Today in Manhunting History -- March 10, 1916: Wilson Orders the Villa Manhunt

The Columbus raid was not the first time the Mexican Revolution had spilled over the border. During the second half of 1915 and early 1916 the pace of violence along the Mexican-U.S. border increased dramatically. A series of raids, marked by theft, robbery, kidnapping, and murder in the lower Rio Grande valley began in the summer of 1915. In September alone, attacks occurred on Brownsville, Red House Ferry, Progresso Post Office, and Las Paladas. In October a passenger train was wrecked by bandits, killing several people, north of Brownsville. During the two-and-a-half month siege of Naco, Sonora, at least 54 Americans in neighboring Naco, Arizona were killed or wounded by stray fire from Mexican forces. As one Army officer noted, the frontier was in “a state of constant apprehension and turmoil because of the frequent and sudden incursions into American territory and depredations and murders on American soil by Mexican bandits.”

Despite his violent depredations as part of the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa’s flamboyance and reputation for helping the poor made him a popular figure with the American press and the public, and even the staid New York Times referred to Villa as “the Robin Hood of Mexico.” Villa’s popularity extended to U.S. policymakers in the Wilson administration. General Hugh Scott, chief of staff of the U.S. Army, had commanded the Southern Department for five years and was close friends with the revolutionary. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan gave Villa credit for “valuable services” in “restoring order in Sonora,” adding: “Your patient labors in this matter are greatly appreciated by the State Department and the President.” President Woodrow Wilson himself declared that Villa was “not so bad as he had been painted,” and that amidst the turmoil of the Revolution, “Villa was perhaps the safest man to tie to.”

Shortly after overthrowing the Huerta regime, however, in mid-1914 Villa broke off relations with the political leader of the revolution, Venustiano Carranza, and soon the former allies were fighting against one another. In 1915 Carranza’s military commander, General Alvaro Obregon, defeated Villa in four major battles. By the fall of 1915 the Wilson administration understood Villa’s power was waning, and on October 19 officially recognized the Carranza government. Yet Villa continued fighting and on November 1 attacked Carrancista forces at the border town of Agua Prieta. The United States allowed the Carrancistas to rush reinforcements via rail through U.S. territory, and supplied the electricity that allowed searchlights to illuminate the Villistas during the battle. By the end of 1915, only a few hundred followers remained from Villa’s army that had once numbered between 30-50,000 men.
Villa blamed the Wilson administration for his defeat at Agua Prieta which, with American recognition of the Carranza government, led him to swear revenge on the United States. Villa and his remaining men, mostly his elite guard of Dorados, started a campaign of harassment of both Carrancistas and Americans. On January 10, 1916, Villa’s forces stopped a train of the Mexican North Western Railway Company near Santa Ysabel, Chihuahua. They dragged 17 American miners off the train, and amid cries of “Viva Villa,” they stripped and shot the Americans in cold blood. News of the massacre “set off violent agitation in Congress,” and a “wild anger and excitement greater than any since the sinking of the Lusitania surged through part of the American people.”
Because an Associated Press correspondent was staying in the Columbus Hotel during the March 9 attack, President Wilson learned of the raid only three hours after Villa had recrossed the border into Mexico. Wilson immediately summoned his private secretary and personal friend, Joseph P. Tumulty, and told him to convene a Cabinet meeting early the next morning.

Despite the calls for retaliation after Santa Ysabel, the Wilson administration insisted it was an internal matter for Carranza to deal with. Yet after the Columbus attack the clamor for intervention was irresistible, and even U.S. officials who had been close to Villa recognized the threat he posed. Wilson now regarded Villa as little more than a bandit who threatened the security of the southwestern United States. The American consul in Torreon wrote to General Scott: “This is a different man than we knew. All the brutality of his nature has come to the front, and he should be killed like a dog.” Scott’s successor as Commander of the Southern Department, Major General Frederick Funston, delivered his assessment to the War Department the day after the Columbus raid: “Unless Villa is relentlessly pursued and his forces scattered he will continue raids. As troops of the Mexican Government are accomplishing nothing and as he can make his preparations undisturbed, he can strike at any point on the border.”

On March 10 Wilson’s cabinet unanimously agreed to use military force against Villa lest Congress adopt a resolution calling for armed intervention and forcing the President’s hand. Yet Wilson adamantly told Tumulty: “There won’t be any war with Mexico if I can prevent it.” To guard against this danger, the President announced: “An adequate force be sent at once in pursuit of Villa with the single object of capturing him and putting a stop to his forays.”

President Woodrow Wilson ordered the Punitive Expedition to launch its manhunt for Pancho Villa on this day in 1916

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.

