Mexican Rebels Get Town.

New York Times 100 years ago today, April 28, 1913:
Capture Vanegas in San Luis Potosi and Cut Railway.
    MEXICO CITY, April 27.— Further evidence of the aggressiveness of the Northern rebels was given to-day when several hundred of them, well armed and mounted, captured the town of Vanegas on the National Railway in the State of San Luis Potosi. They cut the railway to the north and then moved to Matehuala, a mining and smelting centre.
    Dozens of engagements have occurred in the last week in various parts of the republic. Most of these have been victories for the Federals, according to reports here, but in no case have the rebels lost heavily. The greatest rebel losses were at Reata, where their casualties are said to have numbered 150.
    The rebels continue to cover new territory and cripple transportation facilities. More than 2,500 miles of the National Railways system is out of commission. To that is added a long stretch of the Southern Pacific south of Guaymas and other short independent lines.
    The inability up to date of the Government to float a loan is a serious handicap, but notwithstanding that President Huerta is forcing the campaign. The recent announcement that the pay in the army would be a peso and a half a day has been followed by fresh efforts to augment the ranks. Recruits, for the most part by conscription, are being obtained here at the rate of 100 a day. The Government believes it will be able to hold Guaymas.
    Mexico City papers are printing stories of dissensions among the Sonora rebels, and assuring their readers that the movement in the north is disintegrating as a result. The Government assurances that there are no rebels in the State of Sinaloa are not supported by private advices, which are that even the capital of the State, Culiacan, is threatened.
    In the south Zapata and his allies are waging a terrible campaign of destruction. The Government threatens to proceed without mercy against those rebels. It is said that it intends to deport men, women, and children to the jungles of Quintana Roo when captured, and will | attempt to drive the others to the southern boundary of that territory, which is described popularly as Mexico's Siberia.
    As the telegraph lines over an enormous area are in the control of the rebels, accurate news is scarce. There have been no mails from abroad in three weeks. Tension in the capital, caused by the withdrawal of Gen. Felix Diaz as candidate for the Presidency, as a result of the refusal of Congress to call the elections on July 27, practically has disappeared since President Huerta and his Cabinet have agreed to make a new effort for holding the elections.

    EL PASO, Texas, April 27.— All Federal forces in Chihuahua State are being mobilized in Chihuahua City, the State capital, passengers arriving here to-day report. Santa Rosa Mountain, commanding the city, has been fortified and topped, with a battery of heavy artillery. With only 500 troops in the capital, Gen. Antonio Rabago, Military Governor, has ordered the Parral garrison to move in. That would abandon Parral, centre of an American mining and smelting district, to the Constitutionalistas, who appear to be growing stronger daily. The insurgents are estimated to number more than 4,000. They have operated mostly south of Chihuahua City.
    The Parral garrison, said to number almost 2,000, will be compelled to fight its way to the capital, as the Constitutionalistas continue to hold Santa Rosalia between Chihuahua City and Jiminez. Col. Manuel Pueblita, who commanded the Santa Rosalia garrison, is reported killed by the insurgents, who were led by Rosalia Hernandez. The Federal guard has been removed from the Ortiz railroad bridge, destruction of which would cripple the Mexican Central Railway.
    Gen. Jose Inez Salazar and his ex-rebels are expected to arrive to-morrow in Juarez, on their way to the State capital. That would leave practically no garrison in the Casas Grandes district, threatened by a movement of Francisco Villa's insurgents from the south. Villa's men, after sacking the town of Tamosecnic, are reported to have moved, toward Madera, an American lumbering town south of Casas Grandes.