Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1911-04-28
REBELS MASSACRE
BOY LIEUTENANT
AND COMMAND
LOODY ENCOUNTER ON
CUERNAVACA RAILROAD
Young Officer Refuses to Sur
render, Is Slain and Only Two
of His Thirty Men Are Left
Alive When Smoke Clears,
fsy Morning Journal Special LEASED wire,


NV Morning Journal Special leased wirel
Mexico City, April 27.-Refusing to
! surrender or to leave the train on
which he and his command of thirty
soldiers were being brought to the
capital, second lieutenant little
more than a boy. yesterday engaged
i'm battle with force OF 400 rebels
at Cajones, Guerrero.
At the conclusion of the brief en-
counter the lieutenant and twenty
eight soldiers were dead and the re-
naming two of his men were prison.
ers. One of the arms of the lieuten-
ant was shot away.
The rebels were under command of
General Prudencio Figueros. Learn
ing that troops were being carried on
the Cuernavaca division of the Ma
tional Railways the rebel leaders
marched to Cajones, a station some
distance below Cuernavaca. When
the train stopped he sent forward a
messenger to demand the surrender of
the troops and a request, IL they would
not surrender. to abandon the train
in order that the lives of the passen.
gers be not endangered.
Fresh from the School of Aspira-
antes, a military training school the
boyish officer sent back word that he
had orders so continue on that train.
Little time was lost in beginning the
fight. The rebels poured down the
embankment on either side of the
train and almost simultaneously the
shooting was begun by them and by
the soldiers on the train.
Passengers, who had been imploring
the young officer to yield, were in a
panic. The cries of women and child
rem were heard In the roar OF the
rifles and shots from the rebels ralSed
the sides OF the train. many entering
the coaches occupied by pnssrngers.
But one, however, did rersonal dam
age. That one killed Luis Bustam-
ante, a young civil engineer on his way
to the capital to be married. Bustam-
ante was l1neeling beside a frightened
little girl passenger attempting to
comfort her when ne was shot.
Passengers who arrived here on the
the train late last night brought the
story Of the battle to the capital and
today there stood In the yards of the
railway the bullet-scarred coaches
mute evidence of the encounter.
AT no time did the federals betray
signs Of cowardice. With the blood
of their companions running from the
Of h., fIu
the men coolly fired in to the ranks
of their assallants until but two re-
mained.
In the first-class coach, immedfate-
~ in the rear of the soldiers car was
riding the jefe poltico of Igua, Guer-
rero. The rebels forced their way
through the panic-stricken passengers,
declaring they would improve the OPP
portunity of ridding the country OF
one more of his kind.
With the jefe politioo were travel
Ing his wife and five children. These
surrounded the man and with tears
running down their faces begged the
rebels to spare his life. After a short
consultation the rebels told the wife
that the entire family might continue
their journey.
Following the fighting while the
dead federals were being taken from
the car and the rebels were collecting
their dead and wounded--and none
could tell how many of them had been
hit by the Federalism American talk
ed with Figueroa, the rebel leader.
He said he had been commissioned a
general by Madero and placed in
command of the troops in the states
of Guerrero, Puebla, Oaxaca and
Morelos.
General Figeuroa added that he was
now concentrating his forces for an
attack upon Iguala, whence they
would march upon Cuernavaca. once
that point is taken, according to the
plan as he outlined it, there Will begin
a general advance by all the rebel
forces in the south upon the national
capitol.