The Hero of Tirad Pass

(This write-up is identical to the article with the same title found on pages 243-253 of the book entitled "The Filipino Tragedy and Other Historical Facts Every Filipino Should Know," published by the author.  The sources and references indicated here are contained on pages 402-415 of the book.)

There are conflicting accounts about how General Gregorio del Pilar died.  One account says Del Pilar was shot in the face while looking down to see the activities of the Americans below.  A more credible report says he was shot on the nape as he was about to leave the scene of battle on his horse.   There is also an unsubstantiated folk story that a certain Igorot named Januario Galut led the American soldiers to a secret passage that gave them a good view of the barricade where  Del Pilar and his men were defending themselves. 

The report of Mr. John McCutcheon settled the contradictory accounts in his touching tribute published in the Chicago Record of December 23, 1899, which is consistent with the account of Filipino historian Carlos Quirino and is given weight as the more credible source, viz: 

 “Gen.  Gregorio del Pilar was the last man to fall.  He was striving to escape the trail and had already received a wound in the shoulder.  A native was holding his horse for him and just as he was preparing to mount a Krag-Jorgensen bullet caught him in the neck, and running through, came out just below his mouth.” (Van Meter, 349)

From the preceding narrative, it can be deduced that Del Pilar’s back was turned against the shooter, and the trajectory of the bullet was almost parallel to the ground, perhaps even downward, but not upward, which would have been the case if Del Pilar was shot while looking down at the group of Americans below. 

The American military and news correspondents’ reports presented below describe how the Americans scaled the adjacent mountain to have a good look at the position of the Filipinos, giving the American sharpshooters the vantage point to pick the defenders, one by one, including Del Pilar.  The reports do not mention any native or Igorot by the name of Januario Galut, who supposedly showed a secret passage where the American soldiers slipped through. 

According to accounts of the Americans, Del Pilar and his men were in two trenches on top of a hill. At first, the Americans made a frontal attack but were repulsed by a hail of bullets. So the American officer, Major Peyton C. March, ordered a patrol of American soldiers to scale the steep hill fronting Del Pilar’s position, using knives to pull themselves up. Once they were on top of the hill, it was only a matter of aiming their sights on the men at the trenches opposite their position, and one after another, the Filipino defenders were shot dead.

Del Pilar's last stand's primary sources come from Filipino and American authorities.  Those from the Filipino side were provided by survivors, namely, Telesforo Carrasco and Cpl. Feliciano Mateo,  and the diary of Col. Simeon Villa. The secondary sources include the books authored by Teodoro M. Kalaw, Teodoro Agoncillo, Nick Joaquin, and Carlos Quirino. The American sources are from accounts of the members of the United States Army led by Major March that engaged the Filipinos at Tirad Pass, including the reports of news correspondents Richard Henry Little and John McCutcheon, who were physically present at the site. 

Cpl Mateo said that after the fight he and all the other 7 survivors proceeded to Benguet where they shed off their rayadillo uniform and started a long journey home. His account is therefore given weight. However, one of Carrasco's is not used because he is not listed among the survivors in Cpl Mateo's account. He is not also mentioned by Col. Villa in his December 2, 1899 entry in his diary as one of the two officers who came back from Mount Tila to report about the tragic event. On the other hand, the secondary sources would have come from the same Filipino and American sources and therefore should not differ significantly from one another. Accordingly, only one secondary source was used in this article, the work of Carlos Quirino, in order to provide a broader picture of the events leading to the battle.

Here is Quirino’s account as published in the "Filipino Heritage", viz: 

"The end of the rainy season saw the resumption of the American advance. The Filipino troops now numbered less than 2,000.  Aguinaldo had given orders to engage the enemy in guerrilla warfare and sizable units had been dispersed.  To escape the American encirclement the troops moved rapidly northward.  They succeeded in reaching La Union Province and moved to Ilocos Sur before the end of November.  General Young of the U.S. troops had reached the town of Candon ahead of them and Aguinaldo turned southeast towards the mountains of Lepanto, passing Tirad Pass to reach the hamlet of Angake.  Noting that Tirad Pass was in a strategic position, Del Pilar offered to turn back and defend the place.

[Author's note: In Col..Simeon Villa's diary entry of December 1, 1900, it says:  "At 6 o'clock this morning Gen Del Pilar requested the honorable president to let him visit the trenches located on Mount Tila"].

"Bidding good-bye to Aguinaldo's entourage, Del Pilar told Dr. Santiago Barcelona, the medical aide of the President: 'If the Americans reach this place, (Angake) it will mean that they have passed over my dead body.'  Crispulo Aguinaldo had said almost the same words to his younger brother Emilio in Salitran.

