Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-04-17
The FALL OF TORREON.
City Held Out Until All Generals We're
Disabled.
FORTIFICATIONS we're VERY FLIMSY.
Mexican Style Of Fighting is to Fire
Without Aiming-There Was Not a
Great Deal of Damage to the City
Artillery Fire Was Ineffective.

|, Great Deal of Damage to the City
Artillery Fire Was Ineffective.
st. Louis Globe Democrat.
FL Paso, Texas, April S.-Torreon
fell for what is surely the oldest rea-
! son in Latin American HISTORIAN
J inadequate supply Of generals Ger
tainly there were other contributary
causes, such as the constitutionalist
attacks and puerile Notifications, but
if the federal stock Of generals had not
given out, the troops could have been
forced to further fighting. And when
his second attack failed to capture Co
mez Palacio, and especially at Torre-
on, Pancho Villa was very nearly a
badly beaten man, though his army
was not demoralized.
This statement and those which fol-
low are made from personal observa-
tion. l left Chihuahua on March 16, in
a freight car on one Of the trains In
which Villa mobilized his army, was
in all Of the camps and saw the failure
of the attacks on Gomez Palacio and
Torreon. I was among the first to en-
ter Torreon, and with the first to leave
after the evacuation.
Prisoners Go Quietly to Death.
The campaign started and came to a
close in a typical manner. On the way
| to Torreon in a train Of wounded and
prisoners, we stopped at Bachimba
There was a little knot of men in front
Of one Of the cars Of prisoners, and in
their midst four men, three young and
one old. After a few minutes the old
chap was allowed to climb back into
the car with the other prisoners. Then
the group with the three prisoners in
the middle struggled informally across
the sunny desert to the bed Of a dry
water course. The prisoners walked
with the crowd, seeming part Of 1t,
and with neither apparent dread nor
anticipation. They climbed down the
| banks and stood quietly a moment.
Several shots were fired, more or less
at once, the guns within a few inches
/ VI luS NlCliiIo. "SiC oShSh ohoeS
afterward, who ever wished firing at
the bodies. Then the crowd drifted
back to the train, the conductor crying
''vamanos," and the engineer footing
the whistle to hurry the lagards.
At Yermo, the army detrained and
seemed to disappear into the wide fiat
valley between the mountain walls.
Each command picked some unoccu-
pied place and each man or little
group did the same.
| From Yermo the army marched to
| Coneojs, the definite concentration
camp. Here Villa Joined the troops.
After a days rest, Villa, with his
main force Of some 5000 men, columns
having been detached to operate east
and west marched to San Carlos, five
miles away, where the advanced guard
lay
Artillery Ineffective.
| For a time the train kept even with
the troops, then bad break in the
| line followed by others stopped all
progress and when night came we
could hear the fight at Gomez again.
In the luminous dawn We started
toward the front, where there was
still sporadic firing. The wounded and
stragglers were beginning to come in.
AS battle most from the rear, it look
ed like defeat Practically all Villas
forces are mounted, and the wounded
rode back two on a horse, the strong
er supporting his comrade, or II less
badly wounded, alone; some few on
foot half carried by comrades.
| Just after sunset the battle COM
menced anew with vigor. l reached
the artillery position. The country
before Gomez Palacio is absolutely fiat
either open fields or covered with
sparse scrub. One Of the American
gunners told me that the night had
been spent wandering from position to
position, and after the march Of the
day before, men and animals were ex-
hausted He had had neither food nor
water for long time. His battery
was not in action.
Soon the federals found the range
and began dropping shrapnel uncom-
| fortably near. The mules OF artillery
and the caissons were withdrawn. A
man was hit by a Mauser bullet, none
as far as saw by shrapnel, and in a
short time the artillery was moved to
less exposed position. The artillery
was handled in the same manner as
| long as the fight was continued. Shots
would be fired and then the guns NOV
| ed as soon as the better served federal
cannon found them out
Neglected to Fortify City.
Throughout the fighting the consti-
tutionalist artillery, though outnum-
bering the federal guns two to one,
| was almost ludicrOusly ineffective.
The federal fire was better, but the
guns were poorly placed as rule and
the fire usually directed to vacant
places. Some $50 of Villas army
| were wounded by shrapnel, however,
and a proportionate number killed.
The second attack on Gomez was
made, as the first had been, at night
| Villa for this attack had assembled all
his troops, the detachments sent east
| and west having effected junction
and body under Gen. Contreras and
some Of Urbinos men having come in
The heaviest attack was made on the
left, and the outskirts Of the city fell
| to the rebel forces.
Gomez, protected by the Cerro De
La Pila and deep irrigation bitches
seemed impregnable. Had the federals
really fortified the places it might
easily have proved so.
The Notifications on the north and
east of the city consisted Of few
loopholes in the adobe walls Of houses
and a line Of shallow rifle pits spaced
far apart. Yet the federals had weeks
in which to make preparations. Yet
these Notifications which Villa was
unable to wholly break through cost
him some 600 wounded and almost
half as many killed
The evacuation came to most as a