Advance of Kansas Volunteers at Caloocan

Motion pictures were still a novelty at the outbreak of the Philippine War, but film’s ability to generate patriotism and public interest in the war encouraged early filmmakers to produce a number of war films. Several cameramen went to the Philippines to film the military efforts, but recreations of battles filmed in rural New York and New Jersey proved to be more popular. This footage recreates a battle between troops under Colonel Frederick Funston and Philippine nationalists. The Edison catalog of 1899 called it “one of the best battle pictures ever made.”