OCR Text |
Show HORRORS OF WAR. Retreat of Mexican Soldiers Proved More Fatal Than Battle. Nogales, Ariz. A scant 1,000 men irtraggied into Guaymas on June 25. Their tongues were swollen from thirst, their eyes bulging with delirium, deli-rium, their bodies wounded by cactus thorns and bullets. Leading them was General Pedro Ojeda, commander of the federal forces in Sonora state Such was the result of a fortnight's fighting above Guaymas. Ojeda led all of an army of 3,500 men with which he marched out of Guaymas to move against Hermosillo, the insur-7 insur-7 gent state capital. The retreat proved more fatal than the protracted battle. Scattered along the roads between Ortiz and Guaymas the victorious state troops overtook involuntary deserters from the federal ranks. Unable to proceed on a forced march, the sandal-footed soldiers had dropped by the roadside. Hundreds had died of hunger and thirst. Those still alive begged for assistance from the enemy. Many of them were mute from swollen lips and blind from the desert sun. They begged for water with motions of the hands. |