Pancho Villa Expedition - Expedition

Expedition

On March 15, on orders from President Woodrow Wilson, Major General John J. Pershing led an expeditionary force of 4,800 men into Mexico to capture Villa, who had already had more than a week to disperse and conceal his forces before the expedition tried to seek them out in unmapped terrain. Beginning March 19, the Curtiss JN-3 airplane was used by the 1st Aero Squadron to conduct aerial reconnaissance. Pershing divided his force into two "flying columns" to seek out Villa, and made his main base encampment at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. Due to disputes with the Carranza administration over the use of the Mexico North Western Railway to supply his troops, the United States Army employed a truck-train system to convoy supplies to the encampment and the Signal Corps set up wireless telegraph service from the border to Pershing's headquarters. This was the first use of (non-rail) motor vehicles by the U.S. military in a military operation and provided experience that was used when the country entered the First World War.

The first battle between the Villistas and the expedition occurred on March 29, 1916, at San Geronimo Ranch, near the town of Guerrero. After a long march through the Sierra Madre, Colonel George A. Dodd and his command of 370 men, from the 7th Cavalry, launched what was called the "last true cavalry charge" in history. During the five hour battle, over seventy-five of Villa's men were killed or wounded and he was forced to retreat into the mountains. Only five of the Americans were hurt, none of them fatally. The battle is considered the single most successful engagement of the expedition and it was the closest Pershing's men came to capturing Villa.

On April 12, 1916, about 100 men of the 13th Cavalry were attacked by an estimated 500 Mexican troops as they were leaving the town of Parral. The American commander, Colonel Frank Tompkins, knew he could not win a conventional engagement, so in a running battle he and his men were able to retreat to a fortified village nearby while repulsing Mexican cavalry charges at the same time. Two Americans were killed in the fight and another six were wounded, the Mexicans lost between fourteen and seventy men, according to conflicting accounts.

Colonel Dodd and the 7th Cavalry fought another engagement on April 22 with about 200 Villistas, under Candelaro Cervantes, at the small village of Tomochic. As the Americans entered the village, the Mexicans opened fire from the surrounding hills. Dodd first sent patrols out to engage the Villistas' rear guard, to the east of Tomochic, and after they were "scattered" the main body was located on a plain, to the north of town, and brought into action. Skirmishing continued for some time but when it became night the Villistas retreated and the Americans assembled in Tomochic. The 7th Cavalry lost two men killed and four wounded. Colonel Dodd reported that his men killed at least thirty rebels.

The next battle was fought at a ranch near Ojos Azules on May 5. In another charge, six troops of the 11th Cavalry and a detachment of Apache Scouts routed Julio Acosta and his band of about 100 rebels during what Friedrich Katz called the "greatest victory that the Punitive Expedition would achieve." Without a single casualty, the Americans killed forty-one Villistas and wounded many more. The survivors, including Acosta, were dispersed but they later regrouped to continue fighting the Carrancistas.

While the 11th Cavalry was engaged at Ojos Azules, dozens of Mexican raiders, under the command of a Villista officer, attacked the towns of Boquillas and Glenn Springs, Texas. At Glenn Springs the Mexicans won a small battle against a squad of nine 14th Cavalry soldiers and at Boquillas they robbed the town and took two captives. When the United States Army learned of the incident a "little punitive expedition" was sent into Coahuila to return the captives and the stolen property. On May 12, Colonel George T. Langhorne and two troopers from the 8th Cavalry rescued the two prisoners at El Pino without a fight and on May 15 a small detachment of cavalrymen encountered some of the raiders at Castillon. During the "brief firefight" that ensued, five of the Mexicans were killed and two were wounded while the Americans had no casualties.

On May 14, Lieutenant George S. Patton, 8th Cavalry, raided the San Miguelito Ranch, near Rubio, Chihuahua. Patton, a future World War II general, was out looking to buy some corn from the Mexicans when he came across the ranch of Julio Cárdenas, an important leader in the Villista military organization. With fifteen men and three Dodge armored cars, Patton led America's first armored vehicle attack and personally shot Cárdenas and two other men. The young lieutenant then had the three Mexicans strapped to the hood of the cars and driven back to General Pershing's headquarters at Colonia Dublán. Patton is said to have carved three notches into the twin Colt Peacemakers he carried, representing the men he killed that day. General Pershing nicknamed him the "Bandito".

The Villistas launched an attack of their own on May 25. This time a small force of ten men from the 7th Cavalry were out looking for stray cattle and correcting maps when they were ambushed by twenty rebels just south of Cruces. One American corporal was killed and two other men were wounded, though they killed two of the "bandit leaders" and drove off the rest.

On June 2, Lieutenant James A. Shannon and twenty Apache scouts fought a small skirmish with some of Candelaro Cervantes' men after they stole a few horses from the 5th Cavalry. Shannon and the Apaches found the rebels' trail, which was a week old by then, and followed it for some time until finally catching up with the Mexicans near Las Varas Pass, about forty miles south of Namiquipa. Using the cover of darkness, Shannon and his scouts attacked the Villistas' hideout, killing one of them and wounding another without losses to themselves. The rebel who died was thought to be the leader as he carried a sword during the fight.

Another skirmish was fought on June 9, north of Pershing's headquarters and the city of Chihuahua. Twenty men from the 13th Cavalry encountered an equally small force of Villistas and chased them through Santa Clara Canyon. Three of the Mexicans were killed and the rest escaped. There were no American casualties.

The last engagement of the Mexican Expedition was fought on June 21 when American forces, including elements of the 7th Cavalry and the African-American 10th Cavalry, were defeated by Carrancista soldiers at the Battle of Carrizal. Captain Charles T. Boyd and ten of his men were killed while another twenty-four were taken prisoner. The Mexicans did not do much better; they reported the loss of twenty-four men killed and forty-three wounded, including their commander, General Félix Gómez. When General Pershing learned of the battle he was furious and asked for permission to attack the Carrancista garrison of Chihuahua. President Wilson refused, knowing that it would certainly start a war.

While the expedition did make contact with Villista formations, killing two of his generals and about 160 of his men, it failed in its major objectives, neither stopping border raids—which continued while the expedition was in Mexico—nor capturing Villa. However, between the date of the American withdrawal and Villa's retirement in 1920, Villa's troops were no longer an effective fighting force, being hemmed in by American and Mexican federal troops and suffering money and arms blockades on both sides of the border.