New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-06

or the New Mexico militia, blousu1
their rifles to present"
Cheer Proves a Failure
The expeditions commander brought
his hand 20 the brim of his faded CAM
paign hat in acknowledgment of the
salute and snapped it away. A civilian
in the unofficial reception committee
yelled a dwindling hoo-ray loud and
confident on the first syllable and
p!anissimo on the second. No one had
Joined the cheer. Somehow IL did not
seem the fitting thing. Pershing had
gone in" in the same sort OF silence,
il was remembered.
A couple of yards behind Pershing
followed his staff, mounted; behind
them futtered a pennant displaying the
two stars which denoted the major
generals rank. There had been only
one star on the pennant when the gem
eral started south, brigadier.
Half way along the road to Column
bus, after he had passed the refugee
camp sprawled over a mile of mesa,
General Pershing was met by the school
children of the village and a band:
Some of the children were those OF
Mexican parents, who, warned OF the
projected Villa raid on Columbus, had
before March Q.
Special trains had brought in visitors
who swelled the slender civilian popu-
lation of normal Columbus by several
hundreds. But neither the few dozen
spectators encountered on the out
skirts of the town nor the main body
assembled around the reviewing stand
found the occasion one for cheers.
The lst New Mexico Infantry, which
has been doing yeoman work at the
base of communications here, was
drawn up in the plaza as a guard OF
honor. Their regimental band banged
INTO Sousa march as General Per-
shing and his staff dismounted and took
their places in the stand.
Review of Fighting Men
It was review of fighting men,
rather than parading men, which fol-
lowed. Until they were within a couple
of hundred feet of the stand the men
were permitted to move along at route
step, trailing their rifles or shoulder
ing them butt uppermost. Even when
they were called TO attention they
found it difficult to shift from the
long, hiking stride that gets there into
the mincing step which looks so much
more soldierly from the side lines-the
step demanded by the precision OF the
band.
The spot selected for the review was
ore on which the hardest fighting oc-
CURED on the night of the raid. 1t
was at the corner of the base head
quarters building that Fred Griffen,
the sentry, mad let fly and sent bullet
squarely through the fore head Of the
first raider 70 appear. And there 1t
was that Griffen had fallen, killed by
the answering volley.
1t was in the road, directly in front
of the reviewing stand-right where
the euidons were dipped to General
Pershing and the officer saluted him
that the first machine gun brought out
had damned and the American gunner
had died. 1t was in the ditch over
which spectators were swarming that
the cavalrymen of the Jumped" camp
had gathered for their first organized
stand. :,
A group of Mormon scouts, HEADED
by Lem Spillsbury of Carrizal fame,
rode in advance of the expedltlonary
infantry regiments, commanded oy
Colonel Al!aire. In the van was the
9Th Infantry. lately on route post duty
at FL Vale, the furthest south position
held by Pershing.
10Th Infantry Next
The 16tn Infantry came next. and
then the 18th, the command which
killed Cerevantes, Villas sub-chief, and
scattered his band at Cruces last May:
The gath, negro regiment, respected
as the most potentially destructive IN
the whole army, brought up the. rear
of the infantry brigade. The 2ith, re-
called from the Philippines, was the
only regiment TO 60 into Mexico at
full war strength. With its personnel
of 800 men intact it came out. The
Mexicans had given the command no
CHARGE to add to its Philippine laurels,
TO the regiment the cause OF an intense
regret reflected in its composite black
face. ..
Next rumbled along the wagons OF
the I'd Engineers, each dragged by SIX
husky mules and after them the cav
aIrv--the 5th. which was so untortu-
nate as to have no battles; the 18th, led
by Colonel Selah Z. II. Tompkins. whose
brother. Major Frank Tompkins, got
INFO the machine gun trap or the Car
yarzistas at Parral; the 10th, whose
chocolate soldiers of real life under
went a whitening fire at Carrizal; the
18th. which surprised 800 Nilllstas at
Oio Azules and made up for the I'M
precsion of Parral and Carrizal by
killing half of them.
Apache Scouts There, Too
In the cavalry line were the twenty
Ap2che scouts of the expedition, clad
in service khaki, but permitted the con-
cession of a feather in the hstband..
Batteries A and of the 4th ArtIl-
lcry lmountain), with its little tom
mics" packed neatly away on mules;
and Batteries B and c of the 6tn FIELD
Artillery completed the parade OF
6ohtjng strength. But the real tai!
Of the expedition came in mile after
mile Of supply trucks.
But theirs is just prosaic business
connected with the army's stomach.
The reviewing stand and plaza were
deserted long before the last OF them
was out Of Mexico.
TNUTcTIGATION 0F SWAMI