Mexicans Release Biesel.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 3, 1913:
Mine Manager Under $10,000 Bond and Companions Set Free.
Special to The New York Times.
    EL. PASO, Aug. 2.— Charles F. Biesel, manager of the Mines Company of America, was released to-day by the Mexican authorities at Chihuahua on a bond of $10,000. The officials profess to have reserved the right to take him into custody again, but it is believed here that Mr. Biesel has gained permanent freedom.
    Bernard J. MacDonald, an Englishman, manager of the San Patricio Mining Company, and Ray Herrall, who was employed by the two mine officials as a chauffeur, were set free yesterday. News of their release was received this morning by T. D. Edwards, United States Consul in Juarez, and later in the day came word that Mr. Biesel also was at liberty.
    This action by the Mexicans was an outcome of a warning sent to them by the State Department in Washington shortly after the news of the seizure was received there. The American Consul in Chihuahua was instructed to inform the Mexican officials that unless Mr. Biesel and his companions should be set at liberty at once the United States Government would hold them responsible for any harm that might befall the prisoners.
    Mr. Biesel, Mr. MacDonald, and their chauffeur were arrested by soldiers of Gen. Pascual Orozco's forces at Santa Rosalia on the pretext that they had carried communications from one rebel commander to another. With the three men was a Mexican guide, José Maria Gonzales, a vaquero, who for a month had been with Col. Ortega's Constitutionalist forces.
    Herrall, the chauffeur, sent a letter to his family in this city from the jail in Chihuahua City, where he was confined with his employers. He related that soon after the arrests, the four prisoners, including himself, were taken before a drumhead court-martial and sentenced to death. The detachment of Orozco's men was drawn up in hollow square and the captives were placed in the middle of it. A firing squad stepped from the ranks and Gonzales was led before it.
    The automobile driver said Gonzales met death bravely. He said the guide asked the men of the firing squad to be sure to aim straight, so that he might be killed instantly. As an additional precaution the Mexican requested the officer commanding the squad to give him the "tiro de gracia," or "mercy shot," that there might be no doubt as to the quickness of his end.
    Herrall said that he and his employers, when they saw Gonzales fall dead, took it for granted they would be shot immediately afterward. The Huerta officers thought better of that, however, so the two Americans and the Briton were bound with ropes and hurried to the jail in Chihuahua City.
    Two Federal columns are moving toward Villa's main camp at Ascencion from Chihuahua City. One is under command of Gen. Felix Terrazas, the other is under Marceio Caraveos. They are repairing the railroad from Chihuahua to Madera that Orozco may move his main column of 4,000 men to the front in Western Chihuahua.