volume 2, pages 735-741).

General Young, whose movement is referred to above, reported to General Otis from Pozorrubio, on the 17th of November: "Aguinaldo is now a fugitive and an outlaw, seeking security in escape to the mountains or by sea. My cavalry have ridden down his forces wherever found, utterly routing them in every instance, killing some, capturing and liberating many prisoners, and destroying many arms, ammunition, and other war impediments." On the 30th, Major March was sent by General Young, as he expresses it, "on Aguinaldo's trail," and encountered the forces of the Filipino General Pilar in the Tila Pass. The following is Major March's report of the fight which then occurred, and in which the Filipino commander fell: "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. The barricade was loopholed 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 up 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. {383} 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. … At Cervantes I learned that the force at Tila Pass was a picked force from Aguinaldo's body guard, and that it was wiped out of existence. Aguinaldo with his wife and two other women and a handful of men were living in a convent at Cervantes, perfectly secure in his belief that Tila Pass was an impregnable position. It was the insurgents' Thermopylæ."

_Report of Lieutenant-General Commanding the Army, 1900,