The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-17
GEN. DEL PILLARS DEATH.
TIE YOUNG FILIPINO P4IRJO
AND HERO.


A Grim Yet Moving Picture of War-A
Filipino Who Died for His Country
Life.
A very strong and moving description
of the engagement in Luzon last De-
cember, in which the young and talen-
ted Filipino patriot, General Gregorio
del Pillar, was killed, has been lately
printed in the Chicago Sunday Tribune.
The writer of this realistic picture of
war is. Richard Henry Little the Tri-
Dunes regular correspondent, who was
with the battalion of the Thirty-third
volunteer infantry that won the noun
famous pass where Pillar fell. Aguinal-
do was being hotly pursued by the
Americans, and General Pillar, with
sixty Filipino soldiers, was trying to
hold Tilad pass in order to facilitate
Aguinaldo's retreat. Taking up Mr..
Titles story in the midst Of the fight,
one reads:
How the first man got on top of that
cliff, Tompkins says he doesn't know.
They had reached its pase and were
looking up, wondering how to reach the
top, thirty feet above them, when sud-
denly they saw two insurgents peering
straight down at them There was no
way of escape for the company. The
ingurgents could have crushed them
with rocks before they had retreated
twenty yards. Boys" yelled Temp
kins, get up that cliff. For God S
sake, men climb as you never climbed
before"
And" said Tompl1ins afterward, IT
am ready to believe the Darwinian theo-
ry now. You ought to have seen those
monkeys of mine climb" They threw
themselves against that wall like wild
beasts. They gouged out rocks and
earth with their fingers and planted
their feet in the holes. They caught at
bushes with their teeth, they dug their
nails into the cefts of the rock, and
they got to the top. The first men tore
up a blanket that some one had carried
up that terrible climb. They tore it
into strips, and knotted the pieces and
threw them down to the men below.
Finally the whole company had reached
the top. The men took shelter behind
rocks, and without moment, even for
gaining breath, opened up on the in
surgents below them. The insurgents
seemed dazed, and hardly kenw what
to do. The two who had looked over the
precipice had apparently run away in
terror without notifying their comrades
that the Americans were upon them.
The men in the trenches finally began
to fire at the Americans, but the latter
were now protected by the cloud, and
the insurgents fire went wild The in
surrector began to run blindly up the
trail. Some threw themselves over the
edge Of the cliff, and escaped by work.
ing down into clefts in the rock, or
reaching the shelter of dense growth
of bushes or bamboo. Pillar, on his
horse, was the last to leave the trench.
Company H could hear him calling to
his men to stop running. alto, Alto!'
he screamed, and some of his men
paused, only to be shot down in their
tracks by the merciless fire from the
cliff. Pillar galloped away up the trail.
Corporal Perry, the best shot in the
regiment looked at Lieutenant True.
II can get him." he said. well, get
hm.'' shouted the lieutenant. Perry
slowly tinkered with the sights on his
rifle.
II guess it must be somewhere bout
six hundred and fifty yards" he said.
Are you going TO shoot or not?"
yelled Lieutenant True.
whats that?" said Perry, slowly.
II said, Are you going to shoot or not?
That man is reforming his men, and
they are going to kill some of u.s.
"Oh," said Perry 81 didn't hear what
you ali said I guess it must be seven
hundred yards by this time" and he
showed his sight higher.
It'll be two miles howled the
wrathful lieutenant, as he lodged bull
let that popped close to his head.
'Shoot, or Ill have you court-mar-
tailed"
The lieutenant's remark stopped at
the crack of Perry's rifle. The man on
horseback had thrown up his hands and
was swinging in his saddle. Then he
dropped heavily to the trail and his
horse galoped riderless up the noun
tain side.
Perry patted his rifle affectionately
II done got i'm lieutenant" he said.
"W11en are you going to do that court
martialing?"
we WbIl OH up lll0 1lOuuldlu Sluc.
After HI company had driven the insur-
gents out Of their second position and
killed Pillar the other companies had
rushed straight up the trail and never
stopped until they We're 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 intrenchment high up on the |
trail. 1t was built of heavy rocks we'll !
banked with earth. Just past this |
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 had never noticed on
the faces of, the other dead men l had
found in insurgent uniforms on the field |
of. battle in the wake of an American
firing line The features were clear cut |
and the forehead high and shapely. I
decided the man must have been an in
surgent officer. A soldier came run
ming down the trail That's old Pillar