Strength
19,000 U.S. troops 8,000 in Manila; 11,000 outer defenses	15,000–40,000 Filipino troops (estimates vary)
Casualties and losses
44 killed; 195 wounded	700 killed (est); 3,300 wounded (est)

The Battle of Manila (Filipino: Labanan sa Maynila; Spanish: Batalla de Manila), the first and largest battle of the Philippine–American War, was fought on February 4–5, 1899, between 19,000 American soldiers and 15,000 Filipino armed militiamen. Armed conflict erupted when American troops, tasked with preventing the Filipino encampment from moving closer, fired on a nearby group. Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo attempted to broker a ceasefire, but American General Elwell Stephen Otis rejected it, and fighting escalated the next day. It ended in an American victory, although minor skirmishes continued for several days afterward.