Did you know that among the first Americans to come up to Baguio in the early 1900s were blacks? Among them is Captain Robert R. Rudd who is credited as having been the first to establish a camp that was later to be called Camp John Hay.
In 1898, black Americans were enthusiastic to help fight in the Spanish-American War partly because they identified and sympathized with Afro-Cubans who lived under extreme Spanish oppression, and partly because they wanted to erase the prevalent discrimination in white communities. Black volunteers flocked to numerous recruiting stations all over the United States for the war. Most of them were rejected or delayed by recruiting centers and were not readily given commissions. Because of this, they voiced their resentment through demonstrations, church sermons, and in print media.
In a brief introduction, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture said that during the war, only organized State National Guard Volunteer units were initially accepted. This excluded blacks because in the Northern and Western states few blacks were accepted in state units, and the Southern states barred them altogether. Black citizens raised volunteer units with black officers and offered them to the states; however under laws governing National Guards, such units could not be accepted. Finally, blacks appealed to the President of the United States and to Congress. Congress authorized temporary regiments for blacks, but the War Department insisted upon making all field and staff officers white, while allowing the company grade to be black. The President's call for volunteers, however, was left to the state governor. Thus, the 48th infantry United States Volunteers of Ohio was formed.
Captain Robert Rudd commanded the `I' Company of the 48th Infantry, comprised entirely of black soldiers. This group was assigned in the Benguet Province of Luzon from 1900 to 1901. Regiment Commander Major William P. Duvall narrates that Rudd's company was from the first one of the very best in the Regiment.” As for Captain Rudd, Major Duvall said that he was “an officer of marked ability and force...the most capable, thorough and efficient among all my Company officers.” Rudd was born in July, 1860 in Nelson County, Kentucky. He began his military career in 1875 by enlisting in the Ohio National Guard and came up through the ranks of the National Guard until he was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1881. He was commissioned as such under the Act of Congress, approved March 2, 1899.
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Did you know that the metes and bounds of the Camp John Hay reservation was declared by the United States government two years earlier than the Baguio City charter?
US President Theodore Roosevelt, on January 23, 1907, issued an Executive Order amending the original area of the John Hay Reservation, thereby increasing the land area to include portions of the present Kennon Road.
Camp John Hay was originally declared a military reservation on October 10, 1903, under authority of Section 12, Act of Congress of July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. L., 691). The Proclamation was implemented by then Governor General James F. Smith.
The Philippine Commission, citing the difficulty of surveying the John Hay reservation, and the need for a larger area for the military even before the plan to make Baguio into a city was realized, decided to amend the original land area comprising the reservation.
The new area now begins at a stone monument ten feet from center of the old Benguet road and near point at which the road to Camp John Hay leaves the Benguet road. Thence the actual area included a certain Worcester Ranch, a Civil Government structure, pack train trails, several monuments, and ending back at the Benguet road reference point.
The military reservation area of 1433 acres or 5.79 square kilometers, is roughly one-tenth of the present city land area of around 14,200 acres or 58 square kilometers, more or less.
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