Following the Battle of Tangadan Pass on 4 Dec., Col. Luther Hare's 220 men of the 33rd Infantry headed south, while Lt. Col. Robert Lee Howze's 130 men of the 34th Infantry headed north, and succeeded in freeing several hundred Spanish, and 26 American prisoners, including Lt. James Gillmore's men of the Siege of Baler, from Manuel Tinio's Brigade by 18 Dec.