heart that he committed suicide on his way
back to Torreon. This, together with the panic-stricken return of his
army to Torreon, caused the greatest dismay at the Capital, the
inhabitants of which already believed themselves threatened by an
irresistible advance of Orozco's rebel followers. None of the federal
generals at the front were considered strong enough to stem the tide.

The only available federal general of high rank, who had any experience
in commanding large forces in the field, was Victoriano Huerta.
President Madero, in his extremity, called upon Huerta to reorganize
the badly disordered forces at Torreon, and to take the field against
Orozco, "cost what it may." This was toward the end of March, 1912.

General Huerta, whom the army had come to regard as "shelved," lost no
time in getting to Torreon. There he soon found that the situation was
by no means so black as it had been painted--General Trucy Aubert, who
had been cut off with one of the columns of the army, having cleverly
extricated his force from its dangerous predicament so as to bring it
safely back to the base at Torreon without undue loss of men or
prestige.

Thenceforth no expense was saved by General Huerta in bringing the army
to better fighting efficiency. Heavy reenforcements of regulars,
especially of field artillery, were rushed to Torreon from the Capital,
and large bodies of volunteers and irregulars were sent after them from
all parts of the Republic.

President Madero had said: "Let it cost what it may"; so all the
preparation went forward regardless of cost. "Hang the expense!" became
the blithe motto of the army.

When General Huerta at last took the field against Orozco, early in
May, his federal army, now swelled to more than six thousand men and
twenty pieces of field artillery, moved to the front in a column of
eleven long railway trains, each numbering from forty to sixty cars,
loaded down with army supplies and munitions of all kinds, besides a
horde of several thousand camp followers, women, sutlers, and other
non-combatants. The entire column stretched over a distance of more
than four miles. The transportation and sustenance of this unwieldy
column, which had to carry its own supply of drinking water, it was
estimated, cost the Mexican Government nearly 350,000 pesos per day.
Its progress was exasperatingly slow, owing to the fact that the
Mexican Central Railway, which was Huerta's only chosen line of
advance, ha