Squadron participated in the Philippine–American War from 1899 until its disbandment in 1902. American naval forces operated by sending landing parties ashore and by providing them with naval gunfire support. From 1899 to 1902, the squadron conducted several missions against the Filipinos. Deweys squadron engaged in naval operation against the Filipinos during and after the 1898 Battle of Manila against the Spanish. At the beginning of the Philippine–American War in February 1899, several American warships supported the occupation of the Philippine Islands. At the same time, the monitor , the protected cruisers Charleston, and the gunboats Concord, , and Laguna de Bay bombarded Filipino positions during the Battle of Caloocan. Over 300 Filipinos were killed in action and three times as many wounded, with many of the casualties attributed to accurate naval gunfire. USS Petrel and USS Boston shelled Panay Island on 11 February 1899, and, on 22 February 1899, a landing party from Petrel occupied Cebu. In October 1899, Petrel joined Callao in supporting American troops in the Battle of Noveleta by bombarding Filipino troop concentrations at Noveleta before a shore party made its assault. Many of the captured Spanish gunboats used in the Philippine–American War were manned by United States Army troops and operated together with United States Navy forces. In mid-April 1899, General Henry Lawton led an expedition of 1,500 men in several cascoes and three gunboats to a place near Santa Cruz to find another former Spanish gunboat which was being used by the Filipinos; during the ensuing Battle of Santa Cruz, the American force captured six steam launches along with two cascoes, and later took the Filipino gunboat, which the Filipinos reportedly had disarmed so that they could use her guns on land, without a fight. Baltimore and Petrel served at the Battle of Iloilo, in which about 1,000 Filipinos were defeated when the two warships bombarded the fort there and sent United States Marines and sailors ashore. Only minor skirmishing occurred on land because the Filipinos retreated and burned the town as they left. On 7 May 1899, Laguna de Bay and another gunboat bombarded Sexmoan and routed the Filipinos there. Later that day, the gunboats fought at Gaugua, where they bombarded Filipino positions in the town and sent men ashore to fight on the ground. Again the Filipinos retreated and set several buildings on fire as they went. In June 1899, American gunboats