The Pancho Villa Expedition was a cross-border punitive expedition conducted by the US Army against Pancho Villa's Mexican revolutionary army in Chihuahua, Mexico from 1916 to 1917 amid the Mexican Revolution. Triggered by Villa's cross-border raids - especially the Columbus raid of 1916 - the expedition succeeded in defeating Villa's main army, but it failed in its objective of capturing Villa or permanently destroying his force.
Background []
During the chaotic Mexican Revolution, the fighting between the Mexican Army and the revolutionary factions occasionally spilled over onto American soil, resulting in the "Border War". In October 1915, the US government angered the bandito-turned-revolutionary Pancho Villa by recognizing his rival Venustiano Carranza as President of Mexico, and the US government also provided material aid to the federal army during its battles with the Villistas along the border, including using searchlights to identify Villa's soldiers and providing rail transportation for the Army. On 26 November 1915, Villa retaliated against the United States with a raid on Nogales, Arizona, and, on 11 January 1916, he massacred 16 American railroad employees during a train ambush at Santa Isabel, Chihuahua. Brigadier-General John J. Pershing of the US Army was later warned that Villa was planning a major cross-border raid into the United States, but he ignored the tip, as raids were commonplace. At 4:00 AM on 9 March 1916, Villa and his army crossed the New Mexico border and raided the town of Columbus, killing ten American civilians and eight soldiers. The rebels burned the town and stole horses, mules, machine guns, ammunition, and merchandise before recrossing the border into Mexico, having lost 67 dead in the process. General Frederick Funston, commander of the US Army's Southern Department, recommended to President Woodrow Wilson that the US launch a punitive expedition against Villa in retaliation, and Wilson agreed, giving Pershing command of the expedition. His goal was to capture Villa in an invasion which respected Mexican national sovereignty and the Mexican government.
Expedition[]
On 15 March 1916, Pershing led a force of 6,600 American soldiers - consisting primarily of cavalry and horse artillery - across the Mexican border, establishing their main base at Colonia Dublan. The bitter nighttime cold of the Mexican desert and Mexico's high altitude led to logistical difficulties, and Pershing eventually increased the size of his force to 10,000, including virtually the entire Regular Army and US National Guard elements. The Villa Expedition marked the US military's first use of supply trucks, providing useful experience for World War I. On 29 March 1916, the Americans caught up to Villa's army when it stopped to attack a Carrancista garrison at Guerrero, and Villa lost 75 men, while the only American casualties were five wounded. The Americans narrowly failed to capture Villa, and, on 1 April, the Americans attacked the retreating Villistas at Agua Caliente, where the US Army engaged in its first cavalry charge since the Spanish-American War. However, by this time, relations between the United States and the Carrancista government had deteriorated, and, on 12 April 1916, 500 Mexican Army troops attacked Major Frank Tompkins' two US cavalry troops (128 men) at Parral. Two Americans were killed and six wounded, and up to 70 Carrancistas were killed. The entry of the Carrancistas into the conflict stymied Wilson's plans to capture Villa while remaining on neutral terms with the Mexican government. On 5 May, at Cusihuirischic, the Americans won their greatest victory of the campaign when they killed 44 Villistas without a single loss, dispersing the surviving rebels. In May, however, several hundred Mexican regulars loyal to Villa raided the Texas towns of Glenn Springs and Boquillas. On 14 May, Lieutenant George S. Patton retaliated by raiding San Miguelito in America's first motorized action, and he killed the Villista general Julio Cardenas and two other men and delivered their bodies to General Pershing on the hoods of three jeeps, earning himself the nickname "the Bandito" from Pershing.
On 9 May 1916, Carranza's Secretary of War Alvaro Obregon met with General Funston at El Paso and threatened to cut off the American expedition's supply lines and forcibly drive it from Mexico, forcing Funston to recall the expedition to Colonia Dublan. On 21 June, in the last battle of the expedition, 12 Americans were killed, 10 wounded, and 24 captured at Carrizal; while the Mexican general Felix Uresti Gomez was killed and Pershing made plans to assault Chihuahua City in retaliation, President Wilson refused, knowing it would start a war. The US deployed 100,000 troops to the border as the US operations phased out over the next six months, and, from 28 January to 5 February, the American forces returned to US soil. Pershing brought with him 527 Chinese refugees who had assisted him in the expedition, defying the Chinese Exclusion Act, and they were allowed to settle in San Antonio. Pershing claimed that the expedition was a success, although he privately criticized Wilson for imposing too many restrictions on his campaign. The expedition's failure boosted Carranza's popularity, as well as anti-American sentiment in Mexico, but it also gave much-needed experience to a new generation of US soldiers and (along with Funston's death) made Pershing the top choice to lead the US expedition to France during World War I.