Battle of Mabitac The Battle of Mabitac was an engagement in the Philippine - American War , when on September 17 , 1900 , Filipinos under General Juan Cailles defeated an American force commanded by Colonel Benjamin F . Cheatham , Jr . Mabitac was linked to the garrison town of Siniloan by a causeway which , on the day of the battle , was flooded with water ( in many parts waist - deep ) . The water in the flanking rice fields was even deeper , making it impossible to properly deploy off the narrow road . Trenches occupied by Filipinos under Cailles cut across this causeway , blocking the path into Mabitac . The battle began when elements of the 37th Infantry Regiment and 15th Infantry Regiment , advancing from Siniloan , came under intense fire some 400 yards from the enemy trenches , estimated at 800 in strength . Eight troops sent ahead to scout the enemy positions died to the last man as they closed to within 50 yards of the Filipinos . One of the last to fall was 2nd Lieutenant George Cooper . General Cailles , in an honorable gesture , let the defeated Cheatham recover the bodies of the eight slain soldiers after the battle . Meanwhile , the main body of U . S . Infantry had become pinned down in the waist - deep mud , still several hundred yards from the Filipino trenches . Unable to properly deploy , and in a dangerously exposed position , they engaged in a firefight with Philippine forces for nearly 90 minutes . Despite the bravery of one Captain John E . Moran , later awarded the Medal of Honor for trying to rally his demoralized comrades , the Americans were badly mauled , sustaining scores of casualties . Even supporting fire from a U . S . Navy gunboat ( some 1 , 300 yards distant ) and an attempted flank attack by 60 Americans , who had not participated in the costly frontal assault , could not dent the Filipino position , and Cheatham withdrew soon after . Eventually , General Cailles managed a skillful withdrawal in order to avoid envelopment , and by the next day , his entire command had made good their escape . According to the Americans the US Army lost some 21 killed and 23 wounded in the battle , an effective loss of 33 % of their strength ( termed a " profoundly impressive loss " by American General Arthur MacArthur , Jr . in an effort to allay the potential shock on U . S . servicemen ) . The Filipinos , in their turn , suffered 11 killed and 20 wounded . Numbered among their dead was Lieutenant Colonel Fidel Sario . A differing version of the battle exists in the Philippine Revolutionary Records . A letter addressed to a Miguel Estrada by one Faustin Pantua says this : American Major - General John C . Bates later said of this battle : " It is deemed charitable as well as politic to drop a veil over this matter rather than to give any publicity that can be avoided . " After this First Battle of Mabitac in 1900 , a second battle was fought here during the Second World War in 1945 . The town was liberated from the Japanese Imperial Army by the Philippine Commonwealth troops of the 4th , 41st , 42nd and 43rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army and the 4th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary with some guerrilla elements .