Qualla: First Battle of Bud Dajo https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-bud-dajo en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/9/n/4/first-battle-of-bud-dajo-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: First Battle of Bud Dajo https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-bud-dajo First Battle of Bud Dajo: Introduction https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-bud-dajo/ Photo credit Andre Ryan Maceda, CC BY-SA 4.0. Mark Twain did not mince words. "In what way was it a battle?" he wrote. "It has no resemblance to a battle. We cleaned up our four days' work and made it complete by butchering these helpless people." In March 1906, 750 American soldiers and Marines under Colonel Joseph Wilson Duncan assaulted the volcanic crater of Bud Dajo on the island of Jolo in the southwestern Philippines. Inside the crater were 800 to 1,000 Tausug villagers. When the fighting ended, only six Moro survived. The Americans lost between fifteen and twenty-one killed and seventy wounded. Whether called the First Battle of Bud Dajo or the Moro Crater Massacre, it remains one of the bloodiest and most controversial events of the American occupation of the Philippines.

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Image: Andre Ryan Maceda | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/9/n/4/first-battle-of-bud-dajo-wp/w9n4-first-battle-of-bud-dajo-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full First Battle of Bud Dajo: Reforms That Lit the Fuse https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-bud-dajo/ Photo credit Agtillah, CC BY-SA 3.0. The assault took place during the final days of General Leonard Wood's tenure as governor of the Moro Province, a period of sweeping reform that the Moro people experienced as oppression. Wood abolished slavery and imposed the cedula, a registration poll tax that the Moros interp...

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Image: Agtillah | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/9/n/4/first-battle-of-bud-dajo-wp/w9n4-first-battle-of-bud-dajo-reforms-that-lit-the-fuse.mp3 0:06 2 full First Battle of Bud Dajo: The Fortress in the Sky https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-bud-dajo/ Photo credit Andre Ryan Maceda, CC BY-SA 4.0. Bud Dajo is an extinct volcano rising 2,100 feet above sea level, six miles from the city of Jolo. Its slopes are steep, thickly forested, and penetrated by only three main paths. The crater at the summit measures 1,800 yards in circumference, a natural fortress. Hidden trails kn...

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Image: Andre Ryan Maceda | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/9/n/4/first-battle-of-bud-dajo-wp/w9n4-first-battle-of-bud-dajo-the-fortress-in-the-sky.mp3 0:06 3 full First Battle of Bud Dajo: Four Days on the Mountain https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-bud-dajo/ Photo credit Andre Ryan Maceda, CC BY-SA 4.0. Three American columns advanced up the three main mountain paths under Major Omar Bundy, Captain Rivers, and Captain Lawton. On March 7, Bundy's detachment hit a barricade 500 feet below the summit. After snipers and rifle grenades softened the position, the Americans charged wit...

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Image: Andre Ryan Maceda | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/9/n/4/first-battle-of-bud-dajo-wp/w9n4-first-battle-of-bud-dajo-four-days-on-the-mountain.mp3 0:06 4 full First Battle of Bud Dajo: Ninety-Nine Percent https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-bud-dajo/ Photo credit Andre Ryan Maceda, CC BY-SA 4.0. The numbers tell a story that resists any framing as a conventional battle. Of the 800 to 1,000 Moro in the crater, only six survived. Ninety-nine percent were killed, a higher rate than at Wounded Knee. Among the dead were women and children. The Moro who possessed weapons carri...

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Image: Andre Ryan Maceda | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/9/n/4/first-battle-of-bud-dajo-wp/w9n4-first-battle-of-bud-dajo-ninety-nine-percent.mp3 0:06 5 full First Battle of Bud Dajo: A Wound That Speaks https://qualla.com/first-battle-of-bud-dajo/ Photo credit REY BANIQUET/PPD, Public domain. The press coverage of what newspapers called the Moro Crater Massacre landed on an American public already uneasy about the country's imperial role after the Spanish-American War and the atrocities of the Philippine-American War. Twain's condemnation was fierce and widely read. T...

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/9/n/4/first-battle-of-bud-dajo-wp/w9n4-first-battle-of-bud-dajo-a-wound-that-speaks.mp3 0:06 6 full