South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-04-04
American Eye Witness
Draws Vivid Picture of
Terrific Fight at Torreon
Gives First Hand Account of
How PanCho Villas Desper-
ate Rebels Stormed City
With Daring That Won.
By WILSON SCOTT.
SpeciaI Correspondence.


JUAREZ, Mexico, April Al have
just come in from the battlefields of
Torreon, where Mexican fought MeXi-
can with the ferocity OF grizzlies and
the headlong courage of Spartan
heroes.
For more than a week, battle fol-
lowed battle, charge followed charge.
The mountains rang daily and nightly
with the detonationS of artillery duelS.
1t was the greatest battle fought on
American soil since the American
Civil war!
A book could be written and possibly
will be written Of this great battle, but
L will only tell you OF the scenes that
impressed me, the incidents that thrill
ed me. the sights that burned into the
brains of the little squad of Ameri
cans who came down here to see Cen
eral Villa in the sternest test of his
battle-scarred life.
1t was a strange looking army that
left Bermejillo. General Villas base
on that Sunday afternoon which made
history in northern Mexico. A horde
OF u, 900 ragged, high-hatted, vaga-
bonds in command of a glorified bril-
gand, moved down the Mexican Ma
tional railroad track to the attack on
Torreons outlying towns. The flank
ers of Generals Venavides and Huerta
spread out for miles on each side of
the track.
A troop train carried the artillery
and the white enameled hospital train
brought up the rear.
villa Leads i'm Bandit Garb.
Villa himself, his suede uniform dis
loved so well, rode at the head OF the
line on his pinto pony, grinning
through his snaggled teeth, and shout
ing maledictionS in Spanish to the
mules of the supply train, or stopped
to give a sandal clad peon soldier a
light from his corn husk cigaret.
OFF to the south was Gomez Palacio,
the federal front, and behind that
squat adobe town was the Mountain
Of the Cross, which marked the goal
of all rebel ambition in the north
Torreon.
At sunset they squatted beside the
mesquite brush of the desert and
munched their tortillas, fearing to
light fires. for the attack was to be
at night and without warning.
The famous ship cannon, FL Nino,
was numbered and loaded. The cav
airy mounted their diminutive COW
ponies. the infantry broke into the
peculiar stiff-kneed shuttle which eats
up distance, Villas saber Tbis1 led the
silent signal for the charge.
Five thousand men threw them
selves on Gomez Palacio. where the
federal fighters squatted behind a
great corral made of sun-dried brick.
Five machine guns We're mounted on
the wall General Benavides rode at
this wall with his trim, brave cara
Gosa brigate, the pride Of the rebel
army, to return two days later with
its rangs cut to pieces and more than
two hundred of the brigade missing.
Even Women Fight.
Herrera, the school-teacher leader,
engaged Lerdo, the little town at the
elbow of the mountains, and was also
beaten back.
And this is how it was: Confident
that the federals would flee, as they
had done at Juarez, at Chihuahu and
at Ojinaga, the rebels old men, boys.
soldiers of fortune from foreign lands
and even ammunition-belted women,
had rushed the Birmingham corral
The artillery doomed behind them, the
machine guns, dead ahead, clucked
their cackle Of death. and the rifles
Spat viciously in the lOOpholes of the
collar,
From Sierra de Ia Pila, the noun
tain which browbeat Gomez PalaciO to
the west the federal cannon dropped
their bursting shrapnel shells among
the rebel troops with a deadly hail of
bullets.
A little group OF outriders gained an
adobe house squatting on the edge of
the town like a great loaf of brown
sugar. A trained federal funner found
the range and dropped a shell through
the matched roof Of the house, and
the dry, powdered dust flew in the air
like an exploded mine. Not a man
came out of that house alive.
A thanking attack was tried by the
rebel cavalry under Maxine Garcia.
They shot out from the right of the
column, the hats Of the vacqueros fly
ing in the wind, the riders shooting
as they galloped and the tri-color of
their flag swapping in the breeze
Again the graduate gunner on old
Mount Pila caught their range and
dropped shell after shell at their
horses noses. Riderless ponies went
wild and continued the charge.
Panic Breaks Loose.
The rebel infantry charged and re-
charged the great corral, when sud-
denly
Los Federales," shouted some
Mo GRO rod ho.- in nj