Rear Admiral George Dewey, Commander, Asiatic Squadron, to Secretary of the Navy John D. Long
From...COM’D’R-IN-CHIEF
To...Secretary of Navy.
Date...Cavite, July 26, 1898.
Subject...Arrival of Merritt.1
Situation in Manila.
Aguinaldo.2
Monadnock at Honolulu
Dispatch vessel.
Sent Hongkong by H.M.S.Plover, July 26.
Merritt arrived yesterday in the Newport.
The remainder of the expedition is expected within the next few days.
Situation is most critical in Manila.
The Spanish may surrender at any moment. Merritt’s most difficult problem will be how to deal with insurgents under Aguinaldo who have become aggressive and even threatening toward our army.
The Monadnock was at Honolulu on July 8th expected to leave four days later. Hope both monitors will be here before the surrender to prevent possible interference by the Germans.3
I send this by British gun-vessel.
Source Note: TCy, DLC-MSS, PGD.
Footnote 1: Maj. Gen. Wesley Merritt, American Army commander in the Philippines.
Footnote 2: Filipino insurgent leader Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy.
Footnote 3: The two monitors were the Monadnock and the Monterey. The latter arrived in Manila before the surrender; the former did not. Manila surrendered on 13 August.
Footnote 4: Zafiro was the supply ship that Dewey had purchased in Hong Kong in April. It remained in the Philippines until 14 August. See: Dewey to Long, 15 August 1898. It served as Merritt’s headquarters during the American “attack” on Manila. Trask, War With Spain, 416
