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The Biography of

Pvt. Bruno Mediate,

1st Wyoming Volunteer Infantry

Contributed by Peter Belmonte
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General:

Bruno Mediate served in Company C of the 1st Wyoming Volunteer Infantry. He saw service with the regiment in the Philippines during the Spanish American War and the Philippine American War.

Biography:

Bruno Mediate was born in Cirella, Reggio Calabria, on September 17, 1876. It is not known when he emigrated to the United States but by the 1890s he lived in Cripple Creek, Colorado, where he worked as a miner. However, he was a ranchman living in Wyoming when he enlisted in Company C of the 1st Wyoming Volunteer Infantry on May 1, 1898. Mediate served in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War and the beginning of the Philippine-American War.

When calling for volunteers for the war with Spain, William Richards, the governor of Wyoming selected Companies C, F, G, and H, along with part of Company A, all from the 1st battalion of infantry to form an infantry battalion for federal service. Company C had been originally recruited from the area of Buffalo, Wyoming, in Johnson County. Beginning on May 2, 1898, the battalion moved to Camp Richards near the state fairgrounds in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Eight days later, those who were medically qualified were sworn into federal service for two years or unless they were no longer needed and were discharged earlier. Mediate, along with the remainder of the battalion, left Cheyenne on May 18, arriving at Camp Merritt, near San Francisco, California, three days later. There, he would have joined in drill and training with his comrades for the next month. Finally the battalion departed San Francisco aboard the transport OHIO on June 27, bound for the Philippines, where they arrived on July 31. The battalion disembarked in Manila Bay and proceeded to Camp Dewey on August 6. From there, they moved into the trenches outside of the city of Manila.

On August 13, the battalion took part in the capture of Manila. During the initial, brief naval bombardment of the city, the battalion had moved closer to Manila's walls. After the bombardment ceased, the battalion moved into Manila in support of the 18th U.S. Infantry. During the advance, the battalion came under fire but were not in position to return fire. Unknown to Bruno Mediate and his comrades, the fall of Manila was a staged event where the Philippine forces had to show brief resistance before surrendering in order to save face. The fall of the city was actually negotiated prior to the action. The Spanish forces that Mediate faced were also unaware of this agreement. The battalion continued its advance into the city until fighting was halted by the end of the day. Also unknown to both sides in the Philippines, the U.S. and Spain had agreed to an armistice on August 12 (already August 13 in the Philippines). The fighting had already officially ended before the city was surrendered.

Falling the surrender of Manila the 1st Wyoming became part of the city’s garrison until February 4, 1899 when the guerilla war against the U.S.'s former de facto Filipino allies began.

In February and March, the battalion fought several engagements, including at San Pedro Macati where Company C lost two men mortally wounded. On July 6, the battalion received orders to prepare for their return to the United States. During its term of service, the battalion lost one man killed in action, two men mortally wounded, and ten men who died from disease. Mediate noted the following engagements on his application for membership in the United Spanish War Veterans: “Zapote Bridge, San Pedro Macelte [sic, Macati], and others.” He had survived and was unwounded.

Zapote River Bridge, the scene of one of the skirmishes in which Mediate was involved.
 l
The Zapote River Bridge, the scene of a skirmish in which Bruno Mediate was involved on June 13, 1899
 
At this time, many men requested to be discharged early, while still in the Philippines. Mediate was one of their number, and was successful in his request, being discharged on July 28, 1899, one day after his battalion left the Philippines. Mediate chose to remain in the Philippines and try his fortunes there. As was common among the young servicemen of the era, Mediate’s official record contained a few blemishes, as recorded on his pension application: “In confinement Oct. 10 to Nov. 1, 1898 serving sentence of S.C. [Summary or Special Court]. In arrest from Apr. 23 to May 3, 1899 awaiting trial, released without trial.” The reasons for his periods of confinement are not currently known.

By 1901, Mediate was working for the Philippine Sawmill Company in Manila. He soon found work as a construction foreman with the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, working at various locations around the Islands. From 1905 to 1907 he worked at Los Banos; from 1907 to 1909 he was at Fort McKinley; from 1910 to 1911 at Camp Stotsenburg; from 1911 to 1912 he was a quarry foreman at the Quartermaster Depot, Fort Mills, Corregidor; from 1912 to 1914 at Granite Island. Mediate resigned as a construction foreman in 1914 but was reinstated at Fort McKinley in 1917. In February, 1918 he transferred back to Camp Stotsenburg.

Bruno married Tomasa De La Rosa, a Filipina, at the Presbyterian Mission in Maltate, Manila, on December 12, 1901. The couple had two daughters, Trinidad, born about 1912, and Ester, born in 1922. In November 1922, Mediate applied for, and was accepted to, membership in the United Spanish War Veterans, General Lawton Camp Number 1, in Manila. In the years to come, the United Spanish War Veterans would assist in Mediate’s burial and in obtaining pensions for his widow and minor child.

Mediate began receiving a disability pension on February 16, 1924. He died on March 7, 1927, in Paco, Manila. After Mediate’s death, Sinforoso Evangelista, a captain in the Manila Police and commander of Precinct 1, furnished a report that detailed the poverty of Mediate’s family. The report stated:
[No household goods] other than very ordinary furniture, such as old chairs, tables and two old beds, all but of very little value. No jewelry and only very poor, old and worn out clothings [sic], no list taken as it was practically of no value…This family are at present in very bad circumstances financially, as Mediate, the deceased, was not regularly employed and lived mostly upon his pension from the U. S. Government which was only $30.00 or P60.00 [Philippine pesos]. He was burried [sic] by the Veterans Bureau and Spanish War Veterans.
 
Bibliography:

U.S. Spanish American War Volunteers Index to Compiled Military Service Records, 1898; Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917 - 9/16/1940, in Ancestry.com.

Mediate’s invalid and minor child’s pensions, National Archives (copies in the author’s possession).

U.S. Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards

Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900, compiled 1949 - 1949, documenting the period 1861 – 1942 (National Archives), in Fold3.com.

Mediate’s date of birth varies slightly among the different records

Zapote River Bridge image source: "Zapote river bridge : Zapote river, Cavite -- 1899; 388; 1899." In the digital collection Philippine Photographs Digital Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Michigan. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclphilimg/x-388/phla091. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed August 18, 2024.

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