The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-12-09
ROUT OF HUERTA FORCES
In NORTH mex. COMPLETE
All of the Long Caravan Not Expected
to Reach Preside Before Tonight.
Bitter Hardships Experienced by
Travellers Across Desert.
(By Associated Press J

rreslulo, rex, Dec. 9.-AS far as |
the eye could reach struggling refu-
gees from Chihuahua City came across
the desert to the border 1t is expect |
ed that all of the caravan will not be |
In until tonight. The refugees say
there are four thousand in the caravan. |
Federals are fortifying Ojinaga where
they expect to make last stand.
The complete rout of Huerta's Fed
eral army in Northern Mexico, with
the frantic fight of his generals for
safety to the border and the demoral-
ization of the unpaid troops, was es-
tablished with the arrival Monday at
Ojinaga, Mexico, opposite Presidio, of
the civilians and soldiers who desert
ed Chihuahua City.
In the remarkable hegira which
. struggled for eight days over a 1876
mile trail through the desert and en-
dured great hardships for want of
food and water were General Saliva
dor Mercado, Huertas deposed mill
tary governor and commander of the
Federal troops in the north; General
Pascual Orozco, General Antonio Ro-
jas, General Marcelo Caraveo, General
Ynez Salazar and a host of subordi-
nate officers. They had deserted their
post in fear of General Villas army
and virtually had surrendered to the
rebels Chihuahua, the state capital
and the largest of the far northern
cities.
Along with them came, burdened
with what property they could carry,
men women and children represent
ing some of the richest families in the
republic. Their fight with the army
was in the face of reports that they
might expect no mercy should they
fall into the hands of the rebels.
Louis Terrazas, wealthy land
owner, reputed to own half of the
state of chihuahua was said to have
brought with him a vast fortune in
cash, fearing it might be looted by the
rebels If he remained in the evacuated
city.
Witnesses viewing the oncoming
throng from the hills at Ojinaga re-
ported the refugees were scattered in
a thin line for several miles into the
interior and that the dusty confusion
of broken down wagons, disabled ar
tillery and mingling of disheartened
soldiers and famishing civilians as
they slowly moved over the desert
presented a spectacle of universal
despair.
Kept In Panic.
The fear of being unable to keep
pace with the escorting army, Of be-
ing lost on the desert, or caught by
the rebels, added to the miseries of SO
precipitate fight and kept the refu-
gees in almost a continuous frenzy.
Their arrival in a panic, but unmo-
Tested by the rebels formed one of the
most tragic incidents of the present
revolution.
Many who had started out in We
hicles later marched on foot; scores
rho attempted to carry their treas
ures had to abandon them through
sheer WEAKNESS, so their tracks were
literally strewn with discarded imped
ments, clothing, bric-a-brac and valu-
ed trihkets which they had hoped to
carry to safety.
Behind them they left the black
ened ashes of camp fires marking at
eight stages on the trip the eight
nights where they had camped, some
times in a cold wind blowing off the
high plateau and often within the
hearing of bowling coyotes. The
travelling in the daytime was some
times through sand storms. 1t was
impossible to estimate the. number O
refugees, butt observers say they
would total ssveral lh6usandz