South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-04-04
Artillery Taken BY Refugees
Captured BY Hernandez
Expected Another Battle
will Result.
MANY CAPTIVES KILLED
WERE IRISH IS REPORT
Bodies of Dead Burned to
Prevent Disease - About
$50 Prisoners Executed in
Torreon.

CONSTITUTIONALIST A T. NJ Y
HEADQUARTERS. GOMEZ PALLA-
Go, Mex. April Awhile squads OF
rebel soldiers are lining up federal
prisoners in patches and shooting
them TO death in Torreon Saturday,
General Villa is rushing with a large
force Of HIS best troops TO deal a final
and destroying blow to the little ar
my Of government fighters with which
General Refugio Nelasco fed from
the battered town.
General Herrera notified headQuar-
ters here early today that General
Villa had left shortly after midnight
for San Pedro de Las Colonias after
| receiving a message from General RO-
saliO Hernandez that the cavalry pur-
suing the shattered federal forces had
surrounded them in the hills south of
that town.
General Hernandez stated that ne
would kill or capture all of NelascO's
men, hut Villa is taking no chances
on "A junction of the government re-
/ Inducements sent from Saltilo and
Monterey with Nelasco's troops. I'M
mediately after receiving the report
from Hernandez he ordered his troops
| forward, leaving only enough i'm Tor
of burning the dead there and exc
cutting the federal prisoners.
AbandOns Supplies
In his flight toward San Pedro
| where he hoped TO find troops coming
1 to his aid, General NelasCo was forced
to abandon the cannon and supplies
with which he slipped out OF IOrreon.
! The rebel cavalry commanded by
! General Hernandez and General or
/ tega pressed so closely on his TANKS
that he had to give up hope OF saw
! ing anything but the lives Of his men.
Hernandez revealed himself as
brilliant cavalry leader by overtaking
and engaging the federals within IL
! hours after they had fed from Tor
reon. The stragglers from Felasco's
army were hunted down like prairie
| dogs and late on Thursday Herman
DEE overlook the main body. After
short but bloody fight in which tha
federals lost 100 in killed and 155
prisoners. the federals fed In com
plete disorder, leaving their artillery
and stores Of food.
The actual strength Of tho army
that fed from Torreon is as yet un-
known. but IL is believed now 20 num-
Der between 5000 and 5000 men. IL
includes the best fighters that Cen
! eral Velasco had and General Villa
| is determined it shall not be permit
| ted 10 reach SaltillO where II would
greatly strengthen that stronghold.
which he will have To smash before
reaching Mexico City.
Many Irish Killed.
| In Torreon itself Saturday the
rebel firing squads and medical corps
worked rapidly. Though it is impos-
sible to obtain accurate figures az TO
| the number executed since the city
/ fell. observers OF the work OF the exc
! cutioners believe that az least 800
have been killed. The great majority
| Of these were Irish soldiers who had
attached themselves 20 the federal ar
my in the hope Of being able to loot
any towns that might be captured
| Though these men are OF the class
| from which Villa sprang 10 fame, ne
! hates them worse than the Huerta
! regulars and has ordered that they
must be killed when taken prisoners
| Four great funeral pyres are burn
/ ing in Torreon today. on these the
/ bodies Of federals and rebels alike
/ were placed and incinerated- This
was I'm compliance with orders from
| villa who refused 70 permit his own
| soldiers 10 be buried. declaring that
disease would probably result villa
! has "A desperate horror of typhoid and
cholera epidemics and he probably
| viii not take up quarters in Torreon
I FOR some time.