The gunboats were purchased by a syndicate of private individuals put together by General Elwell Otis, the U.S. Army commander, in order to prevent their being acquired by the Philippine Revolutionary government.

On 13 September 1899, Paragua, engaged insurgents at Baleno, Masbate, south of Luzon and north of Visayas that were directing rifle-fire at the ship from a range of 400–900 yards.

[3] On 14 September 1899, Paragua engaged about 300 rifle-firing insurgents heavily entrenched at a distance of 700–1,000 yards at the northern Philippine town of San Fabian, Pangasinan, on Lingayen Gulf.

[4] Aside from repelling shore based attacks from insurgents, in the first few years of the 20th century, Paragua and her sister ships performed interdiction and blockade duty to intercept smugglers of cargo and humans in the shallow waters and shoals of the Western Visayas region and in particular, between Iloilo on the southeast side of Panay and Guimaras, Negros and Romblon.

[5] Paragua also provided naval gunfire support, reconnaissance and transported U.S. Army troops battling the insurgency in the southern Philippine islands.

[10] On 12 July 1902, Secretary of the Navy William Henry Moody ordered Read Admiral Frank Wildes, commander of the Asiatic Station to place six gunboats, including Paragua out of commission as part of a force reduction.

They were "born warriors" and the steel weapons which they superbly crafted and had wielded with lightning speed and lethal dexterity for centuries, resulted in the formerly occupying Spanish generally leaving them alone to engage with relative impunity in piracy and robbing other tribes.

The crater was situated on the southeast coast of Jolo Island and was the stronghold of Datu Hatai, a Moro chieftain who had built a cottas, an earth and wood fortress, where he and about 400 of his followers were camped, including about 100 warriors.

The mission of the expedition had been to penalize several reluctant datus that resisted paying the cedula or head tax, that Wood had assessed to fund a number of his improvement projects.

Barry and Chauncey were responding to reports that several Russian warships had entered Philippine territorial waters without authorization while steaming north to China.

While the threat of a shore bombardment likely played a part in Datu Hatai's surrender the following morning, thereby avoiding a bloodbath, the normally fearless Moros were likely unnerved by the bright "devil eyes" of these strange lights illuminating their lair throughout the night.

However, they were attacked by 68 warriors led by a tribal holy man named Tungalang, who had given them oils to rub on their bodies in the tragic belief that it would make them invincible to bullets.

Passed Midshipman Reed commanded one of the steam launches that operated in the small rivers on the west coast of Samar that were unnavigable for the larger gunboats.

This was two weeks before the Battle of Tsushima Straits in which the Japanese navy destroyed the Russian Far East fleet and established the Empire of Japan as a world force to be reckoned with, altering the balance of power in the Pacific.

The Report of the Secretary of the Navy commented favorably upon the valuable services rendered by small gunboats such as Paragua as an example of inter-service cooperation.

Train, commander of the Asiatic Fleet wrote in his report to the Secretary of the Navy: "The work of these gunboats was of great assistance to the Army in transporting troops, in landing armed parties, in patrolling the coast, and in penetrating the interior up the small streams.

Naval officers at the turn of the 20th century, the command of a small gunboat during the Philippine Insurrection was considered a choice assignment due to the likelihood of engagement and the autonomy of generally choosing patrol routes and ports of call.

[36][37] In his book Faith of My Fathers, Senator John McCain wrote of an interview he conducted in the 1950s as a midshipman at the Naval Academy with retired Admiral Chester Nimitz, who was then in his 70s.