Colorado's Volunteer Infantry in the Philippine Wars, 1898-1899

"The First Colorado Regiment enlisted in 1898 to fight Spaniards, and ended up fighting Filipinos.... The destruction of the battleship Maine and mutual declarations of war between the United States and Spain fanned into flame the already smoldering resentment of Spain's Cuban policies. Men flocked to enlist in state volunteer regiments, among them the First Colorado Infantry. Before they could join the campaign against the Spanish in Cuba, however, Commodore George Dewey's United States Navy's Asiatic Squadron destroyed the Spanish naval squadron at Manila on 1 May 1898...the Department of the Pacific rushed them to the Philippines...they captured Wake Island...The Colorado troops pushed forward and led the assault on Manila, seizing Fort San Antonio de Abad and raising the first American flag over the capital city's defenses. With the Spanish-American War over, the Filipinos expected independence; with independence denied, tensions between the Filipinos and the American mounted until they flared into battle on 4 February 1899." -- Introd.