The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-08-18

recent war between Honduras and
Nicaragua
John P Poe, who once kicked a
field goal for Princeton, winning the
most sensational football game ON re-
cord, has just returned to Nevada
from Honduras. where he served as
captain in the Honduras army. About
his own service he has little to say,
but while in San Francisco on his
way to Nevada he told the story of
Mills, an American adventurer, re-
Gently of Goldfield, New, who with
his back to an adobe wall held the
whole Nicaraguan army of invasion
at bay and killed twenty-five of Presi-
dent Zelaya's men before he was
finally borne down by overwhelming
numbers.
The story comes from an officer
in the Nicaraguan forces who came
in on the close of Mills great fight.
Mills belonged to that class of
men who pioneer before the pioneers.
His first great ancestor was Ulysses
and his forbears harried the Spanish
main. The spirit that lived in him
and kept him up against that adobe
wall when almost cut to pieces was
what made a soldier of fortune of
him. He drifted along the frontier
of America from Nome to Panama,
and no one ever cared to ask where
he came from originally. AS a man
he was all there, and he was known
for having heavy hand when
trouble arose And that was
enough. He passed all through the
Alaska mining excitements and came
from there to Nevada, but he did not
have it in him to keep money, and
he would not make the sacrifices
necessary to accumulate it. At
thirty he had some heavy seams in
his face from hard living in hard
parts of the world, but he had all
the ease and grace of youth in his
long thin figure. His strength lay
chiefly in his arms and shoulders.
He was thin in the hips and lank
in the legs and hated to walk worse
than a cowboy From cold and trop-
ic sun his face was bronzed perma-
nently. With his black hair and
very dark eyes he looked the part
he played in the world. Above all
things he was obviously an American
and one who cut his way clean when
he had anything to do.
When there was rumor of war
in Central America, Mills, who was
at that time in Goldfield came to
San Francisco and shipped on the
first boat He readily obtained a
captaincy in the Honduran army,
and in the upset state of affairs just
before the war broke out helped get
the army into shape
Then came the rumor that the
cross the Honduran frontier in the
interior. Mills was detailed with
a company of native soldiers to go
out into the mountains where the
Nicaraguans were expected to cross,
and avoiding the main body of troops
to pick up any skirimshing parties
he could find and learn the number
of the Nicaraguans.
At Amisegir, a mountain town
which the Nicaraguans were advanc-
ing upon and were forced to occupy
as a key to the position, Mills found
himself the only man in the Hondu-
ran forces who realized what was at
stake. He prepared to hold the place
against all corners.
The town lies high up on the hills,
with nothing but zigzag mountain
trails leading to it. They are the
highways reales-of Hon
duras, though in any civilized coun-
try they would be called goat paths
Mills realized that he could not
be forced from the town by artillery
as it could only be moved against
him on the backs of mules. He took
up his position in an old graveyard
commanding the last angle of the
road with thick adobe walls jutting
out at sharp angle over the hill
side
The value OF this place for him
lay not in the fact that these walls
formed a first barrier against the
enemy, but also that once he had got
his handful of barefooted, hungry
soldiery into the graveyard he was
able to take up his stand at the gate
way, the only exit from the place
to keep his men from running away
as the enemy approached. This was
only accomplished after he had shot
down one of his own men who tried
to brush past him and had locked
the iron gate, throwing the key ovel
the wall. Seeing themselves trap
ped, his men, after one futile rush
which stretched two of them at hi
feet, recognized their master ant
manned their positions. Mills made
them knock holes through the wal
on the side commanding the trail
through which, had they been Ameri
cans, they could have kept off thu
enemy almost forever. What he haC
not reckoned with. though. was thei
propensity to blaze away all thei
ammunition regardless of whethe
they are hitting anything or not. A.
soon as their fire slackened tn,
Nicaraguan general with the help o
machine gun placed behind his mel
forced them up the steep hill. The.
Dutnumbered their foes ten to one
Swarming along the trail. although
the first ranks went down from tn,
fire of the men behind the wall
they managed to worm their way VI
to the graveyard, The shooting
holes having become useless, Mills
men, trapped as they were, spen