The death of General Gregorio del Pilar in the famous battle of Tirad Pass (Dec. 1, 1899)

Abstract

"Who is there," once asked the late President Manuel L. Quezon, " that can tread the level of loyalty and gallantry exhibited by Gregorio del Pilar, who, like a Spartan soldier, offered his life as a holocaust to duty?" Certainly not very many among our martyred dead and probably none among the living. For that reason the example of his sacrifice at Tirad Pass in the mountain fastness of Ilocos Sur on December 2, 1899, is the more inspiring. In the hero' s own deathless words, "No sacrifice can be too great."

General Del Pilar could have saved himself had he wished to, for even Aguinaldo whose retreat he was covering with his so-called Bulacan Battalion had tried to restrain him from joining his valiant soldiers in the defense of Tirad against the oncoming American forces. But the young general, ever the man and ever the patriot, answered that" it is better for me to be there, President, for then they will be able to ascend the mountain only when we are dead!" And die they did - fifty-three of the sixty men - including their staunch leader, who, to quote an American eye-witness of the dramatic encounter, was continually afoot under the heavy fire , sometimes in full view of the American sharpshooters, "urging his men to greater efforts , scolding them, praising them, cursing, threatening one moment to kill them himself if they did not stand firm and the next instant appealing to their love of their native land." It was such an impressive sight that the foes themselves did not know "whether to pray for a bit or miss" when an American soldier of Company H. of Major Marsh's battalion of the Thirty-Third volunteer infantry, who had squirmed his way out to the surface of a high flat rock, took steady, deliberate aim.