Today in Manhunting History -- March 9, 1916: Villa Attacks the United States

In 1916, Columbus, New Mexico was little more than “a cluster of adobe houses, a hotel, a few stores and streets knee deep in sand” filled with cactus, mesquite and rattlesnakes. Only about 300 people lived in this desolate town three miles from the Mexican border, and if not for Camp Furlong, home to a 350-man detachment of the 13th U.S. Cavalry in Columbus’ southeast quadrant, the town would have little more significance than the desert that surrounded it.

Columbus, New Mexico's business district before March  9, 1916. 

The night was still on March 9, and the moon had nearly disappeared over the horizon when First Lieutenant John P. Lucas was awoken at 4:30AM by the sound of hoofbeats outside his adobe hut. Columbus’ streets were unlit, causing sentries to complain they could not see twenty feet in front of them. Yet through the darkness Lucas discerned the shadowy figures of several mounted men wearing sombreros, and instinctively knew Columbus was under attack. He retrieved his .45 pistol from its holster and, wearing only his underwear, quietly slipped into the center of the room facing the door, “determined to get a few of them before they got me” when they stormed the hut.

The eerie silence was broken by a shout. Private Fred Griffin, on guard duty outside the regiment’s headquarters a few hundred feet away, had spied the invaders outside Lucas’ hut. Griffin issued a challenge, but was answered by a rifle shot that hit him in the stomach. Griffin fired as he reeled backwards, killing his assailant and two other Mexicans before slumping to the ground and dying.

Lucas did not hesitate. Taking advantage of the sudden confusion, he put on his pants and raced barefoot out of his hut toward the barracks of the Machine Gun Troop he commanded. All hell was about to break loose in Columbus.

The legendary Mexican revolutionary and bandit Pancho Villa was leading 500 men in a cross-border raid on Columbus. Villa had divided his men into two columns: one column struck Camp Furlong simultaneously from the east and west, while the other moved to attack Columbus’ business district from the west. Panic erupted among the residents when the Villistas rode into Columbus shouting “Viva Villa! Viva Mexico!,” wildly shooting into houses and at any civilians in their path.

At Camp Furlong, Villa’s men mistook the stables for the sleeping quarters of the garrison, and directed most of their fire at horses rather than soldiers. Lieutenant Lucas was able to marshal his men and his machine guns. Deciding the first priority should be the defense of Camp Furlong, he set up the guns where they could cover the railroad crossing leading into camp. Yet because of the darkness, Lucas and his men could only aim bursts of fire in the direction of the Villistas’ muzzle flashes.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant James P. Castleman, serving on staff duty, heard the gunfire and ran out of his hut. As he turned the corner of the building he collided with a dismounted Mexican, whom he promptly shot and killed. By the time he reached his unit’s barracks, his sergeant had already rallied F Troop. Castleman led his men towards the regiment’s headquarters, advancing under heavy fire from nearby Villistas. As soon as the fire slackened, Castleman ordered the troop into Columbus, where the Mexicans had penetrated as far as the Commercial Hotel. There the raiders dragged civilian men into the street, robbing and murdering them. Others were killed on the stairs and in the lobby. The Mexicans made a serious tactical error, however, by setting fire to the hotel. Lucas and Castleman’s troops had linked up and took up firing positions on Main Street. The conflagration from the hotel illuminated the streets and allowed the cavalrymen to distinguish Americans from the Villistas. The U.S. forces trapped the enemy in a crossfire, and within 90 minutes Lucas’ four machine guns fired close to 20,000 rounds.

Finally, at 7:30AM a Villista bugler signaled retreat.

As soon as Columbus was clear of invaders, Major Frank Tompkins left his family’s house in town and ran to the only high ground, Cootes Hill. The 13th Cavalry’s commander, Colonel Frank Slocum, was directing the efforts of a group of riflemen firing at the retreating Mexicans, now clearly visible in the breaking dawn. “Realizing that the Mexicans were whipped,” Tompkins asked Slocum for permission to mount up a troop and pursue. Slocum assented, and Tompkins – who 16 years earlier had led then-Company H up the cliffs at Tirad Pass – organized H Troop for a counterattack. Within twenty minutes 32 men were riding after Villa’s force, soon to be joined by the 27 men of Castleman’s F Troop.

Tompkins’ detachment overtook the Mexicans 300 yards south of the border, where Villa’s rearguard waited, occupying the top of a ridge. Tompkins’ ordered a mounted pistol charge that drove the Villistas from the hill. Upon gaining the ridge’s crest, Tompkins’ men opened fire on the retreating Mexicans with their rifles, killing 32 men before Tompkins gave the order to cease fire. The Villistas galloped to a ridge a mile further south.

Tompkins continued the chase, and his detachment charged the Villistas three more times that morning, driving the bandits 15 miles into Mexico. Finally, the main body of 300 Villistas turned to attack the Americans. Heavily outnumbered, short on ammunition and water, and riding exhausted mounts, Tompkins withdrew. Although he had not lost a single man, on the way back to Columbus he counted nearly 100 dead Villistas.

Back in Columbus, the corpses of 67 raiders had been dragged to the outskirts of town, doused in kerosene, and set ablaze, “adding to the stench of smoldering wood from the gutted area along Main Street.” Seventeen Americans were killed during the fighting, including nine civilians. Four troopers, two officers, and one civilian were wounded as well. Captured Mexicans and copies of correspondence from Villa to other revolutionary commanders found on the body of a Villa aide confirmed that Pancho Villa had led the attack.

Mass burial of Villistas killed during the March 9, 1916 raid.

In three brief hours, Columbus was transformed from a poor, desolate desert town to the sight of the deadliest attack on U.S. soil by a foreign military force between the War of 1812 and Pearl Harbor.

The ruins of the Commerical Hotel and "downtown" Columbus after Villa's raid.