December 2, 1899 · Northern Luzon Theater
December 2, 1899
To buy time for Aguinaldo's escape into the Cordillera, 24-year-old General Gregorio del Pilar held the 4,500-foot Tirad Pass with sixty riflemen against Major March's Texan battalion. The Americans, guided up a goat trail around the position, killed 52 of the 60 defenders. Del Pilar died in the saddle, shot through the neck; an American officer later returned his diary to his family.
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