New Britain herald., 1916-04-01
CAVALRY BOYS
 IN LONG MARCHES
All Records Broken in MexiCO- Experiences of U. s. Troops

With American OutpOStS in Mexico, to Columbus, N. M., April 1, by Aero pfane.-Cavalry marches surpassing all known previous performances of
 mounted troops in Mexico, have been
 made in the pursuit of Francisco Villa by some of the flying columns sent out to cut off the avenue of escape of the Mexican bandit. The diary of a caValfy officer, obtained today, gives a
 romantic sketch of one such march. Names and dates cannot be published. How food was obtained in compara- tlVe plenty for men and horses also is
 a military secret. However, some of
 the minor sidelights were furnished by this officers record:
 l The night of March -" said the diary, we hiked all night, making H1ty miles, including a fifteen mile cllmp to an altitude camp at 8 a. rn, ana Tn the evening started oyer moun-
 tain trails 5000 feet high.
 In a march of no miles from our
 pase we slept three hours. All the mountain trails were very bad Capture Two Deer.
 ,'No sign yet of Villa, and. no sign | of beef. We saw one COW. Troop got two deer. They kept the deer and did not loan a bite to, any one else-hogs! Some of the men ob- 1 talned rhubarb, with which they made
 very good stew. We also got some ducks.
 We were to take five days rations
 for men and horses but in order to make the time we wanted we took only two days. Spent two days in { high attitudes in rain. The weather
 is otherwise fine. We have been among pines nearly all of the time, with canyons and massive rocky or brilliant semi-m etallic peaks all about us The scenery is most wonderful, much like Yellowstone I ina zine Probably Villa could hide here in- definitely, but he would starve Later, march resumed, making
 thirty miles to a point where we ob-
 tained beef and one mess of beans" Work of Patrol.
 The remainder of the diary, to date, cited two further advances, and then the trip of a four-nnan patrol, led by this officer, across a range, Of mountains to receive orders from one
 of the main line communications The diary recorded no incidents of the side trips as worthy of mention, although when the patrol arrived in the large communication camp it's speed and daring was commended.
 Scouting. 'on foot done by some of the aVlatOrs, along with typographical
 work, was brought to light today in
 one of the field camps. One aviator's experiences began with his landing after dark near a mountain side grass
 spot He said:
 AviatOr's Experiences.
 About sundown, wishing to see
 some of the aeroplanes, which had
 been flying below me, and which had disappeared against the dark back
 ground of the earth, I glided to level
 where I expected to see the other
 planes against the line of the horizon.
 However, the other planes also gid 2d
 at the same time, so that I did not
 see them. Soon after dark, while
 looking for a signal bonfire, | saw
 what seemed to be a beautiful fire,
 and descended to investigate. "ObServation was not easy at the
 time $ecause the plane was bucl1ing
 a. head sWind at an altitude # 5,000 E \ ,:ssss.aAs s sIstaescenAed, the fire resolved itself into several small fires, spread
 ing out in a large circle. When I
 was almost over tho fire 1t ,resembled
 the view when looking from above
 directly down into a lake, with piers
 running to the water. The piers, I
 presume, were the tongues of un-
 burned grass, running in toward
 the center of the burned area. I
 dropped low enough to dispel the il-
 luslOn and see that it was a grass fire.
 After about twenty-five minutes fur
 ther flying I located what seemed to
 be uniform slope on a mountain
 side. It was not a slope, and when the landing wheels of the plane struck the ground l discovered that instead
 of striking a field I had hit a spur
 on the mountainside."