Regiment Guards Border.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 4, 1913:
Letter Shows Mexicans Planned Attack on American Town.
    DOUGLAS, Ariz., March 3.— To prevent a repetition of yesterday's skirmish between American and Mexican troops. Col. Guilfoyle has almost the whole force of the Ninth Cavalry on border patrol duty to-night. He even sent a machine gun platoon to the international line. There was firing near the line late to-day caused by an attempt of the negro troopers to intercept what was supposed to be a detachment of Mexican troops crossing the line. The strangers were Mexicans gathering firewood with pack animals. No one was wounded.
    Col. Guilfoyle sent to Washington to-day a report supplementary to that on the battle of yesterday. It is said the new report contains a copy of a message which was found in the possession of the messenger from the Maderista junta arrested Saturday, in which a plan was outlined for a union of the rebels on the Mexican side with those on the American side. It is said the plot was to attack Douglas and Agua Prieta at the same time. The message is alleged to have contained violent anti-American statements.
    A warrant has been issued for a prominent Mexican resident who has disappeared.
    Four dead Mexican soldiers and an unknown number of wounded wore taken to Agua Prieta to-day from the point on the international border five miles from here where two troops of the Ninth United States Cavalry fought a thirty-minute battle with Mexican regulars yesterday. More than 2,000 shots were fired by the American troopers. It is estimated fully as many were fired by the Mexicans. None of the Americans was hit. Neither side crossed the line.
    Col. Guilfoyle sent a detailed report of the skirmish to Washington. He said to-day he did not expect further trouble. As a precaution, however, the usual border patrol of the Ninth Cavalry was increased this morning. Everything was quiet along the line all day.
    Gen. Ojeda. Mexican commander in Agua Prieta, asserted to-day that the American troopers fired first. That was denied by United States Army officers. Lieut. Nicholson, in command of the fifteen United States soldiers who first engaged the Mexicans, and Capt. Armstrong, who commanded Troops E and F when they went to the relief of the patrol, said a volley came from the Mexican side before the Americans fired.
    According to the army officers. Lieut. Nicholson and his fifteen men were fired on without warning by seventy-five Mexican Federals. The patrol returned the fire, but in a few minutes retreated to the Calumet & Arizona smelter and sent for reinforcements. Troops E and F under Capt. Armstrong, responded with a machine gun and 120 rounds of ammunition. At sight of the reinforcements the Mexicans again began firing. The American troopers replied vigorously and a general engagement soon was on. The opposing forces were in skirmish lines 300 yards apart, with the international line between them. After thirty minutes the Mexicans retreated beyond the range of the troopers' rifles.
    An incident which preceded the skirmish, and which is believed by some observers to have relation to it, was the arrest by the border patrol last Saturday afternoon of Juan Castillo as he was trying to cross from the American side to Agua Prieta with messages from E. Callos, leader of the Maderista junta in Douglas, to his followers in Sonora. The messages were addressed to the commander of the Maderista force which disarmed the Federal garrison at Fronteras last week and demanded the release of two Maderista officers held captive by the regulars. Castillo still is detained by the authorities and the messages are in the hands of Col. Guilfoyle.
    Soon after the arrest of the rebel messenger on Saturday a few shots were fired across the line at a squad of American troopers.
    Col. Guilfoyle said the report sent by him to Washington agreed with the facts set forth above.
    "All there is to the affair," said Gen. Ojeda, is that fifteen Maderistas tried to cross the line yesterday morning, when the negro troops tried to arrest them. They fired and the negroes fled. Later, I started 150 Federals to Naco. The road they had to travel goes close to the border line. When they reached the place where the shots were fired in the morning, the negro troops opened fire on them. My men retreated a short distance and returned the fire as long a the negroes fired. My troops did not fire first."
    A dispatch from Naco, Ariz., says the Mexican troops who left Agua Prieta Sunday morning arrived at Naco, Sonora, to-day, and said they knew nothing of a fight with United States troops. These are the soldiers Gen. Ojeda said took part in the skirmish.

    EL PASO, Texas. March 3.— Mexican soldiers on patrol duty on the Mexican side early to-day fired a few shots over the international line. The bullets fell in Washington Park, three miles east of this town. No one was injured.
    Col. Juan N. Vasquez. commander or the Juarez garrison, asserted that none of his troops was in the neighborhood of the shooting and that he had received no report of the incident. He said the reports of affrays between Mexican and American troops at Douglas had no effect on the Juarez garrison. Col. Vasquez intimated that perhaps rural police had done the shooting.

    NOGALES, Ariz., March 3.— The Eltijo Mining Company's camp, eighteen miles east of Pezo, was raided and looted last Saturday by bandits, according to a report received here to-day from the camp manager, G. E. Powell.