Federals Defeat Rebels.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 9, 1913:
Huerta Troops Drive Carranzistas from Reata to Bajan.
    MEXICO CITY, March 8.—The first severe clash between the federals and the Carranzistas is reported to-day to have occurred in Reata, in the State of Coahuila, about midway between Monterey and Monclova. The engagement lasted four hours, the rebels making a stubborn resistance. The losses as reported from Government sources included twenty-six Federals killed and eleven wounded and thirty three rebels killed. The rebel forces have fallen back on Bajan, thirty miles to the north.
    Further engagement is looked for soon, as the Federals are advancing and endeavoring to follow up their advantage. Only the most meagre details of the battle have been received.
    Another column of Federals is advancing from the west through Cuatro Cienegas having marched overland from Rincon, on the Northern Mexican Railroad. Those troops came to Rincon by train from Escalon, in the State of Chihuahua.
    To prevent clashes between the Rebels and the American troops, the Mexican War Department purposes to send 6,000 Federals to occupy the border towns in Sonora. To that end, it is probable that the Government will ask the Administration in Washington to permit the passage of troops through American territory.
    A plan is afoot to reorganize the army, increasing its strength to 100,000 men, and it also is proposed to place an order for 150 cannon in France.
    The Government quickly suppressed to-day a riot of factory employes in Santa Rosa, in the State of Vera Cruz. Amelino Mendoza, a Maderista leader, and several other agitators, were killed.

Madero Called a Dynamiter.
    In the closing days of the Madero administration, it is asserted. President Madero made vigorous efforts to incite anti-American sentiment throughout the Mexican Republic. To prove that Provisional President Huertas Government is considering making public the official telegrams and letters dispatched by the late President. The Government, it is said, also may publish the orders given by Francisco I. Madero, Jr., to Gen. Huerta, then commander of the Federal forces. Those letters show, it is asserted, that President Madero instructed Gen. Huerta to use dynamite for the destruction of the public and private buildings between the National Palace and the Arsenal when the latter place was occupied by the rebels under Gen. Felix Diaz.
    Among other orders alleged to have been given by Madero in the final moments of his rule, was one in which it is said he directed the officers of the Mexican gunboats lying in the port of Vera Cruz to fire on the American marines at the very moment when an attempt should be made to land forces from the United States war vessels, paying no regard to the expressed purpose of the American naval commanders merely to protect foreigners. Obedience to such an order, it is pointed out, would have been suicide on the part of the Mexican naval forces, as a single shell from the battleship Georgia, then lying only 300 yards distant, would have destroyed each of the Mexican gunboats.