"Del Pilar had dire forebodings on the eve of that battle.  He wrote in his diary: I yield to the terrible destiny that will overcome me and my brave soldiers, but I am glad to die fighting for my beloved country."

"Tirad Pass is 1,300 meters high and clouds cover its peak during the rainy season.  In December, however, the weather is clear and visibility is good.  It was in this month that 60 Filipino soldiers armed with rifles stood guard in this pass.  They had been detached from the presidential unit - which had shrunk to about 400.  They had built trenches out of earth, stones, and the trunks of trees at three different levels.  A battalion of cavalry under Maj. Peyton C. March was pursuing the fleeing Aguinaldo and Del Pilar was expecting them at the pass while on its right was a precipitous mountain rising about 400 meters above the trail.  The Americans tried a frontal attack, but it proved fruitless.  Major March then ordered one of his platoons to climb to a slight ridge that struck the face of the mountain about 40 meters from the summit of Tirad.  The Americans climbed straight up to the top of the ridge, using only their hands to pull themselves up.  The ascent took two hours.  All the while the defenders kept up an incessant and accurate fire, supplementing this with stones hurled on the climbers' heads.

"From the top of a nearby ridge, the American's powerful Krag-Jorgensen rifles picked out one by one 52 of the 60 rebels.  The last to fall was Del Pilar.  He had already been wounded on the shoulder and was ascending the summit of Tirad on his horse when a sharpshooter's bullet hit him in the face.  He covered his face with his hands as the blood gushed forth.  Then he fell backward, dead.  He was wearing a new khaki uniform and he had a revolver and holster, silver spurs, leather boots, and gold and diamond rings on his fingers.  'He was handsome and elegant to the end,' declared his aide-de-camp, Col. Vicente Enriquez, one of the few survivors of the engagement.

"Soon afterward the firing ceased.  American soldiers who came across Del Pilar's cadaver in search of souvenirs began to strip him of his possessions - the rings, a locket containing a girl's hair, his diary, a flimsy handkerchief, the revolver and holster, spurs, boots, and even his uniform, leaving him practically naked.  They could strip him of all his earthly possessions but not his glory." (Carlos Quirino, "Valiant Sacrifice at Tirad Pass", The Filipino Heritage, vol 8, 2157-2160)

American Version

The most reliable account of the battle at Tirad Pass is from the report of Major March, who was in command of the American troops that engaged the forces of General Del Pilar. Here’s an excerpt from his report:

"Tila Pass is 4,440 feet high and the rise is extremely rapid. The trail winds up the Tila Mountains in a sharp zigzag. The enemy had constructed a stone barricade across the trail at a point where it commanded the turns of the zigzag for a considerable distance. This barricade was loop holed for infantry fire and afforded head cover for the insurgents. On passing on beyond Lingey the advance was checked by a heavy fire from this barricade, which killed and wounded several men, without having its position revealed. I brought the remainder of the command at double time, losing two men wounded during the run up. On arriving at the point, I located the insurgents' position with my glasses - their fire being entirely Mauser and smokeless powder - by the presence of the insurgent officer who showed himself freely and directed the fire. On pushing forward, the number of my men who were hit increased so rapidly that it was evident that the position could not be taken by a front attack, when the trail only allowed the men to pass one at a time. On the left of the barricade was a gorge several hundred feet deep. On its right, as we faced it, was a precipitous mountain which rose 1,500 feet above the trail. Across the gorge and to the left front of the barricade was a hill, which, while it did not permit of flank fire into the barricade, commanded the trail in its rear, and this point I occupied with ten sharpshooters in command of Sergeant-Major McDougall. He lost one man wounded in getting to the top, and when there rendered most effective assistance. I then ordered Lieutenant Tompkins to take his company (H) and proceeding back on the trail to ascend the slope of the mountain under cover of a slight ridge which struck the face of the mountain about 150 feet from the summit. From there he had a straight-up climb to the top, where the men pulled themselves up by twigs and by hand. The ascent took two hours, during which the enemy kept up an incessant and accurate fire, which they varied by rolling down stones on our heads. When Tompkins' men appeared upon the crest of the hills over their heads, he had the command of the two other trenches which were constructed in rear of the barricade, I have described, around a sharp turn in the trail, and which were also held by the insurgents. He opened fire upon them and I charged the first barricade at the same time, and rushed the enemy over the hill. We found eight dead bodies on the trail, and the bushes which grew at the edge of the gorge were broken and blood-stained where dead or wounded men fell through. Among the dead bodies was that of Gregorio del Pilar, the general commanding insurgent forces. I have in my possession his shoulder straps; French field glasses, which gave the range of objects; official and private papers, and a mass of means of identification. He was also recognized personally by Mr. McCutcheon and Mr. Keene, two newspaper correspondents -who had met him before. The insurgents' report of their loss in this fight is 52, given to me after I reached Cervantes. My loss was 2 killed and 9 wounded. I reached the summit at 4.30 P. M. and camped there for the night, finding at that point a large amount of rice, lard, etc., which had been abandoned by the insurgents and on which I subsisted my troops. In this engagement I also captured several Mausers and a large quantity of Mauser ammunition.” (Philippine Information Society[9.1], 57-59)

