The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-30


 Spillsbury had urged him to accept l this advice.
 | Salisbury said after he had been | told that it was his duty to obey he advised Boyd that he at least should wait until the Mexicans fired on him. Once Salisbury was on the AnerI- can side he was asked if he was aware 1 of the statement purporting to come from him. issued through General Trevino.
 | 'I am,' he replied.
 Are you going to stick by it?' Certainly I will
 Were you coercedt into making it? l "1 was not ssYou will not change your story now that you are safe on American soil?'
 "No, I certainly will not. But re- fuse ito answer any more questions. He added that immediately on bis arrival in Chihuahua City the com mander of the Mexican army corps of the 00rth sent for him and asked
 him to oGtline the Carrizal encounter as he saw it, which he did. He said he was unable to say who fired the first shot, and added that the Anneri- can command engaged there number ed 76 men, 10 of the original 86 com prising the detachment having been sent back from Santa Maria. He then repeated his story, but this time he did not quote Captain Boyd as saying the Mexicans were only blufhng. He did say, however, that Captain Boyd ordered his men not to fire first. we had been on a scouting expe- dition for several days when Captain Charles T. Boyd, commanding the troops, told me that we were bound
 for Villa Ahumada to investigate re-
 ports that bandits were in that vii
 cinity and to locate 8 deserter," he said. I've arrived outside Carriza1
 a, week ago last Wednesday,, and Cap l tain Boyd sent a messenger in to Gen era1 Felix Gomez, commanding the l Carranza troops there, asking per-
 mission to pass through the town to- ! ward Ahumada on peaceful mission. l General Gomez replied by sending
 Lieutenant-CoIone1R Rivas out to confer | with Captain Boyd. A barley at which I was interpreter was held in
 the centre of the field. The Mexican officer told Captain Boyd that his
 ders were that Americans could not l advance Souths east or west. Captain Boyd then asked for a personal inter view with General Gomez. This was
 granted.
 l General Gomez reiterated the ip- | formation given by his subordinate and returned to his lines. A few minutes later, almost simultaneously, both commands formed in lines of l skirmish. Then a detachment of l Carranza troops ran around our left flank, apparently to surround us. We found ourselves in the centre of a line 1 of Mexicans, str etching in a horseshoe like curve about us. Then the firing began.
 | "I don't know who began 1t. but Fl from the centre of the horseshoe 8 5I Mexican machine gun poured a hail t1 of bullets at us. while from the point 4 of the curve our left flank another
 was firing at us.'
 Spillsbury's description of the bat T tie was practically the same as that gl previously given out by other sources.
 The scout said that after the second
 conference he had urged Captain Boyd not to advance in the face of the contrary orders of. the Mexican leaders, but was told that the officer
 should follow his instructions.
 Don't fire until you are fired upon, boys I heard Captain Boyd shout as
 he gave the order to. advance over my earnest protest,'' the scout added. ; Salisbury said he was surrounded by a band of 7Mexicans who forced
 him to surrender and threatened to shoot him immediately.
 They said had fired the shots that ) killed their leader. and they called me } the 'TeJano, and seemed to believe , that I was a Texas Mexican, and con sd to Mexico. Until, with the other pris- 3 oners, my arms were bound and was
 put in a stock car bound for Chihua- hua City I believed that I was to be f executed The soldiers also believed Y that they were to be killed, but as- . sured them they were not. and as we i got further into the interior our con- fldence began to- come back But , again at Chihuahua City I was told that the governor of the state had or
 ' ct
 had talked with General Trevino was !. I relieved of the impression . Captain Lewis $. Mercy, who was in / command of Troop K at Carrizal reached Fl Paso yesterday afternoon 2 from Columbus in time -~ be at the 5 5 bridge when the survivors reached the | border The meeting between Captain s Mercy and his negro troopers was af- 5 fecting. He had previously met his g young wife, who had given him up fol - dead and who had returned to hel home in Austin. She hurried here when she learned her husband was 2 alive. Captain Mercy arrived at the d Union station wearing civilian clothes y and slipped through a large crowd y which was there to meet him. His
 wife missed him. and he did not fnd s her until he had walked through the
 station three times.
 i; Captain Mercy, after taking Mrs t Mercy to a hotel. hurried to the bridge @ to see his troopers cross. The soldiers }, were overjoyed at seeing their com x mander and Luther Alex ander, one 0, ,, the wounded, wept for joy as he greet. - ed Captain Mercy.
 = Trooper Gibson, who was with Gap, ;; tain Boyds troops, supplemented hi: a statement last evening after he had s reached Fort Bliss by telling Genera
 Bell how Captain lloyd died.
 Captain Boyd told us to get the
 two machine gun operators and ws ' started out to get them and get then . we did, he said. After that thefl
 marksmanship was not so good, fol -' inexperienced men had to operate ths
 guns. The operatives were standing D waist deep in water of the irrigation