An elaborate ruse helped the United States win the Philippine-American War. Five U.S. Army officers led by Brigadier General Frederick Funston posed as POWs. Their captors were actually Filipino soldiers loyal to the United States impersonating insurrectos. Following a grueling 90-mile forced march, the faux insurgents were welcomed into the enemy’s headquarters. There—after a brief one-sided firefight—they captured Emilio Aguinaldo, the President of the Philippine Republic.  

Despite its success, the mission sparked controversy. Mark Twain lambasted the operation as “treachery” and “baseness” led by a “weak-headed and weak-principled” brigadier general. Theodore Roosevelt lauded the same incursion as the “crowning exploit of a career filled with feats of cool courage, iron endurance and gallant daring.” Capturing Aguinaldo tells the thrilling but nearly forgotten story of that audacious operation and its polarizing aftermath.