Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1916 — EXCHANGE OF SHOTS OVER BORDER LINE [ARTICLE]

EXCHANGE OF SHOTS OVER BORDER LINE

Mounted Mexicans Fire On the U. S. Guard, But Are Forced to Flee. El Paso, Tex., July 18.— A. party of mounted Mexicans exchanged fire with Company L of the Ninth Massachusetts infantry near here today. According to reports the guarasmen were doing outpost duty when the Mexicans rode up on the opposite bank of the Rio Grande and opened fire. The guardsmen suffered no casualties but reported they believed they had killed one Mexican. Captain Hickey, of Dorchester, Mass., commanding the company, estimated the number of Mexicans at fifteen, but asserted that he was unable to determine whether or not they were soldiers. Approximately fifty shots were fired on each side, it was said. |Both General George Bell, Jr., commanding the El Paso military district, and Lieut. Col. Leon Buclon, acting garrison commander in Jaurez, denied that they had received official reports of the incident and both said that it seemed trivial. The shooting occurred in an isolated district about three miles down the river from El Paso, known locally as the “Island” section. The company was doing border patrol duty la this district, one-third of the sixty men being on the patrol and the remainder being held in reserve in the camp about a half mile in the rear.