Camp Vicars - 1902

Map of the Iligan-Marahui Military Road 1903

     Two days after the Battle of Bayan, Camp Vicars was established only a few miles away at the south end of the lake. It was named after 1st Lt. Thomas A. Vicars who had commanded Company F of the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry who was killed in action at Bayan. On May 13, 1902, General Chaffee met with Captain John J. Pershing at the pier at Malabang and informed him he was now the commandant of the new camp, overriding strong objections from Colonel Baldwin. Chaffee made it clear that although Pershing reported to Baldwin on paper, he would in fact take his instructions from and report to him personally through General Davis. Pershing's mission was to bring the Maranaos of Lake Lanao under U.S. jurisdiction, with an emphasis on diplomacy and negotiation, using force as a last resort. Within a few months he was successful in peaceably gaining acknowledgement of U.S. sovereignty by nearly 90% of the datus and sultans of the lake region through persuasion. However, it would be Pershing's subsequent military campaigns around the lake to bring to heel the remaining holdouts that would bring him national fame.

Aerial view looking northeast, Lake Lanao on left, Camp Vicars on right c1920 (National Archives)

Capt. J. J. Pershing                                 15th Infantry Regiment on parade c1901

             c1902                                        (note regimental coat of arms with crossed kris's)

     In order to stay in the Philippines for a second tour of duty, Pershing requested a transfer from the prestigious 1st Cavalry to the newly-formed 15th Cavalry. On its arrival, Pershing asked a major of the squadron what kind of an outfit it was. He was told, “It has a hundred horses who never saw a soldier, a hundred soldiers who never saw a horse, and a bunch of officers who never saw either."

Aerial view of Camp Keithley at Marahui c1920 (National Archives)

 Major Robert Lee                      Building the road that would connect Iligan with Lake Lanao

          Bullard                                                                          (Library of Congress)

     Major Robert Lee Bullard and a battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment were at the north end of the lake from Pershing, rebuilding a former Spanish wagon road from Iligan to the headwaters of the Agus River at Lake Lanao. Like Pershing, Bullard gained a working knowledge of the Maranao language and assiduously cultivated relationships  with the same datus Pershing had earlier befriended. At first using his own men, Bullard convinced General Davis to fund the employment of the Maranaos, pioneering the concept of using civic action projects to build support for the U.S. presence among the local populace. Bullard established a temporary camp at Marahui that would later become a permanent post (later renamed Camp Keithley). While respecting him personally, Bullard resented that Pershing, a cavalryman, "had been given the military work" that he felt rightly should have been assigned to he and his infantrymen. Instead, he wrote in his diary, they had been given "mere sweat and labor." Fifteen years later, in World War I, Pershing selected Bullard as one of his two Army commanders in France.