Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-04-25
REBELS ARE V|CTORS
PREVENT MEXICAN TROOPS Re-
TAKING aqua PRlETA AFTER
ALL-DAY BATTLE.
SEVEN AMERICANS ARE SHOT
Citizens of Douglas, Ariz., Hit by Bull
lets While Fight RACES Across
6order-Diaz Troops Suffer Heavy
Loss in Killed and Wounded.

1000 insurrectos defending Aqua
Prieta, the Mexican town just across
the border from this place after an
all-day fight, the most sanguinary con-
fiict of the Mexican revolution.
The desperate effort of the 1900
Mexican national troops under Lieu
tenant Colonel Diaz TO retske the city
has failed and the federals have suf-
fered heavy losses in killed and
wounded. So far as Douglas was
concerned President Taft's demand
that hostilities be conducted in a
zone insuring safety to the Ameri-
cans was utterly disregarded.
Throughout the battle bullets rained
necessarily in the streets and riddled
the houses of this little Arizona town
The only reliable data of casualties
that can be obtained on the American
side of the line were seven American
men and women have been wounded.
most of them while going about their
business many blocks north of the
supposed border line. The wounded
in Douglas are being cared for at
Red Cross hospitals, established for
Mexican wounded
A protest has been wired to Presi-
dent Taft by Mayor Mcclure as fol-
lows: six persons have been shot
in Douglas during battle between
Mexican federals and insurrectos.
Battle still raging. Worst yet to
come. Bullets falling all over city.
Cannot something be done for our
population? Signed, S. F. Mcclure,
mayor of Douglas"
simultaneously with this protest.
Lieut.. Col. William A. Skunk, com
handing the United States troops
here, wired a list of known to be
wounded in this city. Public senti-
ment is rapidly reaching the danger
point, and one newspaper has open
ly called for Intervention in Mexico
rom four o'clock in the afternoon
until late in the night it was not safe
on any street in Douglas for people,
mauser bullets striking residences,
business blocks, smelters, railroad
shops and cars and cutting wires and
ricochetting from telegraph and tele-
phone poles, And military authorities
here say the worst is yet to come In
stead of fighting the battle in the des-
ert as they proposed the rebels in
trenched in and around Aqua Prieta
in such fashion as to make hopeless
Douglas immune from bullets, and tie
federal army instead of attacking
from the east or west as has been
promised advanced from the south
west, which placed Douglas much in
the same situation as the background
of target
American troops did everything pos
sible to protect the unfortunate Doug
las residents. Spectators were driven
back from the boundary line a dis
lance of six blocks, but notwithstand-
ing all their efforts several persons
were wounded. The inhabitants of
Douglas, despite the obvious danger,
were not to be denied the spectacle Of
battle. They crowded the roofs in
vast lhAOIlSo anu Qdl htIGu every
of vantage throughout the long hours
of conflict
That more were not wounded is
surprising, bat that any were wound
ed at all leaves Washington with a
grave problem to face. So far as can
be determined when dusk stopped the
fighting the rebel loss was trifling,
consisting of several score wounded
and about 20 dead while the federal
losses are estimated at more than 200.
In all particulars the battle was a
thrilling and dramatic novelty in this
war of outposts. II began with the
first rays of dawn and continued at in
tervals throughout the day, marked by
ferocious and determined battling on
both sides and by quality of valor
not expected or hitherto displayed in
this desultory internal war The po-
sitions Of the rebels throughout was
! that of the defensive. Protected by
| intrenchments they exacted a bitter
price from the federal forces instead
of an ineffective clash, usually eli
NAKED by hurried retreat The fight
was a standup battle on the side Of
the federals. suggestive of the old
shoulder to shoulder days OF the
| American rebellion. In an open
| stretch of desert, little like theater,
| by the blazing days of an April sun,
the two forces exchanged a perpetual
| fusillade. hour after hour, that marked
up conflict of exceptional ferocity
and determination. Throughout the
/ night the Mexican troops had been
encamped at Sulphur Springs, a wa
/ ter hole FIVE miles south of Aqua
! Prieta. Under command OF Lieut..
Col. Porfirio Diaz, cousin of the presi-
dent himself. the troops had vowed to
/ revenge the descent of Red" Lopez
/ and his command on Aqua Prieta.