The Raymer enterprise., 1916-06-29
TELLS STORY Of
MEXICAN AMBUSH
Escaped Trooper Gives Detail.
Of Tenth Cavalry Fight.
carranza Troops Moved Down Mer
and Horses With Machine Guns
After Leading Them Into
aTrap.

FL Paso, Tex.-No more graphic story
can be found In the record OF the
United States army than that told by
one Of the couriers from the lll-faled
troops OF the Tenth cavalry that WIS
ambushpd by Curranza troops. His
story OF the attack was told to General
Pershing and included by that officer
In his report to Washington. 1t was us
follows:
The following is the story he tells.
I'VE had been marching since early
"Wednesday morning when we reached
the neighborhood Of cnrrizal. Capt.
Charles 7. Boyd was riding ahead of
the column. just behind him was Capt.
Lewis s. Morey. Lieut.. Henry Il. AdIair
was further back with the column.
There were 81 men In the troop.
outnumbered s to 1.
From our position we could see
some Mexican soldiers In the village.
Captain Boyd sent forward messen.
ger under flag of truce to ask perrnis-
sion to enter the town In search of the
bandits that we We're hunting. Gen.
Felix Gomez sent back word giving
permission 10 enter.
Gomez himself rode out to meet
Captain Boyd, Captain Boyd gave the
word for the column to advance. We
We're just starting forward when we
noticed Mexican troops pouring out
from behnl different kinds of shelter
-ndol,e houses and the like-amd ie-
ploying TO the right and left. II was
battle formation. From the first glilnce
we saw llnt they outnumbered us at
leasi five TO one.
Captain Boyd noticed their move
ment. To any soldier that sort OF thing
can mean only that nm attack il about
TO be matle. ! saw Captain Boyd mo
tion to the Mexfcans and make some
remark nbout II TO Gomez. Gomez
wheeled his mount around and sig.
nailed with his hands. Then he mude
dash for his own lines.
al the same time couple OF ma
chine guns. one uf each end of the
Mexican line, opened up on US. We
we're caught In our saddles In easy
rnnge. and We We're good targets. |
saw Captain Boyd fall. A motuent
later Captain Morey wns wounded In
the shoulder.
Lieutenant AdaIr gave us the order
to dismount. We got out Of our sn,l
dies In hurry. Then he told us to
throw ourselves on our fures and re-
turn the fire. Someone got Gomez jus,
as he was reaching his line. The next
minute Lieutenant Adair was nit.
Both he and Captain Boyd ara dead. 1
believe.
Horses Going Down.
The machine guns were still going.
could hear the bullets whizzinr over
US. Because Of Lieutenant Adair's or
der we saved a lot Of men. But the
horses did not have the same luck. The
bullets started to hit them. and they
were gning down as II their legs were
suddenly cut out from under them.
THE others. stung by the bullets and
kicked by the dying horses. begnn to
rear aml plunge. The men In charse
tried their hest to hold them ,bui they
broke AWAY. Some Of the men were
Killed trying To saye their mounts.
when the horses goi away we were
marooned. We fought back and pre-
vented the Mexicans from advancing
In spite OF their advantage In numbers
and the machine guns. We began to
fall back toward the hills az well as
we could
We recovered four horses and then
the -four of us were sent here 10 re-
port. We left the resi- Of the troops In
the hills. The retrr0t was slow because
If The wounded. The Meyicans kept
Hiring, but were kept away by tie ac-
eurnte rifle fire Of our men"