THE BATTLE OF TIRAD PASS

History in the country about Gregorio Del Pilar are few and not readily accessible to the reading public. As a nationalist, I have to keep the young inform of the real history about the battle of Tirad Pass. Researching rare books and newspapers, this article was published in the Chicago Tribune and written by Richard Henry Little.- Arnel L. Cadeliña

THE BATTLE OF TIRAD PASS Richard Henry Little

It was a great fight that was fought up there on the trail of lonely Tilad Pass on that Saturday morning of December second. It bought glory to Major Marsh's battalion of the 33rd Volunteer Infantry who were the victors. It brought no discredit to the little band of sixty Filipinos who fought and died there. sixty was the number that at Aguinaldo's orders, had come down into the pas that morning to resist the onward march of the Americans. Seven were all that went back over the pass that night to tell Aguinaldo that they had tried and failed. Fifty-three of them were either killed or wounded. And among them, the last to retreat, we found the body of young General Gregorio del Pilar.

We had seen him cheering his men in the fight. One of our companies crouched up close under the side of the cliff where he had built his first entrenchment, heard his voice continually during the fight urging his men to greater effort, scolding them, praising them. cursing, appealing to their love of their native land and the next instant threatening to kill them himself if they did not stand firm. Driven from the first entrenchment, he fell back slowly to the second in full sight of our sharpshooters and under heavy fire.Not until every man around him in the second entrenchment was down did he turn his white horse and ride slowly up the winding trail. up the winding trail. Then we who were below saw an American squirm his way out to the top of a high flat rock and take deliberate aim at the figure on the white horse. We held our breath, not knowing whether to pray that the sharpshooter would shoot straight or miss. Then came the spiteful crack of the Krag rifle and the man on the horseback rolled to the ground. When the troops charging up the mountainside reached him, the boy General of the Filipinos was dead.

So this was the end of Gregorio Del Pilar. Only 22 years old, he had managed to make himself a leader of men while he was hardly more than a boy and at last he laid down his life for his convictions. Major marsh had the diary. In it he had written under date of December second, the day he was killed: " The General has given me the pick of all of the men who could be spared and ordered me to defend the pass. I realize what a terrible task is given me. And yet I realize that this is the most glorious moment of my life. What I do is done for my beloved country. No scarfice can be too great."

A private sitting by the fire was exhibiting a handkerchief."It's old Pilar's. It's got Dolores Hoses on the corner. I guess that was his girl. Well, it's all over with Gregorio." "Anyhow," said Private Sullivan, "I got his pants. He won't need them any more."

The man who had the General's shoes strode proudly past, refusing with scorn an offer of a Mexican dollar and a pair of shoes taken from a private insurgent soldier. A soldier sitting on a rock was examining a golden locket containing a curl of a woman's hair. "Got the locket off his neck," said the soldier. As the main column started on its march for the summit of the mountain, a turn in the trail brought us again in sight of the insurgent General far down below us. There had been no time to bury him. A crow sat on the dead man's feet. Another perched on his head. The fog settled down upon us; we could see the body no longer.

" We carved not a line and we raised not a stone, But we left him alone with his glory."

And when Private Sullivan went by in his trousers, and Snider with his shoes, and the other men who had the cuff-buttons, and the Sergeant who had the spur and the Lieutenant who had the other spur, and the man who had the shoulder straps, and the other who had the handkerchief, it suddenly occurred to me that his glory was about all we had left him.

Reference: Hurley, Vic, Jungle Patrol, The story of the Philippine Constabulary, E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc, 1938 pp 19-20.