UNKNOWN

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 81, 26 May 1911, Page 5

UNKNOWN

13i'. iy :.!» ;:h m rTn is, p ■-J, ;■ ihi.’d I"cm - c i n.orrii;. ir.m. A: ex: ex!i t) <.!.) bat He v. i,!t o'.K) u rjl-.q..ip • p/’d !• edcr.tl I mops. Twenty oi mem came back. Sixiv we. e mowed down ;»v the streaming lire oi' machine cuns, blown to picbcs by burs.ing ssells, oi —if the stone;; oi survivors may tic believed—were iiiurd'.u cd with cold bayonets as they lay wounded. The man who led this second “light brigade” was known to Ins men as (b acral Stanley, to Amerieans as Stanley Williams, a deserter Lem tin America;! At my, co Canadians as an erstwhile member oi’ toe mounted police -and n lemiUnnce man front Condon of inystei iovis origin. \\'hen Williams levealed has plan to his snpeuior officer, (leneral Salinas, lie was* ibid that he v. as a foot to think of it. lint he insisted and was allowed to go. hie took the whole ol ids own little commando —.‘l7 cavalry in the advance, infantry and waggon train following. The little band was able to find some cover in the cm ly stages of the sortie, but they were using old-timo smoke powder, which revealed their position, and made them a good target for the dreaded machine guns. 'i here death-dealers w ere new to the rebels—new and hot i dying as their lire swept a trampled field of barley, in which the band was vainly socking .•over. The sortie began at nine in the morning, and tiii three 'in the niternoon the rebels longht from the ditches. 'i hen the Federal troops brought up their field pieces and dropped shells in quid-: succession. Some of the r.tolls broke among the rebel ranks. At the same time a hundred men of the enemy began a flank attack. 'flio battle was over. Scattering, sheltering where they could, the bold assailants lied for camp. Infantrymen clung to the stirrups of the mounted. One small party of cavalry was overtaken by a shell and almost .annihilated. In that explosion Williams received :t fatal wound. The rout increased then. A few more men were cat off hv an attack on the other Hank, and, as the sun fell, the score of survivors straggled into Mexicali.