Attack on Gandara
LUKBAN
Since March 29, Lt. Stewart in Gandara had sent messages to Gilmore that his detachment was under attack by over a hundred rebels, many of them with rifles. It seemed that they were intending to attack at night, but the sentry discovered late in the afternoon that one of their detachments were moving into position, and natives were getting scarce around there. So the sentry called to the corporal of the guard, who immediately went around the hill to the church. Shortly after his arrival there, a group of rebels approached him. The corporal did not hesitate to shoot their leader who was killed. But as they turned to return to the camarin, they saw that they were surrounded.
Luckily, Lt. Stewart arrived on the scene as he was just down in the river. He started up the church as soon as he heard the shot of the corporal. Drawing his revolver, he killed two men and wounded a third. After an hour of exchange of fire, the rebels withdrew. They counted five killed, but Stewart was certain he had shot more as the rebels were seen carrying their wounded.
The fighting did not stop that day. Two days later, rebels still surrounded the town, so that Gilmore instructed Stewart to retreat. He wanted to give the same order to Spellman but he could not get a message to him since the natives refused to carry messages. Spellman arrived the next day with 10 men, saying he left 10 men at Taiveran and the rest of his company at Gandara. They had been fired at every night since the attack, he said. Gilmore wanted all his troops out of Taiveran and Gandara as soon as possible. They arrived on April 4.
“ What made the strain more severe was that we were not fighting civilized beings, but assassins who would murder one in his bed at night,” remarked Gilmore in his report to his superiors. He commended his appointee presidente Rufino Pido and his police and tenientes of the villages who provided them information on developments in the surrounding countryside. 9
According to Lukban, it was Capt. Serrano and Claro Guevarra who led the attack and successfully drove away the Americans from Gandara, where 50 of their troops were stationed. Guevarra said the American soldiers patrolled the nearby mountains but when they saw the rebels, they fled and hurried back to the town without engaging them. On the afternoon of the 27 th, the rebel troops attacked the town, killing 17 and wounding 11. The losses on the rebels’ side were three killed and seven wounded, all from the Battalion of Territorial Militia.
Lukban heaped praise on the deportment of one of his men, a native of Oras, who boldly dashed through the American line, killing seven
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