Today in Manhunting History -- January 27, 1917: The End of the Punitive Expedition

Two weeks after President Woodrow Wilson told Secretary of War Newton Baker to withdraw the Punitive Expedition, on January 27 General John J. Pershing’s vanguard started north toward the border. Trailing behind the nearly 11,000 troopers were 2,030 Mexican, 533 Chinese, and 197 Mormon refugees. By February 4 the entire column was assembled at Palomas, and the next morning they crossed the border heading towards Columbus. Although the Punitive Expedition failed to capture Villa, Pershing’s men were greeted with enthusiastic cheers as they returned home.

Despite the failure to kill or capture Pancho Villa, he was never again a serious threat to the security of the U.S. border states. Pershing succeeded in scattering Villa’s forces, killing 203, wounding 108, and capturing 19 of the 485 Villistas who had attacked Columbus. By the beginning of April 1916 several members of Wilson’s cabinet were urging the withdrawal of the Punitive Expedition, as it appeared to have accomplished its objectives. Had the U.S. withdrawn from Mexico before the Carrizal incident, it is doubtful whether Villa could have recovered from the losses he had suffered. Even when he reappeared at the head of a reconstructed army in the fall of 1916, he never dared to approach U.S. forces nor to attack Americans in Mexico in spite of his bellicose threats. And although Wilson’s decision to maintain the inactive Expedition in Mexico contributed to Villa’s resurrection by aiding his recruitment, it also forced Villa to go to ground for several months and bought the Carrancista forces time to improve their ability to deal with Villa themselves.

Ironically, two years after the Punitive Expedition’s withdrawal U.S. forces finally engaged and defeated a force personally led by Villa. Pershing’s withdrawal left Villa free to raid anywhere he wished, and he spent the first part of 1918 preying upon isolated villages, increasingly resorting to kidnappings to finance his operations. On June 14, 1919, Villa raided Juarez, and the stray bullets from the ensuing battle with Carrancista forces indiscriminately wounded civilians and soldiers in El Paso. General James B. Erwin, who had commanded the 7th Cavalry during the Punitive Expedition, had his artillery shell Villa’s positions as a cavalry force under Colonel S.R.H “Tommy” Tompkins crossed the border, flanked Villa’s force, and routed them in a mounted pistol charge.

Villa’s strength ebbed and flowed between 1917 and 1920, but he was increasingly checked by competent Carrancista forces. Two months after Carranza died in 1920, Villa decided to lay down his arms, signing a pact with interim President Adolfo de la Huerta that gave him title to a 25,000-acre hacienda at Canutillo, 35 miles south of Parral. Villa was allowed to keep 50 of his Dorados as a personal bodyguard, whose salaries were paid by the Ministry of War. Pancho Villa would not enjoy a long, peaceful retirement, however. Having made innumerable enemies during his days as a bandit and revolutionary, on July 20, 1923, the 46-year old Villa was killed when eight gunmen ambushed his automobile in Parral while returning from the christening of one of his former Dorados’ children.

Pancho Villa evaded capture by Pershing's forces, but never again was a serious threat to the United States.

Today in Manhunting History -- June 21, 1916: The Battle of Corrizal

Shortly after General Trevino's threatening telegram, Pershing received reports that a Carrancista army was assembling a force of 10,000 men at Villa Ahumada, about 70 miles east of Dublan. Fearing for his lines of communication, Pershing summoned Captain Charles T. Boyd, commander of Troop C, 10th Cavalry. Boyd had served as the General’s adjutant in the Philippines and was considered reliable. Pershing ordered Boyd: “Take your troops and reconnoiter in the direction of Ahumada and obtain as much information as you can regarding forces there.” He further cautioned: “This is a reconnaissance only and you will not be expected to fight. In fact, I want you to avoid a fight if possible.” Similar orders were given to Captain Lewis S. Morey of Troop K, 10th Cavalry.

The two troops, totaling 76 soldiers, converged at a ranch 12 miles west of Carrizal on the evening of June 20. The combined forces set out for Villa Ahumada early the next morning with Boyd in command. As they approached Carrizal, a Mexican messenger emerged to warn that the Americans would be attacked if they attempted to go through Carrizal. General Felix Gomez personally came out to offer to telegraph his superiors to request permission for the Americans to enter the town.

Boyd refused.