John T. McCtutcheon, a newspaper correspondent of the Chicago record, who was embedded with Major March’s troops gave this report:

"Gen. Gregorio del Pilar was the last man to fall. He was striving to escape up the trail and had already received a wound in the shoulder. A native was holding his horse for him and just as he was preparing to mount a Krag-Jorgensen bullet caught him in the neck, and passing through came out just below his mouth. The men of Company E, rushing up the trail, caught the native, who was endeavoring to secure the papers which' the general had in his pockets, and a moment later captured the horse.

"At that time no one knew who the dead man was, but from his uniform and insignia they judged that he was an officer of high rank. The souvenir fiend was at once at work and the body was stripped of everything of value from the diamond ring to the boots. A pair of handsome field glasses with an attachment which determined the ranges for the riflemen was turned over to Captain Jenkinson by one of the men. Three little gold lockets hung around his neck, one with an enamel representation of a saint on it, another a purely ornamental one, and the last a small Agnus Dei. He wore silver spurs, shoulder straps of gold and a new Khaki suit such as all the higher Filipino officers wear. He carried no sword. In one of his pockets was an American $20 gold piece, which he had shown me when he was in Manila with a peace embassy some months before.

"The articles of most importance and interest, however, were documents which he had in his pockets. Of these there were many, all of which were turned over to Major March. Some were muster rolls, some were letters and instructions from Aguinaldo, one was a note from Aguinaldo which had been brought by the native to Pilar during the fight. When the native was searched the receipt for this note was found, signed by Pilar, and tucked away in his hat. Many letters were found, most of them from his sweetheart, Dolores Jose, who lived in Dagupan. A handkerchief bearing her name was also found in his pocket. One letter was found from the president of Lingay and gave the exact number of soldiers in March's command. Pilar's diary, which ran from November 19 on to the day of his death, was of remarkable interest, for it detailed many things regarding the wild flight of himself and Aguinaldo's party up the coast. The last words written in it were pathetic and indicated something of the noble character of the man. The passage, which was written only a few minutes previously, while the fight was on and while death even then was before him, said: 'I am holding a difficult position against desperate odds, but I will gladly die for my beloved country.'

"Pilar alive and in command, shooting down good Americans, was one thing, but Pilar lying in that silent mountain trail, his body half denuded of its clothes, and his young, handsome, boyish face discolored with the blood which saturated his blouse and stained the earth, was another thing. We could not help but feel admiration for his gallant fight, and sorrow for the sweetheart whom he left behind. The diary was dedicated to the girl, and I have since learned that he was to have married her in Dagupan about two weeks before. But the Americans came too soon. Instead of wedding bells there sounded the bugle calls of the foe and he was hurriedly ordered to accompany his chief, Aguinaldo, on that hasty retreat to the mountains. The marriage was postponed, and he carried out his orders by leaving for the north.

"Pilar was one of the best types of the Filipino soldier. He was only 23 years old, but he had been through the whole campaign in his capacity as brigadier-general. It was he who commanded the forces at Quingua the day that Col. Stotsenberg was killed, and it may be remembered that the engagement that day was one of the most bloody and desperate that has occurred on the island. He was a handsome boy, and was known as one of the Filipinos who were actuated by honestly patriotic motives, and who fought because they believed they were fighting in the right and not for personal gain or ambition.” (Philippine Information Society[1.7], 61-62)

And here is the report of Richard Henry Little, a war correspondent for the ChicagoTribune:

"I had seen the youngest and bravest of the Filipino generals die while vainly trying to rally his men for one last effort to hold the Americans back; had seen the last-ditch fight of the war — the fight the pick and flower of the Filipino army had made in a frantic attempt to hold back the Americans until Aguinaldo made good his escape.

