Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1916-07-06
TELLS HOW BOYD Died
Scout Asserts Captain Charged
Machine Gun.
Commander of Troops at carrizai Ad.
vanced in Face Of Hall
of Bullets.

I'll Paso, Tex, July /. Capt.
Charles Il. Boyd gave the last full
measure Of devotion to the men of his
command at the battle of CarrizaI
when he stopped with his lifeless body
the usefulness Of the Mexican ma
chine gun which wrought such heavy
havoc with the handful of American
troops.
Lem II. Salisbury. the Mormon
guide, and the only living witness to
the fateful conference between Cap
tain Boyd and Gen. Felix Gomez told
the story Of Boyd's heroic death upon
his arrival here with the % negro
troopers who were released from cap
tivity by order of venustiano Car
rama.
Il was beside Captain Boyd when he
died." Spillsbury said.
I'VE were advancing across the open
plain, dismounted and In line of skirm-
ishers," he said. Captain Boyd's or
ders had been to 60 to villa Ahumada.
He told General Gomez that.
Gomez orders had been to prevent
any movement of ours In the direction
Of villa Ahumada. He told Captain
Boyd that. That's where the conflict
started. II was a conflict of orders
Captain Boyd gave orders that no
one fire until they had been fred upon.
Captain Boyd was moving forward sew
eral yards ahead of the line when the
Mexicans opened fire. The line
dropped to the ground and gave an
swer.
I'VE were In the open and in bad
position. The land was absolutely fat
on the hard sand.
Their hottest fire came from the
center of their line. In the center of
the road the Mexicans had planted n
machine gun with several cool men be-
hind 1t. and they were doing some exc
cution with their weapon.
Captain Boyd saw the machine gun
men spraying his line with lead, Just
like you play garden hose. He
ordered the squad directly behind him
to jump up when he gave the order
and follow him.
1--WE jumped up all together. about
eight or ten of us, and instantly the
machine gun and the fire of the rife
men surrounding II appeared to con-
centrate upon us. A bullet kicked my
hat off, and another tore through my
sleeve. looked over my shoulder and
saw three men fall at one time.
Captain Boyd just kept yelling.
Come on and kept on running. dis
charging his automatic as he ran.
There were only five of US left when
we got within IL feet of the machine
gun.
Captain Boyd suddenly thrust his
arms out and fell over backward. He
grabbed at his shirt and tore at the
collar.
Before could get to him he was on
his feet again, and staggering on to-
W I'd the machine gun.
"The operator was pointing directly
at him, and firing. Captain Boyd
plunged onward, his body extended
ahead of his feet, like man staggers
forward to prevent falling on his face.
"He reached the small mound Of
sand in front Of the gun. He reeled
and fell forward on top of the gun.
"The lower part of his body was
hanging over the guns muzzle, but the
most Of his body lay slantwise along
and across the barrel.
"At the same time the operator
dropped backward with a shot through
the head and the man feeding the clips
ran FIVE feet and went down.
II lifted Captain Boyd down, but he
was dead. There were several bullet
holes through his body.
II believe he was more of a dead
man than live one when he reached
the spot when he fell forward on the
gun.
1--WE had the machine gun, but It
was useless. Only two or three clips
Of ammunition remained, and besides
there was not enough In our party to
hold It"