16 Mexicans Die To Save General.

New York Times 100 years ago today, April 14, 1913:
Cover Flight Across Border of Gen. Ojeda, Following Defeat at Naco.
    NACO, Ariz., April 13.— Gen. Pedro Ojeda, commanding the remnants of his Federal garrison of 300 troopers at Naco, Sonora, surrendered to the United States troops on border patrol duty here to-day, after having withstood a siege by State troops which lasted for five days, and in which more than half his troopers were killed. The surrender was hastened by an attack on the garrison by the band of Yaqui Indians under Gen. Alvaro Obregon, commanding the State troops, who at daybreak burst in on the little garrison across the border and fought viciously. The dead have been estimated at 200.
    Gen. Ojeda, true to his promise, refused to surrender to the State troops. When the fighting was at its height this morning, he attempted to march across the border with his band of Federals. The fire from the enemy was demoralizing. Ojeda and his men scattered, running to the railway tracks separating the two border towns. Not even then did the firing from the rebels cease. Gen. Ojeda shouted to the American soldiers watching the fighting from a distance.
    Capt. H. A. Sevarts's Company A, Ninth United States Cavalry, at once ran to his assistance. The American officer grasped the Mexican General by the arm. Together, they ran among the bullets to an automobile.
    Capt. Figueroa of the Federal garrison, with fifteen men, remained behind to cover Gen. Ojeda's flight. One by one he and his soldiers died in the barracks, surrounded by a horde of yelling, slaughtering Yaquis. When the Indians burst in the windows and doors and crawled through shell-made gaps in the building, not one Federal was found alive.
    Gen. Obregon entered the barracks from which the handful of Federal soldiers had wrought so much havoc on his overwhelming force, and picked up the sword which had fallen from Capt. Figueroa's hand. That was the only formality of surrender to the State forces.
    Ojeda, before leaving the Sonora town, spiked his cannon and burned all supplies. Little was left for the victorious rebels. Personally leading his small group of men, the Federal General went from building to building, destroying everything that might be useful to the rebels. Not until his ammunition had become exhausted, however, did the Mexican commander give the word for flight.
    Sixty-five wounded men from both sides were hurried to this town and placed in the army hospital. The dead remained piled in the streets and lying in the buildings as they fell.
    Forty-five wounded Indians picked up in the streets of the Mexican town told what the Yaquis had accomplished. Prevented from participating in the night attack which had been ordered against the Federals by Gen. Obregon, because of their superstition that death in darkness would mean eternal obliteration, the Indians at daybreak wildly hurled themselves against the Federal fortifications, forcing the fighting and winning the battle, which ended the five-day siege.
    "There is honor in this defeat," said Gen. Ojeda when he had reached the American side. "I have only one regret, and that is for Capt. Figueroa, who refused to come with me.'
    When told of the Captain's death, Ojeda wept bitterly.
    "Oh, had I but thrown myself into flames and died as he did!" cried the white-haired soldier.
    "Now we are ready to drive the Huerta soldiers out of Guaymas and the State will be ours," said Gen. Obregon after the victory.
    "My men deserve the credit," asserted the Yaqui chief just after the fighting.