say, baggage trains of four-mule wagons and excellent horses for the artillery, does not exist in the Mexican army.  In fact, when away from a railroad, the “soldaderas,” as the women are called, carry nearly everything; and they obtain the food necessary for the soldiers’ rations.  A commissariat, as we understand it, does not exist.  This ties the Federals to the railroads, as they can not carry enough ammunition and food for any length of time.

On the other hand, those who first saw Obregon’s rebel forces in Sonora and Villa’s in Chihuahua were surprised at their organization.  There were no women taken with them.  They had wagons, regular issues of rations and ammunition, a paymaster, and the men were well mounted and armed.

With Obregon, also, were regiments of Yaqui Indians, who are excellent fighting material.  These forces were mobile, and could easily operate away from the railroad.  They lacked artillery, without which they were greatly handicapped, especially in the attack on fortified places and on stone or adobe towns.  As most of the horses and mules were driven away from the railroads, the insurgents could get all the animals they wanted.

The first large battle occurred on May 9-10-11-12th outside of Guaymas, between Ojeda’s Federals and Obregon’s Constitutionalists, at a place called Santa Rosa.  The Federal advance north consisted of about twelve hundred men and eighteen pieces of artillery.  They were opposed by about four thousand men under Obregon, without artillery.  Eight hundred Federals were killed and all their artillery captured.  The Constitutionalists lost two hundred and fifty men killed and wounded.  Comparatively few Federals returned to Guaymas.  Each side killed all the wounded that they found, and also all captives who refused to enlist in the captor’s force.  This success was not followed up and Guaymas remained in the hands of the Federals.  The artillery captured by the Constitutionalists had had the breech blocks removed to render them unserviceable; new ones, however, were made in the shops at Cananca by a German mechanician named Klaus.

In the summer, Urbina captured the city of Durango, annihilating the Federals.  The city was given over to loot and the greatest excesses were indulged in by the victors.  Arson, rape, and the robbing of banks, stores, and private houses were indiscriminately carried on.  Horses were stabled in the parlors of the homes of the prosperous citizens, and many non-combatants were killed by the soldiers before order was restored.

At this time the only points held by the Federals on the boundary between the United States and Mexico were Juarez, in Chihuahua, and Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas.  The railroads south of these points were also in the physical possession of the Federals but subject to continual interruption at the hands of the Constitutionalists.  Venustiano Carranza had established headquarters at Ciudad Porfirio Diaz (Piedras Negras) across the Rio