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Pancho Villa and the Raid on Columbus

2/29/2024

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​In 1915, the Mexican Revolution had been going on for five years.  The decades-long regime of President Porfirio Díaz had ended, and a power struggle between elites and the middle classes, in addition to labor and agrarian unrest had led to armed uprisings resulting in the assassination of Diaz’ successor, Francisco I. Madero under the orders of the next president, Victoriano Huerta. Huerta’s counter-revolutionary regime was opposed by a coalition of leaders from the Mexican states, including a Constitutionalist Army led by Governor of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza, Emiliano Zapata who was leading an armed rebellion in Morelos, and the governor of Chihuahua, Francisco "Pancho" Villa, who led his own army in the northern part of Mexico.  However, once Carranza took power, the alliance he’d had with Villa, Zapata and others dissolved and they began fighting among themselves.

​By spring of 1916, Villa’s army was little more than a disorganized band, wandering northern Mexico in search of supplies. The 1915 Battle of Celaya had been a great defeat for Villa, and his army lacked the military supplies, money, and munitions needed to pursue his war against Carranza. While the reasons for the raid have never been established with any certainty, it is likely out of desperation that Villa planned the raid on the New Mexican border town of Columbus and the adjoining Camp Furlong.  He camped his army of an estimated 1,500 horsemen outside of Palomas on the border three miles south of Columbus and waited for the right time to surge over the border and steal the supplies he so desperately needed. 
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​Columbus was a small town of about 300 Americans and about as many Mexicans. Located just three miles north of the border with Mexico. It sat side by side with Camp Furlong, a small garrison intended to patrol and protect the border. It consisted the headquarters troop, one machine gun troop, and seven rifle troops, totaling 12 officers and 341 men, of which approximately 270 were combat troops.
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Before the raid, Villa sent spies into the town to assess the presence of U.S. military personnel. They reported that only about thirty soldiers were garrisoned at Columbus. This was a significant error. On the night of the raid, approximately half of the 362 soldiers were out of camp on patrol, leave, or other assignments, but even at that reduced number, there were far more troops than Villa anticipated. Not knowing this, Villa moved north and crossed the border about midnight. Maude Hauke Wright, an American kidnap victim who was travelling with the raiding party, stated that Villa only sent 600 of his 1,500 men into the attack because he lacked the ammunition to arm them all.

​Early in the morning of March 9, 1916, Villa divided his force into two columns. At 4:15, when it was still dark, he launched a a two-pronged attack on the town and the garrison. Most of the attacker approached on foot, their mounts left safely back with the rest of Villa’s troops. Some claim that Villa never crossed the border, but remained in Palomas. Others swear that he directed the attack from Cootes Hill, a small promontory overlooking Columbus.
PictureThe clock in the Columbus train station,, stopped when struck by a Villista bullet.
​The Villistas entered Columbus from the west and southeast shouting "¡Viva Villa! ¡Viva Mexico!" and other phrases. The townspeople awoke to find their settlement in flames and the Mexicans looting their homes and shops. The raid soon escalated into a full-scale battle between Villistas and the United States Army.  2nd Lt. John P. Lucas made his way barefooted from his quarters to the camp's barracks, where he organized a hasty defense around the camp's guard tent, preventing the Villistas from stealing the troop’s machine guns. The troop's four machine guns fired more than 5,000 rounds apiece during the 90-minute fight, their targets illuminated by fires of burning buildings. Soldiers joined with Springfield rifles, and many of the townsfolk had shotguns and hunting guns of their own.  

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​Finally, a bugler sounded the order to retreat and the Villistas disappeared back over the border, pursued by the regiment's 3rd Squadron until it ran low on ammunition and water.

Villa announced that the raid was a success, and that he’d captured 300 rifles and shotguns, 80 horses, and 30 mules. However, he’d also lost between 90 and 170 men, 63 killed in action and at least seven more who later died from wounds during the raid itself. The sixty-three dead Villa soldiers and all the dead Villa horses that were left behind in Columbus after the raid were dragged south of the stockyards, soaked with kerosene and burned. Of those captured during the raid, seven were tried and six hanged.  Although records are inconsistent, the American dead seems to range between 8 to 11 soldiers and 7 or 8 civilians. 

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PictureThe tents at Camp Furlough when it was at its height. Photo by author, taken at display in Pancho Villa museum
​The American public was outraged by Villa’s attack and the United States government wasted no time in responding. First on the scene were elements of the New Mexico National Guard. Other National Guard units from around the United States were called up. By the end of August 1916 over 100,000 troops were amassed on the border, with 5,000 headquartered at Camp Furlong.  Camp Furlong also had supply facilities and repair yards for the early motor trucks used in Mexico when General John J. Pershing moved the Punitive Expedition into Mexico to track down Villa. Columbus also had the first tactical military airfield in the United States. The 1st Aero Squadron's Curtiss JN3 Jenny biplanes provided aerial observation and communications for the expedition.
Following the withdrawal of the Punitive Expedition, the importance of Camp Furlong declined. By 1920, when the Mexican Revolution ended, only 100 men were garrisoned there. All troops were gone by 1923.


