Gregorio Del Pilar - Military Career

Military Career

On December 28, 1896, he participated in an attack in Kakarong de Sili - Pandi, Bulacan on a town inimical to the Katipunan. On January 1, 1897, he was among the defenders when a Spanish counterattack retook the town, receiving a slight wound when a bullet grazed his forehead. His courage and bravery in that action won him recognition and a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant. In August 1897, then a Captain, he met with Emilio Aguinaldo in his Biak-na-bato headquarters and proposed an attack on a Spamish garrison in Paombong, Bulacan. Aguinaldo approved his plan and the attack was successfully carried out with the capture of 14 Mauser rifles. Shortly thereafter, Aguinaldo raised him to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, he went into exile in Hong Kong with Aguinaldo and other revolutionary leaders.

After Americans defeated the Spanish in the Battle of Manila Bay during Spanish-American War, Aguinaldo, del Pilar, and other exiled leaders returned to the Philippines. Aguinaldo named del Pilar Dictator of Bulacan and Nueva Ecija provinces.

On June 24, 1898, he accepted the Spanish surrender of his home town of Bulacan. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.

When the Philippine-American War broke-out on February 1899, following the sale of the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris of 1898, del Pilar led his troops to a victory over Major Franklin Bell in the first phase of the Battle of Quingua (also known as Plaridel) on April 23, 1899. During the battle, his forces repelled a cavalry charge and killed the highly respected Colonel John M. Stotsenburg, after whom Clark Air Base was originally named (Fort Stotsenburg).