American government, under the McKinley administration, decided to annex the Philippines. In the 1898 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish–American War, Spain agreed to cede control of the Philippines to the U.S. The U.S. had dispatched the Philippine Expeditionary Force to the Philippines in 1898, which had in concert with Filipino forces taken control over most of the region from the Spanish. In 1899, war broke out between the United States and the newly-established Philippine Republic after the U.S. annexed the Philippines. On February 4, a patrol of the 1st Nebraska Infantry Regiment near Manila fired on Filipino troops they encountered, sparking the war's first battle. Throughout the day, American and Filipino forces exchanged fire; when Filipino officers heard of what had transpired, they offered a ceasefire to the Americans, which was rejected. The next day, American troops went on the offensive, storming and capturing the entrenched Filipino positions. After the battle, Filipino forces which had been pushed out of their positions north of Manila by the American offensive regrouped at the settlement of Caloocan, which was twelve miles north of the city. The city served as an important railroad center, in addition to barring any potential American advance on the settlement of Malolos. American commander Arthur MacArthur Jr. made plans to dispatch a detachment of troops to launch an attack on Caloocan immediately. However, he was persuaded by his superior Elwell Stephen Otis to delay such a move by a few days to allow both times for additional American reinforcements to be shifted into position and for Filipino forces in the region to concentrate around the Caloocan region. Otis also argued that capturing Caloocan would serve the dual purpose of occupying a key settlement and trapping elements of the Philippine Revolutionary Army in Manila Bay, a viewpoint which was also shared by MacArthur Jr. Battle On February 10, a detachment of the 6th Field Artillery Regiment, along with the protected cruiser USS Charleston and monitor USS Monadnock (provided to MacArthur Jr. by United States Navy Admiral George Dewey) launched a preparatory bombardment of Filipino redoubts in Caloocan, which lasted for roughly three hours. The highest-ranking commander of Filipino troops in Caloocan (numbering roughly 5,000 strong) was Antonio Luna, whose soldiers were among those who had been pushed out of their entrenched positions by American forces near Manila on February 5. Around 4:00 p.m., 3,312 U.S. soldiers from the