Jacob H. Smith

General Jacob Hurd Smith (January 29, 1840 – March 1, 1918) was a U.S. Army officer notorious for ordering indiscriminate retaliation on the island of Samar in response to what is called the Balangiga massacre during the Philippine–American War.

Smith's plan involved stopping the flow of food and causing extensive destruction in order to make the people of Samar abandon their support for the rebels out of fear and malnutrition and turn to the Americans instead. He ordered, "kill everyone over the age of ten [and make the island] a howling wilderness." Court-martialed for his conduct of operations on Samar, he was dubbed "Hell Roaring Jake" Smith, "The Monster", and "Howling Jake" by the press as a result. Most estimates are that American soldiers killed between 2,000 and 2,500 civilians. Some Filipino historians put the number as high as 5,000 civilians. Some sources place the death toll as high as 50,000, but these are now believed to have resulted from typographical errors and misreading of documents.

During the massacre, American soldiers killed military-age males, but simply ignored most of the women and children. At times, they ignored Smith's orders outright and took male prisoners. This was due to Smith's subordinate, Littleton Waller, partly revoking the order and telling the troops to show restraint. Provided by Wikipedia