The head of the Mexican Federal Army, General Victoriano Huerta, ostensibly the defender of the Madero government, defected to the rebels, who sought the return of the old political order.

While most fighting occurred between opposing military factions, assaulting or defending Madero's presidency, artillery and rifle fire inflicted substantial losses among uninvolved civilians and major damage to property in the capital's downtown.

The newly inaugurated U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, in a change of mind of American foreign policy, refused to recognize Huerta's government.

The country was to a considerable extent unsettled, the treasury was depleted, and Madero's staff and supporters were only slightly less audacious than the hated Científicos, technocratic advisors, of the Porfirio Díaz's era.

One vocal proponent of the removal of Madero was General Manuel Mondragón, who had accumulated finances under the Porfirio Díaz regime as an artillery expert, and was under suspicion of theft and corruption.

Gathering the support of his officers and staff, he persuaded the cadets of the Escuela Militar de Aspirantes Military School located at Tlalpan to join him.

The cadets appear to have acted under the direct orders of their instructors and senior commanders who were largely drawn from the conservative upper-class families of Mexican society, who supported a counter-revolution.

[7] The cadets and soldiers under the leadership of their officers, proceeded to the Santiago Tlatelolco military prison, where they demanded and secured the release of General Reyes.

Arriving at the end of the broad Avenida Juárez and finding the narrower streets thronged, he dismounted and went into a photographer's studio opposite the unfinished Teatro Nacional (National Theater), to telephone for later news.

General Huerta, in charge of the guard of the National Palace, met with Félix Díaz in a private home in the Roma section of Mexico City.

He then directed the 18th Corps of Rurales, the crack mounted police force commanded by the presidency, to exposed positions near the arsenal where they suffered heavy casualties under machine gun fire from the rebels.

The U.S. ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, however, on this day told all visitors at the Embassy that the Madero government had practically fallen and telegraphed Pres.

He reported to Secretary Knox: "We considered the question of making direct representation to Madero relating to his resignation to save further bloodshed and possible international complications.

The opinion of my assembled colleagues was unanimous and clear that we should at once, even without instructions, take this action to terminate the intolerable situation" and turn over the executive power to Congress.

Mr. Wilson's report to the State Department that Sunday night contained the euphemistic words: "Huerta has sent me a special messenger saying that he expected to take steps tonight towards terminating the situation."

This time, Ambassador Wilson took Secretary Knox a little more into his confidence: "Huerta has sent his messenger to say that I may expect some action which will remove Madero from power at any moment, and that plans were fully matured…..I asked no questions and made no comment beyond requesting that no lives be taken—except by due process of law."

At the Gambrinus restaurant, at noon, the president's brother, Gustavo A. Madero, was arrested, after breakfasting with Huerta and other men, who, at the conclusion of the meal, seized him and held him prisoner.

On Tuesday at 2 PM, Ambassador Wilson had the satisfaction of telegraphing the State Department: "My confidential messenger with Huerta has just communicated to me Madero's arrest."

On receipt of the messenger's report, that Tuesday afternoon, Ambassador Wilson sent a message to Félix Díaz at the arsenal, apprising him that President Madero had been arrested and that Huerta desired to confer with the rebel chieftain.

That night, within an hour of the adjournment of the meeting at the embassy, Gustavo A. Madero, the president's brother, was driven into an empty lot just outside the arsenal, his body riddled with bullets, and thrown into a hole in the ground.

A train stood ready at a Mexico City railway station to take Madero and Pino Suárez with their families down to Veracruz, where they were to go aboard the Cuban gunboat Cuba and be conveyed to a foreign shore.

In the morning, claims were made that the delay had arisen because the military commander of the port of Veracruz had received telegrams from Mrs. Madero, which had led him to respond unsatisfactorily to Gen. Huerta's instructions.

It was believed by Maderistas, however, that it was the decision of the Chilean and Cuban ministers to accompany the party that cancelled the departure of the train, the plan having been to blow it up on the way to Veracruz.

The wife and mother of Madero, and the relatives of Pino Suárez, relieved to learn that the men were still alive but fearing the worst, now appealed to the American ambassador to grant the two political leaders asylum in his embassy.

Three hundred rurales (mounted police) of the 18th Corps then rode down Balderas Street to attack the Ciudadela but were met by machine gun fire and scattered after losing 67 dead and wounded.

It remains unclear whether the destruction of the 18th Corps was the result of a tactical blunder or a measure deliberately engineered by Huerta to weaken the forces loyal to Madero.

[23] Newspaper reporters waiting outside the Palace had observed that Madero and Pino Suárez were put into two automobiles, one in each, at about 11:45 pm, and were driven in the direction of the penitentiary, escorted by a dozen soldiers, under the command of Maj. Francisco Cárdenas of the Rurales.

[11] When reporters, who had followed the small convoy on foot, reached the scene they found the bodies of Madero and Pino Suárez lying near the cars, surrounded by soldiers and gendarmes.

[11] To the question as to the responsibility for the deaths of Madero and Pino Suárez, Ambassador Wilson said they were private citizens when they died, and that it would be impolite for a foreign power to demand an investigation into a purely domestic matter.

A digital collection at Southern Methodist University of 43 photos found in a privately owned album donated to the library are a rich visual source.