The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-08-04
Siege Is Raised; 81 Men
Quit Pit as GuardSmen
Reach Scene.
PICKET ARMY DISBANDS
Soldiers Arrive Just as
Trapped Crew NearS
Surrender.
BY STEVE RICHARDS
United Press staff Correspondent

TERRE HAUTE, Ind, Aug
4.-National guardsmen res
cued sixty-four grimy, hun
ger-weakened men, including
four wounded, and one wom-
an early today from the Dixie
Bee mine, where they had
been besieged by $500 union
pickets for nearly forty-eight
hours.
The lime of pickets surrounding
the bullet pocked mine property
melted away in the darkness as the
$50 troopers approached. Firing or
the mine continued until the guards
were within 500 yards of the scene
The powder begrimed band OF
mine defenders told the trooper:
they had arrived just in time.
I'VE had given up hope of res
cue" the miners said. Our am
munition nearly was exhausted, ano
the fire from the picket lines hao
grown more fierce. If they had at
tackled us again we could not have
beaten them off"
Four Are Wounded
The four wounded men, struck by
bullets in one of the fiercest ex-
changes Tuesday afternoon, had re-
ceived no medical treatment unit
the guardsmen arrived.
They were John Fulman, 81, Terre
Haute. shot in the side, seriously
wounded; Len Grossman, 81, Terre
Haute, shot in the leg; Gerald Ora
BILE, 81, Sullivan, shot in the right
knee. and Elmer Bedwell, 26, Sulli-
van, shot in the left arm.
The men we're brought to a hos
pital here.
Defenders Nearly Exhausted
The miners were nearly exhausted
after being under fire almost con-
tinuously, they said, for twenty mine
hours.
Every man was armed with 9
rifle, revolver or shotgun, and stacks
of handmade dynamite bombs were
piled, ready to throw at any picketS
who ventured too close to the mine
property.
The entire group had been de-
ployed in the defense of the vari-
GUS buildings.
The mine buildings were riddleo
with bullet holes. twenty-five au-
tomobileS which had brought the
men to work the morning the siege
began were torn and battered by the
heavy fire.
James Morris, night Superintend-
ent at the mine, who took charge OF
the miners defense when the first
attack began, described the siege
Only Water From Boiler
Il stationed my men at each side
of the property, with instructions tc
withhold their fire except when the
picketS approached SO close there
was danger they would storm oul
position.
Part of the group was ordered tc
carry fresh ammunition to the men
when the firing became heavy. We
were engaged in as close thing tc
war as could be imagined.
I'VE had no food The only water
We had was from the boiler.
I'VE tried to care for the injured
men as best we could, but there was
no medicine or dressings for then
wounds.
we placed them in the brick
boiler house and stationed six
guards there to protect them
The miners said the pickets en-
ployed Indian tactics. SHIPPER;
would creep through the heavy
grass, under cover of darkness, tc
within fifty feet of the mine build
ings. The miners claimed to have
wounded several of the Snipers with
rife fire and bombs.
Area Under Military Rule
The national guardsmen Tide into
the four mile area which has beer
proclaimed under military rule, but
not martial law, in the same buses
that brought them mere.
AS the troopers approached the
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