Page:Van Cise exhibits to the Commision on Industrial Relations regarding Colorado coal miner's strike.djvu/9

Rh against their officers at this time, demanding to know whether they must allow the Greeks to reach concealment before opening fire. Lieut. Linderfelt ordered that no shots should be fired unless the soldiers were first fired upon.

About the time the Greeks reached the cover of the railroad cut, the fire began. We are unable to state from which point the firing came first, except that it came from the strikers. Upon that point all of the witnesses of all shades of sympathies are wholly agreed. Some of the soldiers insist that the firing was opened from the direction of the steel bridge and arroyo, while others are satisfied that it came from the Greeks in the railroad cut.

From whatever source the firing, the first of it was directed toward the soldiers' tents, but it must very soon have been directed generally against Water Tank Hill and the whole countryside between that point and the Hastings Canyon.

After the first fire started, it was several minutes before the men on Water Tank Hill were directed to return it. The enlisted men in this position we find still resentful against their officers for withholding their fire so long. The position taken by the Greeks in the railroad cut was one that proved very difficult to drive them from.

Thus the battle began, and its history from this time, as we learned it from all sources of eyewitnesses, is a history of the advance of the detachment on Water Tank Hill down the shaft of the capital K, past the colony, to the capture of the steel bridge at the foot, which was not accomplished until after dark.

Shortly after the firing commenced it became very general. On the strikers' side it proceeded from the railroad cut, from the tent colony, and from the arroyo beyond it. It was returned from Water Tank Hill, from a row of steel cars in the vicinity of the soldiers' tents, and from houses and stores along the road between the colony and the northern canyon. Lieut. Lawrence and three men advanced from Water Tank Hill toward the Greek position in the railroad cut with a view to dislodge the men shooting from that cover.

One of these men, Pvt. Martin, was shot through the neck. He called, "Lieutenant, I am hit." As the blood gushed out in splurts, the lieutenant put his thumb into the wound and stopped the flow of blood. A first-aid package was then applied. The strikers' fire proved insupportable and the squad withdrew, helping Martin back with them.

They were compelled to leave Martin under cover and return without him. As they retreated, the strikers followed until under cover. Several attempts were made by the soldiers during the day to recover their wounded comrade, but it was not until the afternoon, when Capt. Carson arrived from Trinidad with reinforcements and a machine gun, that they were able to drive the strikers back and reach the place where Martin lay. Just before dark this was accomplished, and Martin was discovered dead and mutilated. He had been shot through the mouth, powder stains evidencing that the gun was held against his lips. His head had been caved in and his brains had exuded to the ground. His arms had been broken. In such a way does the savage blood lust of this southern European peasantry find expression.

In this connection we found also that without exception where dying or wounded adversaries, whether soldiers or civilians, had fallen into the hands of these barbarians, they were tortured or multilated. The coroner and other civilian witnesses testified before us as to the condition of the corpses recovered in the many battles in the southern field. Hocker Smith, killed near Aguilar; Dougherty and Chavez, killed near Delagua; and many others, were all tortured or mutilated when dead or dying.

As we prepare this report, Maj. Lester is deliberately slain at Walsenburg, while attending the wounded under the protection of the Red Cross of Geneva recognized as inviolable by civilized men the world over. It is shocking to think of our Colorado youth defending their State and exposed to practices of savagery unheard of save in the half-believed tales of the Sicilian Camorra.

A recovery of Martin's body, thus mutilated, we find to have had the effect of exciting his comrades to a frenzy, which may account for some things that took place later near the tent colony itself.

Lieut. Lawrence engaged the Greeks in the railroad cut all day long. We find that he never left Water Tank Hill except to advance against the cut. His machine gun was used only in that direction until late in the afternoon.

Capt. Linderfelt and two lieutenants of the same name, with other men on Water Tank Hill, sought all day to advance down the shaft of our capital letter K to the steel bridge and arroyo at the northern end.