Tell Of Sweeping Victory.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 13, 1913:
Mexican Dispatches Say Federals Killed 3,200 at Torreon.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    MEXICO CITY, Aug. 12.— Official reports of the fighting at Torreon made public to-day set the total of the rebel dead for the ten days of battle at 3,200, including officers. The Federal death list also is long. Eighteen Huerta officers were killed, including a Lieutenant Colonel.
    The number of rebels engaged, exclusive of between two and three thousand who were busy cutting the railway and thus preventing the arrival of Federal reinforcements and provisions, numbered ten thousand. Two thousand five hundred Federals were in the battle. The fighting was begun July 12 and continued for ten days. Only the third uprising was frustrated in Torreon. Some insurgents were put to death.
    On the last day the rebels turned loose a wild railway engine loaded with dynamite, but it failed to reach the place intended. It was derailed and exploded.
    The rebels fled to Durango after their defeat.
    The Huerta Government admits that the movement in the North was a secession. In its first official statement on the subject it says:
    "The rebels suffered just punishment for their secessionist ideas, interventionist tendencies, and lack of patriotism."
    Artillery played a great part in the fighting. So did the former rebels under Col. Arqumedo. The victory is considered by the Federal Government to be the most important of the campaign, as it is recognized that the fall or Torreon leaves the way clear to the capital.
    The fighting was stopped on July 24, so both sides might burn the dead. On the 25th the rebels attempted to dynamite the floodgates of the dams above the town, to flood the streets, but failed in their plans.