The Devil's Causeway - by Matthew Westfall (Paperback)

About the Book

The epic, forgotten story of a tragic military rescue mission as the Spanish-American War in the Philippines became a violent guerilla war between the United States and native Filipinos, and the Heart of Darkness story of American POWs in an unforgiving, foreign land.

Book Synopsis

As the United States engaged in a bloody campaign to pacify its newly-won Philippines territory, a secret American mission went terribly wrong, resulting in a prisoner-of-war incident that foreshadowed World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. What happened next was an epic struggle for survival, a test of the human will to live, and ultimately, a crucible for heroes. Their captivity and the torturous expedition sent to the American POWs' rescue, recalled today as one of the greatest marches in U.S. Army history, features a tightly-hewn cast of characters­. A sweeping military epic drawing on international primary sources, The Devil's Causeway tells their extraordinary story in its entirety for the first time.

From the Back Cover

In 1899, a naval officer's reckless grasp for glory triggered a real American Heart of Darkness--a rebel ambush, America's first prisoners of war in the Philippines, their forced march through triple-canopy jungle and behind enemy lines, and one of the greatest rescue missions in US Army history. As the United States prosecuted a bloody campaign to pacify its newly won Philippines territory at the turn of the nineteenth century, a secret mission of mercy went terribly wrong. The result was a prisoner-of-war crisis, the likes of which our nation had never encountered before. The epic struggle for survival that followed was not only a test of the human will to live but a crucible for heroes. And yet, what was touted as a heroic rescue operation extended a war by almost two years and cost the lives of thousands. In April 1899, Admiral George Dewey dispatched the USS Yorktown to liberate a detachment of Spanish soldiers under siege by Filipino rebels. To reconnoiter enemy defenses, one of the Yorktown's armed cutters--manned by a crew of fifteen sailors--was sent toward shore. And then it happened. Defying orders, Lieutenant James C. Gillmore Jr. recklessly pushed upriver into heavy jungle--and headlong into an ambush that would kill four of his men. The survivors were dragged across mountains and through dense jungle from one pestilent prison to the next along what Gillmore called a veritable Devil's Causeway. Their captivity and the torturous expedition sent to recover them, recalled today as one of the greatest marches in US Army history, features a tightly hewn cast of characters--including a frail yet determined teenaged sailor and his hardened seafaring mates; battle-tested veterans of the Civil War and the Indian Wars; and a fiery revolutionary commander who gave orders to bury wounded Americans alive. A sweeping military epic drawing on international primary sources, The Devil's Causeway tells their extraordinary story in its entirety for the first time.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Devil's Causeway

"Matthew Westfall has unearthed a strange and dramatic tale from America's mostly forgotten imperial adventure in the Philippines in the late 1890s. Here is blundering, courage and heartbreak in equal measure."

-Evan Thomas, author of The War Lovers Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to

Empire, 1898 and Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World

"A brutal clash of Old West and Far East, Matthew Westfall's masterpiece blends the gritty realism of Cormac McCarthy with a filmmaker's eye for the dramatic. This beautifully paced epic of heroes and villains emerging from the jungles of the Philippines is more than a mere Indiana Jones adventure tale; The Devil's Causeway is a rare, enthralling gem mined exquisitely by Westfall from the faded pages of America's lost empire."

--Jonathan W. Jordan, bestselling author of Brothers, Rivals, Victors: Eisenhower,

Patton, Bradley, and the Partnership that Drove the Allied Conquest in Europe

"The United States served notice of its global ambitions in 1898 by defeating Spain in a short and popular war. Less than a year later, America found itself in a divisive quest to conquer and colonize the Philippines. In his superbly researched book, The Devil's Causeway, Matthew Westfall powerfully reconstructs a tragedy at the beginning of our forgotten war in the Philippines--a prisoner-of-war saga that embodied all the hubris, heartache, and miscalculation that ultimately doomed America's first quest for empire."

--Gregg Jones, author of Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines,

and The Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dream, an editor's choice of The New York Times Book Review

"The Devil's Causeway documents an epic tale of military campaigning and colonial conquest. The book enthralls, entertains and educates, while proving once again that the truth is often stranger than fiction. This thrilling work is a must-read for anyone interested in the Philippines' determined struggles for independent nationhood. It is likewise an inspiring story of courage, sacrifice and patriotism by the various protagonists--regardless of nationality."

--Fidel V. Ramos, 12th President of the Republic of the Philippines; former Secretary of

Defense, Republic of the Philippines; Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines; and West Point graduate, USMA Class of 1950

"There has been way too little written about American military efforts, adventures and missteps after the Philippines became an American possession at the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Author Matthew Westfall shines a light on that turbulent time in our military history with his new book The Devil's Causeway. In a thoroughly researched, detail-packed and absorbing work, he tells the story of the capture and subsequent dramatic rescue of the some of our first American POWs to be taken by an enemy on foreign shores. The characters come alive in these pages and the fascinating story unfolds as if it were being told by an old veteran around a campfire."

--Captain Dale Dye, USMC (Ret), author and military advisor to film and TV, Los Angeles

About the Author

Matthew Westfall is a writer, urbanist, and award-winning documentary filmmaker, whose films have featured narrators such as Malcolm McDowell, Willem Dafoe, and F. Murray Abraham, and have been broadcast worldwide. He has devoted much of his professional career to tackling poverty in the developing world. Based in Asia for nearly three decades, his work as a development banker addresses some of the most intractable issues in our increasingly urban world: megacities, slums, and managing the urban environment. For his documentary On Borrowed Land, executive produced by Oliver Stone and funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Matthew received the prestigious Paul Davidoff National Award for Advocacy Planning from the American Planning Association. Born in New York City and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, Westfall currently resides in the Philippines with his family. He spends his free time reading, writing, and collecting as a means to explore the fascinating history of his adopted country. The Devil's Causeway is his first work of narrative nonfiction. Visit matthewwestfall.com.