Battle of Calumpit The Battle of Calumpit , alternately known as the Battles of Bagbag and Pampanga Rivers , was fought from April 25 – 27 , 1899 , in Calumpit , Bulacan , during the Philippine - American War . Taking place after the Battle of Quingua , the fighting around Calumpit saw US forces under General Arthur MacArthur , Jr . once again face General Antonio Luna ' s main force , with whom they had clashed during the fall of Malolos on March 31 , 1899 . Background . Beginning on March 25 , the Americans began their drive to capture Malolos , the Philippine capital at the time , hoping that it would shatter the morale of the Filipino troops . On March 31 , Malolos amidst token resistance by about 5 , 000 Filipinos . The capital had already been transferred to San Isidro , Nueva Ecija , before the debacle , and the main Filipino force , under the command of General Antonio Luna , had moved to the Calumpit – Apalit Line . MacArthur , meanwhile , rested with his troops in Malolos to prepare the drive against the Calumpit – Apalit Line . The Battle of Quingua , which occurred on April 23 , signaled the beginning of a new American offensive . It was one of the flanks in the Filipino line of defense . Battle . Bagbag River . Calumpit , only north of Malolos , was the next American objective after they had taken Quingua . Luna , however , was nowhere near Calumpit for he had embarked on a journey to Guagua to punish General Tomás Mascardo , the military commander of Pampanga , for leaving his post to inspect troops at Arayat , Pampanga . He had been supposed to strengthen the defense of the Calumpit – Apalit Line by providing reinforcements in the area when needed . Mascardo had around 21 , 000 men under his command at the time . Luna took most of the defending cavalry and the artillery with him and General Del Pilar was left to counter the advancing American troops lacking their support . Emilio Aguinaldo had ordered Luna to burn the railway bridge spanning the Bagbag River , but the latter ignored it . Thus , Del Pilar had cut the iron girders of the railway bridge with the plan to make the bridge collapse once the enemy train passed over it . However , the section of the bridge collapsed before the train bearing a machine gun had reached it . Chinese porters pushed the train through the river as American troops swam to the opposite shore , where Filipino trenches were located . Other troops were promptly repairing the bridge to let their supply wagons cross over the river . By the time Luna had returned from Guagua , only Filipinos in the barrio of Sta . Lucia were holding out against the Americans in the Bagbag sector . Luna tried to fight and repulse the Americans , but he was eventually forced to retreat , destroying bridges as his troops fell back to slow the American advance . Pampanga River . On April 27 , Colonel ( later General ) Frederick Funston directed his men to cross the other river in Calumpit , the wide Pampanga River , by establishing a rope ferry which was used to pull rafts across the river with tied ropes . The bridge had been destroyed by the Filipino soldiers and the river was too deep to swim . With 120 American troops , Funston went to a point far from the bridge where two privates swam with a rope to the opposite shore and attached the ropes to a portion of the Filipino trench , under heavy fire . The rope was then attached to three rafts loaded with 50 men and drawn to shore under enemy fire . Funston was on the first raft to cross the river . A group of American soldiers then attacked the left flank of the Filipino positions in covered ways and trenches . The rest of the American troops crossed the bridge in single file . All the woodwork and most of the ironwork had already been removed . The 1st Nebraska Volunteers , acting as reserves , drove out the Filipino forces in three lines of entrenchments . For his actions at Calumpit , Funston earned a promotion and was later awarded the Medal of Honor . Aftermath . Following the battle , the American force rested before continuing their drive against Pampanga . On May 4 , the Battle of Santo Tomas took place , which resulted in another American victory . San Fernando fell to American control on May 8 , and San Isidro , Nueva Ecija , the capital after Malolos , fell on May 16 . On the American side , three earned the Medal of Honor for their performance in the battle . They were : Colonel ( later General ) Frederick Funston , Private ( later First Lieutenant ) William B . Trembley , and Private Edward White . The casualties , as Luna reported to Aguinaldo by telegram , were 700 dead on the American side , and 200 on the Filipino side . The American official history , however , recorded only 22 dead and 127 wounded in their ranks .