Matthew Arlington Batson

Matthew Arlington Batson (Anna, Illinois, US, 24 April 1866 – 13 January 1917) was a United States Army Officer who received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Philippine–American War. 1st Lieutenant Batson was awarded the medal for swimming the San Juan River under enemy fire. He was awarded his medal alongside Captain Hugh J. McGrath who performed the same feat. Batson is most noted, however, for creating the Philippine Scouts.

Early life Batson was born in Anna Illinois, a small agricultural town located on the Illinois Central Railroad in Union County in southern Illinois but grew up in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Educated locally, he attended Southern Illinois University for one term. He had two stints of teaching school and spent a year studying law in hopes of passing the bar exam.

Military record

Batson enlisted in the 2nd United States Cavalry on April 9, 1888. Over the next three years he served in troops M and G and attained the rank of corporal. Based on his service record and his marks on a competitive examination, the War Department offered him a commission as second lieutenant in the 9th Cavalry, one of two Regular Army cavalry regiments that consisted of black enlisted men led by white officers. He accepted on August 2, 1891. He spent the next seven years in the 9th Cavalry, primarily in garrison. He married and started to raise a family. During the academic year 1894–95 he attended the Infantry and Cavalry School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Three years later, during the Spanish–American War, he accompanied the 9th Cavalry to Cuba and participated in the V Corps' campaign against Santiago. He had a credible record in combat at San Juan Hill, but the experience left him disillusioned. He felt that officers who had done less than he had received promotion and recognition while he had received none.

Batson accompanied the 4th Cavalry to the Philippines, arriving in October 1898, and joined the VIII Corps, then occupying only the city of Manila and a small area around the Cavite naval base. Initially, the corps commander, Maj. Gen. Elwell S. Otis, assigned the regiment to the 1st Division, VIII Corps, then commanded by Brig. Gen. Thomas M. Anderson and subsequently by Maj. General Henry W. Lawton. Eventually, Otis assigned a few troops of the 4th Cavalry to the 2nd Division but kept the bulk of the regiment with the 1st Division. Batson's troop remained with the 1st Division.

A long convalescence followed. While in hospital he heard the news that Lawton was dead—killed in action south of Manila. Eventually, Batson was able to return to duty. He was promoted to major of volunteers but he did not receive the colonelcy and command of a regiment of scouts. The death of Lawton and Otis' return to the United States left no one in a command position in the Philippines who fully understood the role that Batson had played in organizing the scouts.

Batson returned to duty with the scouts in March 1900 and was heavily involved in counter-guerrilla operations—with considerable success—for the next year. The incessant activity these operations required undermined his health. An Army doctor who examined him shortly before he returned to the States thought he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He mustered out of the volunteer force when it legally dissolved on June 30 1901, but by then he had received promotion to captain in the Regular Army. His health did not improve. On 6 February 1902 he retired for "Disability in line of duty from wounds received in action” at the age of thirty-five. He lived another fifteen years. On two occasions the War Department recalled him to active duty for short stints as a recruiter. While on the second of these assignments, he died on January 13, 1917. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.

The organization he created, now known officially as the Philippine Scouts, continued to grow and eventually included members from other Philippine ethnic groups. By 1903 with the war over the Scouts consisted of multiple regiments with an aggregate strength of 5,000, 40 percent of the total peace-time U.S. Army garrison in the Philippines. By the eve of World War II the Scouts totaled 11,000 men and were organized as infantry, cavalry, and artillery regiments and were noted for their high standards of professionalism.