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Jennifer Bohnhoff's historical novel A Blaze of Poppies is the story of a young female rancher who is trying to keep her family's ranch and a member of the New Mexico National Guard who is in the area to protect the border. Agnes Day and Will Bowers both get drawn into Pancho Villa's raid, the ensuing Punitive Expedition, and World War I. Inspired by real stories set in the time and area, this is a work of fiction that will inspire and educate as well as entertain. 

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War on the Border: A nonfiction Book Review

1/19/2022

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If you've read my novel A Blaze of Poppies, you'll know a little about Black Jack Pershing, Pancho Villa, the raid on Columbus, and the American response.  If you'd like to know more, Jeff Guinn's War on the Border: Willa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion (Simon & Schuster; May 18, 2021) would be a good place to start. 

Guinn does a good job of explaining the turmoil in Mexico in the first few decades of the 20th century.  and how a M
exican general named José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, but who went by the name of Pancho Villa, was a key figure in it. Guinn analyzes the nature and temperament of each man in this battle of wills and does a good job of explaining the ebb and flow of power. While most men in positions of power in the goverment sided with the rich and landed aristocracy, Villa championed the poor and landless. He helped force out President Porfirio Díaz when Diaz did not do enough to promote land reform, led forces that outsted the right-wing General Victoriano Huerta, then after helping him attain the presidency, turned against Venustiano Carranza when the new president dragged his feet over promised social reforms. 

Villa, who had been a supporter of the United States, changed his mind when the US continued to back Carranza. 


On March 9, 1916, Villa led about 600 of his soldiers across the border and raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico, about 3 miles into American territory. There are many theories why Villa did this, but Guinn asserts that he wanted to provoke the United States Army into chasing him back across the border to prove to the Mexican people that Carranza was too weak to oppose their neighbor to the north. He expected an American invasion to lead to Carranza's overthrow.

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​Villa expected the raid on the little border town would be quick and easy, and he would come away with much needed ammunition, horses, and supplies. The spies he had sent into town earlier reported that Camp Funsten, the small Army facility charged with protecting the border, was only sparsely manned. The spies were wrong, and the raid turned into into a full battle that resulted in the deaths of 8 American soldiers, 67 Mexican soldiers, and 10 civilians. Guinn does a good job of detailing the raid. He questions the report of Colonel Herbert Jermain Slocum, the commander of the 13th Cavalry who was in charge of the installation.  

Villa was right about what the raid would do. President Woodrow Wilson, egged on by angry Americans, ordered General John "Black Jack" Pershing to organize a Punitive Expedition into Mexico. Pershing was to defeat Villa's troops, but soon found that the Mexican people, and the Mexican Government did not support his mission. After a year of attempting to avoid confrontation with Federal Mexican Troops, Pershing declared the mission a success and complete and returned home. 

Guinn's narrative goes beyond the Punitive Expedition. He details violence all along the border, including the frequent and bloody clashes in Texas. Guinn is particularly damning of the imperiousness of an American foreign policy that looked down on Mexico as a poor and illiterate neighbor, and of Texas Rangers who looked more like members of the Ku Klux Klan than protectors of the innocent. 

I was particularly interested in what Guinn had to say about the relations between Japan and Germany during this period. I thought I knew the contents of the Zimmerman telegram fairly well but didn't know about the overtures Germany had made to Japan, including offering them California while Mexico took back the remaining border states.

I wish Guinn had said more about Villa's death, which is covered in a single sentence in the epilogue of this book. The last chapter also explains how Columbus remains divided about the Raid and its meaning even today.

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Jennifer Bohnhoff was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, not far from the border with Mexico. She now lives near Albuquerque, where she taught High School and Middle School History and English. Her novel, A Blaze of Poppies, is the story of a female rancher in Southern New Mexico who is caught up in the Pancho Villa Raid and goes overseas as a nurse when America enters World War I. 

2 Comments
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    ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

    I am a former middle school teacher who loves travel and history, so it should come as no surprise that many of my books are middle grade historical novels set in beautiful or interesting places.  But not all of them.  I hope there's one title here that will speak to you personally and deeply.

    What I love most: that "ah hah" moment when a reader suddenly understands the connections between himself, the past, and the world around him.  Those moments are rarified, mountain-top experiences.



    Can't get enough of Jennifer Bohnhoff's blogs?  She's also on Mad About MG History.  

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    Looking for more books for middle grade readers? Greg Pattridge hosts MMGM, where you can find loads of recommendations.

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