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Rh States as a separate Republic. In the United States, the situation was regarded as so serious that a Cabinet conference was convened to deal with the question of the preservation of neutrality, and no less than eleven troops of cavalry were dispatched to the Mexican border to augment the very considerable forces already stationed there.

The centre of insurgent unrest was Ciudad Juarez, a town of some importance near the United States border, which was menaced by a large insurrectionary force. In the mountainous country to the north of the State of Chihuahua, the rebels had an unrivalled base for their operations. So terrified were the authorities of Juarez at the approach of the insurgents, that they destroyed the powder magazine in order to prevent the supply it contained falling into the hands of the rebels, whose advance upon the town was marked by a victory over the Republican troops almost at its very doors. Upon the approach of the Insurrectos, as the insurgents were called, the bulk of the population took to flight, and it is difficult to understand what prevented the invaders taking immediate possession of the town, in which business was at a complete standstill. The numbers of insurrectos outside the town grew rapidly, and they drew a complete cordon round it; but these measures did not prevent Colonel Rabago, a Republican officer of experience, breaking through the Revolutionist lines one Sunday evening, with 300 men for the better garrisoning of Juarez. General Orozco, the insurgent leader, momentarily threatened to attack and bombard the town, which, through the panic-stricken act of destroying the Government supply of powder, was entirely at his mercy. The place had only some 500 defenders, another body of equal numbers which was coming to the rescue having been defeated and driven back by Orozco, and the transport train, which conveyed them, wrecked. The main idea of the insurgents appeared to be to seize Juarez and make it the seat of a Provisional Government.