Manuel Tinio - The Battles in The North

The Battles in The North

On December 3, Tinio and his officers boldly decided to visit the American quarters in Vigan disguised as prosperous planters and businessmen. They were escorted throughout the camp, showed the quarters, the supplies of fine, American bacon and other provisions, the great stacks of cartridges. Their questions were readily answered. That very evening, the Tinio guerillas attacked! From San Quentin, 200 riflemen and bolomen led by Capt. Alejandrino went down the Mestizo River in bancas and spread out on both sides of the plaza of Vigan. Unluckily, at 3:45 that morning, some of the attackers in the dark streets came upon a drunken American patrol who then gave the alarm that roused the whole detachment. Although Filipino snipers were already in position in the buildings around the plaza, in the ensuing 4-hour battle at close range they were no match for the legendary Texas marksmanship and the inexhaustible supply of American ammunition. They were routed, leaving over 40 dead. The survivors fled to Tangadan. But Gen. Young was already assaulting the fortifications with his 265 men. The Americans successfully scaled the steep, 200-foot cliffs flanking the entrenchments to gain a vantage position. The final assault came in the evening of Dec. 4. Outflanked and outnumbered, Gen. Tinio decided to save his men from carnage and retreated. He, however, earned the admiration of Col. Howze who wrote glowingly on the Vauban-type Tangadan defenses:

"The trenches captured are the best field trenches that have ever come under my observation. They terrace the mountainside, cover the valley below in all directions, and thoroughly control the road for a distance of 3 miles. They are permanent in nature, with perfect approaches, bomb-proofs, living sheds, etc., with shapes and revetments sodded and supported by timbers. The complete terrace of trenches number 10 in all, well connected for support, defense and retreat."

Gen. Young reported on the bravery of General Tinio and his men, that at the Battle of Tangadan,

"Some of their officers exposed themselves very gallantly on the parapets during heavy firing."

The day after the Battle of Tangadan, December 5, the pursuing Americans invaded Tinio's headquarters in San Quintin, five kilometers away from the pass. They continued upstream on the Abra River to Bangued and liberated 1,500 Spaniards imprisoned there. The American prisoners and the Spanish general had been sent ahead to Ilocos Norte by Gen. Tinio for strategic reasons, with orders for them to be shot rather than be rescued by the Americans. But the capture of Bangued was a major setback for the Filipinos, because the Brigade arsenal was located there. Three tons of sheet brass, two tons of lead, as well as supplies of powder, saltpeter and sulphur were found by the Americans.

The onslaught had started! Having captured Bangued, Gen. Young re-armed at Vigan and within a week made unopposed landings in Ilocos Norte at Pasuquin, Laoag and Bangui. He sent cavalry north from Vigan, destroying trenches and defense works around Magsingal, Sinait, Cabugao and Badoc.

Meanwhile, the rescue of the American prisoners from Bangued became the task of Col. Hare and some members of the 33rd. In Abra, Gen. Tub had been roaming the farms disguised as a rich planter on a white horse. In this way he made regular daily visits to the various American outposts to chat with the enemy soldiers. He even went so far as to invite them to his house in Bangued for dinner. After gathering all the information that he could, Tinio went back to the hills each day to instruct his men on what to do that night. Unfortunately, one day his photograph was circulated among the Americans and the daring general had no choice but to take to the hills with Col. Hare and a picked group trailing him! They caught up with the Brigade's baggage train of 70-80 carts in Dingras, Ilocos Norte. When Gen. Tinio realized that the Americans were exerting all efforts to surround him, he had the American prisoners conducted to Cabugaoan in Apayao country as a diversion, spreading false rumors that he was with the group. (He had, in fact, on Dec. 12, though surrounded by the Americans in Solsona, Ilocos Norte, near the boundary of Apayao, managed to elude them dressed as a peasant woman.) The unsuspecting Americans took the bait and immediately went up to the Apayao highlands to go after their compatriots. After days of marching in the wild Cordillera Mountains, they finally caught up with the abandoned prisoners on Dec.18 at the headwaters of the Apayao-Abulug River. On crudely constructed rafts, the Americans eventually reached the coast in Abulug, Cagayan, where the footsore and weary soldiers waited for the U.S. Navy to evacuate them back to Vigan. The rescued prisoners were sent to Manila.

Gen. Tinio spent the next couple of months in the mountains of Solsona, where he began fortifying the peak of Mt. Bimmauya, east of Lapog. It was also in the remote headwaters of the Bical River above Lapog that an arsenal had been set up to replace that captured at Bangued. This operated for a year. Rifles were repaired, cartridges refilled, gunpowder and homemade hand guns (paltik) manufactured with real feats of mechanical ingenuity. Twenty to thirty silversmiths and laborers could fashion 30-50 cartridges a day by hand!

The defenses constructed by Gen. Tinio were similar to those that he had put up in Tangadan the year before, but, having learned his lesson, he situated the defenses on a peak that Lt. J. C. Castner described as follows:

"one of the principal peaks (is) on the coast range of northwestern Luzon. Its altitude is between 2,500 and 3,000 feet above the Rio Cabugao that washes its western shore. By reason of standing more to the westward than its immediate neighbors and being bare of timber, it affords a view of the entire coastal plain from Vigan on the South to Laoag on the north. The lower part of Monte Bimmauya is wooded, but the upper three-fourths is bare of trees and bush, and, in certain places, even the grass has been burned off by the insurgents. Consequently, there is no cover for attacking troops ascending the western spur of the mountain. The slopes of the upper portion make angles of from 45-60 degrees with the horizon. The only trail in existence or even possible on this western spur... is so narrow that it is what is known among geographers as a ‘knife-edge’, hence the only formation admissible was a column of files, two men not being able to march abreast. The ascent is so steep and the footing so insecure that one has to watch continually where he plants his feet to avoid precipitation down the precipice-like slopes on either side."