Captain Charles T. Boyd

Boyd was determined to ride straight through Carrizal to Villa Ahamuda despite Pershing’s orders, the Mexicans’ warnings, and the advice of the other U.S. officers to simply bypass the town. Perhaps he thought audacity would cow the Mexicans. Perhaps he thought any armed resistance would be easily overcome. Perhaps he thought a successful skirmish would bring a promotion and fame as it had for Lieutenant George S. Patton. Whatever Boyd’s reasons, he ordered his men to charge the Mexicans who had entrenched themselves in an irrigation ditch to the west and south of Carrizal. Although the Buffalo Soldiers fought valiantly, killing 40 and wounding 30 Carrancistas, their small force was easily outflanked and cut down by machine gun fire. Fourteen Americans – including Boyd – were killed, 12 were wounded, and 24 were captured.

Today in Manhunting History -- June 15, 1916: Carranza Orders Opposition to Pershing

On June 15, Mexican President Venustio Carranza ordered his commander in Chihuahua, General Jacinto B. Trevino, to keep U.S. troops from moving any direction except north, even if it led to an armed confrontation. The next day Trevino warned Pershing: “I have orders from my Government to prevent, by the use of arms, new invasions of my country by American forces and also to prevent the American forces that are in this state from moving to the south, east or west of the places they now occupy.”

Pershing replied that same day that his government had not issued orders about the deployment of his troops; he would position them according to sound military tactics. Although Pershing was not intimidated, the increasing tensions and rumors of war dried up his human intelligence as potential sources feared retribution.

Brigadier General John "Black Jack" Pershing, leading the Punitive Expedition

Today in Manhunting History -- May 14, 1916: Patton versus Pancho Villa (sort of)

Although by May the trail Pancho Villa's trail had gone cold, Pershing's Punitive Expedition enjoyed some success in hunting Villa’s subordinates.  On May 14, Pershing placed an aide in command of an expedition to buy corn from nearby haciendas.  Lieutenant George S. Patton, 30, was a tall, thin, reedy-voiced officer already renowned as one of the Army’s best athletes and pistol shots.  When he learned in March that his regiment would not go to Mexico, Patton literally begged Pershing to take him along, offering to perform any job, no matter how menial.  As Patton recalled the encounter, Pershing replied: Everyone wants to go. Why should I favor you?"

"Because I want to go more than anyone else," Patton said.

"That will do," Pershing said, dismissing the supplicant.

Undeterred, Patton went home and packed his gear.  At 5AM the next morning his phone rang, and when he answered it heard Pershing's voice on the other end.  "Lieutenant Patton," the General asked, "how long will it take you to get ready?"

Patton replied that he was already packed, to which Pershing exclaimed "I'll be G-d damned.  You are appointed aide."

(Of course, Patton neglected to mention that the recently widowed Pershing was seeing Patton's sister Nina socially at the time . . .)

Lieutenant George S. Patton during the 1916 Punitive Expedition

While purchasing feed in Rubio, Patton noticed a group of 50 or 60 unarmed Mexicans.  One of the guides, an ex-Villista named E.L. Holmdahl recognized “a number of old friends” among them.  Although Villa was still in hiding somewhere south of Parral, the commander of his Dorados (Villa's elite bodyguard), General Julio Cardenas, was believed to be in hiding in the vicinity of Rubio.  Patton and his party – a corporal, six privates, Holmdahl and another civilian interpreter – drove to Las Ciengas, where Patton interrogated Cardenas’ uncle.  The uncle’s nervousness aroused Patton’s suspicions, and on a hunch, he ordered his convoy to drive six miles to San Miguelito Ranch, where Cardenas’ family was rumored to be residing.

As Patton’s car sped toward the house, he saw three old men and a boy skinning a cow in the front yard east of the house.  One of the men ran into the house, but quickly returned and resumed his work.  Patton’s car halted at the house’s northwest corner, and the other two cars took up positions at the southwest.  Pershing jumped out and, carrying a rifle and pistol, raced along the ranch’s northern edge.  Two soldiers made a similar dash along the southern wall while the privates covered the windows in case any Mexicans jumped out.  Patton reached the eastern side first and moved toward the gate.  When he was 15 yards from the large arched door, three armed men on horseback burst out from the house.  Seeing Patton standing with his pistol drawn, they dashed toward the southeast corner until they saw the soldiers coming from the south.  The Mexicans turned and rode straight at Patton.  “All three shot at me,” Patton recalled, “one bullet threw gravel at me.  I fired back . . . five times” from a range of 20 yards.  Two of Patton’s shots hit their targets, one entering a horse’s belly, the other breaking the rider’s right arm. 

Patton’s soldiers began firing from the southeast corner, putting him in the line of fire.  Patton ducked behind the corner and reloaded as three bullets hit a foot above his head and covered him in adobe dust.  Consequently, he did not see the man he had shot turn back into the house’s courtyard.