"It was a great fight that was fought away up on the trail of lonely Tilad Pass on that Saturday morning of December 2. It brought glory to Major Marsh's battalion of the Thirty-third 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 in the pass that morning to arrest the onward march of the Americans. Seven were all that went back over the pass that night to tell Aguinaldo 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 them, appealing one moment 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 slowly back to the second in full sight of our sharpshooters and under a 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. 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 horseback rolled to the ground, and when the troops charging up the mountainside reached him, the boy general of the Filipinos was dead.

"We went on up the mountainside. After H company had driven the insurgents out of their second position and killed Pilar, the other companies had rushed straight up the trail, and never stopped until they were far up above the clouds and there was no longer an insurgent in sight. As we went up the trail we passed dead Filipino soldiers. We counted ten in all. Some had been shot several times. We found bloody trails that led to places on the edge of the cliffs, where wounded men had either jumped or fallen off. We passed the second entrenchment high up on the trail. It was built of heavy rocks well banked with earth. Just past this a few hundred yards, we saw a solitary body lying in the road. The body was almost stripped of clothing, and there were no marks of rank left on the blood-soaked coat. But the face of the dead man had a look I had never noticed on the face of other dead men I had found in insurgent uniform on the field of battle, in the wake of an American firing line. The features were clear cut and forehead high and shapely. I decided the man must have been an insurgent officer. A soldier came running down the trail.

"'That's old Pilar,' he said. 'We got the old rascal. I guess he's sorry he ever went up against the Thirty-third.'

"'There ain't no doubt about its being Pilar' rattled on the young soldier. 'We got his diary, and his letters, and all his papers, and Sullivan of our company's got his pants, and Snider's got his shoes, but he can't wear them because they're too small, and a sergeant in G company got one of his silver spurs and a lieutenant got the other, and somebody swiped the cuff buttons before I got here or I would have swiped them, and all I got was a stud button and his collar with blood on it.'

"'So this was the end of Gregorio del Pilar. Only twenty-two years old, he managed to make himself a leader of men when he was hardly more than a boy, and at last, had laid down his life for his convictions. Major Marsh had the diary. In it he had written under the date of December 2, the day he was killed:

"'The general has given me the pick of all the men that can be spared and ordered me to defend the pass. I realize what a terrible task is given me. And yet I feel that this is the most glorious moment of my life. What I do is done for my beloved country. No sacrifice can be too great.'

"'A private, sitting by the campfire was exhibiting a handkerchief. 'It's old Pilar's. It's got 'Dolores Hosea' on the corner. I guess that was his girl. Well, it's all off with Gregorio.'

"'Anyhow,' said Private Sullivan, 'I got his pants. He won't need 'em anymore.'

"The man who had the general's shoes strode proudly past, refusing with scorn a Mexican dollar and a pair of shoes taken from one of the private insurgent soldiers. A private 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. Not even a blanket or a poncho had been thrown over 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 in his glory.

"And when Private Sullivan went by in his trousers, and Snider with his shoes, and the other man who had the cuff buttons, and the sergeant who had the spur, and the lieutenant who had the other spur, and the man that had the handkerchief, and another man that had his shoulder-straps, it suddenly occurred to me that his glory was about all we had left of him." (Van Meter, 344-348)

H.H. Van Meter narrates what happened to Del Pilar's body, viz:

"New York, March 15. — A correspondent of the Evening Post, writing from Manila under date of February 2, says: When Gregorio del Pilar's body was found American soldiers stripped it of every bit of clothing, taking the rings from the fingers and a locket from the neck. Not a stitch of any kind was left on the body, everything being taken for souvenirs. For two days the body was left by the roadside unburied until its odor was offensive, and some Igorrotes were ordered to cover it with dirt. Among the things taken were his watch, money, a gold, and a diamond ring. Our American heroes did not stop at ''stealing the pennies off of a dead man's eyes," but they stripped the last stitch of clothing off of his body and then left it without burial, but had he been a hated Briton the brave old Boers of South Africa would have buried him with psalms and prayers and military honors." (Van Meter, 348)

According to accounts, the remains of General Del Pilar were eventually buried by an American soldier Lieutenant D. P. Quinlan and on the spot was placed a stone marker with the following inscriptions:

"GENERAL GREGORIO DEL PILAR KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF TILA. PASS DECEMBER 2, 1899 COMMANDING AGUINALDO'S REAR GUARD AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN" (Signed) D. P. Quinlan, 2d Lieutenant, IIth Cavalry."(Blount, 249)