Arizona republican., 1913-11-26
EXECUTIONS ON
 BATTLE FIELD
Federal Captives Are Made to Strip So That Death Dealing Bullets Will Not Perforate Clothing Later Appropriated by Rebels
ASSOCIATED PRESS DIsPArCHI

ASSOCIATED PRESS DISFAIC6I
 FL PASO, Nov. 25.-The federal forces which have engaged General Villas rebel troops near Tierra Blanca for the last two days have been defeat ed and routed according to an official message sent at eight o'clock tonight bv Villa to the rebel chiefs at Juarez.
 General Villa said in his message that the federal troops were in disgrace fuI retreat to the south, and that his forces captured all their artillery, which they left behind them and their seven trains in which they came on the battlefield. Fierce fighting is in progress tonight on the right (wesD flank of the rebels south of Juarez, where General Caraveo, commander of one of the federal columns is reported to be making a desperate attack on this section of Villas forces in an at tempt to break through to Juarez.
 At the center of the left wing of Villas army the fighting seems to have subsided as only an occasional shot IS exchanged.
 A train bearing six wounded reached .Juarez tonight bringing the total num- Der of wounded rebels being cared for in Juarez up to 116. Mrs. Villa, wife of the rebel commander has taken charge of the hospital at Juarez where the wounded are being treated.
 Sitting the multitude of conflicting reports from the battle line of the con- stitutionaIists below Juarez, the salient facts that Villas fourteen mile long line is unbroken and that he captured more than a hundred prisoners and few field pieces seem confirmed to- night.
 Rumors and reports e1nanating from Villas headquarters at JuareZ early to- night are to the effect that the federal forces are about to be caught between the two forces of the rebels that two thousand Sonora rebels are making for the rear of the federals and should be able to engage the federal rear tomOr- row, that General Manuel Chaos rebel command from the south of Chihuahua, too, has sI1irted Chihuahua City, and are advancing on the rear of the fed erals, and already have taken posses sion of the federal lines of communica- ton and transportation to Chihuahua City. The exact result of the action about Saragosa. where Salazar gener- ally is reported today to be surrounded by rebels and fighting an artillery duel is unknown tonight.
 Fighting which began at 4:3O o'clock this morning, had been Waged over nearly twenty miles of desert by three o'clock this afternoon, according to re- ports received. At three o'clock this afternoon the federal shells were fall ing around the rebel hospital train moving toward Juarez and General Will las forces seemed to be falling back.
 wounded rebel officer brought to Juarez on the Red Cross train which arrived shortly after one o'clock this afternoon is authority for the state ment that a number of Salazar's fed eraI volunteers captured in the fighting before Saragosa this morning, were brought before Villa, who ordered them executed in the field. The order was carried out at once. The officer did not know exactly how many were exc cuted under the order, but thought thirty or fourty. The men had been cut off from the main body and were taken after a desperate fight. Some of them were wounded. As far as known only two federal officers captured since the fighting began have been spared. One of these lieutenant, whose fath- CT is major in Villas army and upon an appeal in a letter to Villa that the boys life be spared, the rebel commander ordered his execution stayed. Another sub-lientenant pleaded that he had been impressed into the federal service, which statement was corroborated by a number of Villas officers and he too, was given a new lease on life.
 Many rebel soldiers are wearing fed eral uniforms and overcoats, taken from the prisoners executed in the field. The prisoners were forced to strip before being shot in order that