When Patton came around the corner again he was nearly stampeded by a horseman.  Patton fired and broke the horse’s hip, bringing it crashing down on the rider.  When the Mexican disentangled himself and rose to fire, Patton and several other Americans cut him down at a range of about 10 yards.  The third rider had made it 100 yards east of the hacienda before the soldiers fired at him.  He pitched forward dead in the sand near a stone wall.

Two of the three Mexicans were now dead.  The first man, who had reentered the inner patio and climbed out a window, was spotted running from a gate in the southwest corner toward the nearby fields when a fusillade brought him down.  When Holmdahl approached him, the man “held up his left hand in surrender, but when H[olmdahl] was 20 feet from him he raised his pistol and shot at H[olmdahl] but fortunately missed him and H[olmdahl] blew out his brains."

A search of the hacienda turned up no further Villistas, only Cardenas’ family.  Nobody would identify the bodies, however, so the corpses were strapped across the hoods of the three automobiles like hunting trophies.  As they prepared to leave, Patton saw some 40 men on horseback racing toward the hacienda, likely intending to rescue Cardenas.  Outnumbered, the Americans retreated toward Rubio, where the first man Patton had shot was identified as Cardenas.

Pershing allowed Patton to keep Cardenas’ saddle and saber as trophies, began referring to him as “the Bandit,” and promoted him to First Lieutenant.  The Rubio exploit quickly appeared in the U.S. press, and newspaper readers were thrilled to have an attractive, young hero with whom they could associate the Punitive Expedition.  Meanwhile, in Mexico, the Americans buried the rapidly decomposing Mexicans.  Against the backdrop of a blood-red sunset, a veteran sergeant offered an impromptu eulogy: “Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust/ If Villa won’t bury you, Uncle Sam must.”

Today in Manhunting History -- May 9, 1914: "The Life of General Villa"

Even amidst the vicious backdrop of the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa stood out for his brutality.  After each victory, Villa ordered the mass executions of hundreds of prisoners.  He oversaw the torture and slaughter of hundreds of ethnic Chinese in the towns he captured.  And any individual who dared cross him, including friends who fell out of favor like the American writer Ambrose Bierce, were murdered without hesitation.

But America loves bad boys. 

Despite his depredations, Villa's flamboyance and reputation for helping the poor made him a popular figure with the American press and the public, and even the staid New York Times referred to Villa as "the Robin Hood of Mexico."  President Wilson himself declared that Villa was "not so bad as he had been painted," and that amidst the turmoil of the Revolution, "Villa was perhaps the safest man to tie to."

Thus, on May 9, 1914, The Life of General Villa, filmed by the Mutual Film Corporation with Villa's permission, premiered at the Lyric Theater in New York City.  (The photo below is of Villa above his famous horse, Siete Legusa, in a still from the film).

HBO made a movie, "And Starring Pancho Villa as himself" about this episode in 2003 starring Antonio Banderas.  Also, another biopic about Villa is in development, although Johnny Depp, who was supposed to portray Villa, is no longer attached to the film.

It is a topic for another time, but it never ceases to amaze me how Hollywood lionizes the men whom America targeted (Geronimo, Villa, Che Guevara, and supposedly Pablo Escobar), each of whom was a bad man, while the heroes who tracked them down are lost to history if not altogether forgotten.

Today in Manhunting History -- May 5, 1916: The Battle of Blue Eyes

By early May 1916, the General John "Black Jack" Pershing's 10,000-man "Punitive Expedition" had withdrawn from most of Chihuahua Province rather than risk a war with Mexico, and occupied a rough parallelogram 100 miles long and 30 miles wide.  If possible, Pershing's commanders would continue to search for Pancho Villa within their sectors, while (in theory) Mexican government forces scoured southern Chihuahua and Durango provinces. 

Although this geographical restriction limited the likelihood that U.S. forces would capture/kill Villa, the Punitive Expedition did manage to score some significant victories over Villista forces.  On the evening of May 4, Pershing received a report that two Villista leaders were in the vicinity of Cusi with 120 men threatening the town and Carrancista garrison.  He subsequently ordered Major Robert Howze: "Move on Cusi and disperse the Villistas, if found."  Within two hours Howze had assembled six troops of cavalry and -- with his Apache scouts riding point -- led his men on a forced march of more than 36 miles.  As the troops approached Ojos Azules (Blue Eyes) ranch at 5:45 AM on the 5th, they saw the red glow of the Villistas' camp fires burning brightly.  The Villistas opened fire from 900 yards, and the Apaches returned fire "shrieking shrill, weird war whoops."  The fight at Ojos Azules lasted only 20 minutes, but Howze's command killed 61 Villistas.  Amazingly, not a single American was wounded in the battle.