The Pancho Villa Expedition

Francisco "Pancho" Villa

While the threat of war was looming in Europe, Mexico was already in a state of Turmoil. What started out as a revolt against the dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1910 descended into a civil war with multiple players. Francisco "Pancho" Villa was one of these main combatants. After expelling Diaz's successor, the general-turned-dictator Huerta in 1914, Villa felt that Venustiano Carranza, his one time ally, was turning himself into the next dictator of Mexico. So, Villa turned against Carranza, but his forces were defeated shortly thereafter at the Battle of Celaya in 1915. Now the United States, under Woodrow Wilson, which had been backing the revolutionary forces, including Villa, decided to support the new President Carranza, and so ceased all support previously given to Villa. Villa was extremely upset by this, and saw it as a terrible betrayal. There are a few different reasons for what Villa did next, one is for revenge on the U.S., another is for revenge on an arms dealer who sold him dud weapons and ammunition for the Battle of Celaya, but the other is his need for more weapons to continue his war on Carranza. Anyway, Villa took 100 of his men and ordered a raid on Columbus, New Mexico in March 1916. 80 of Pancho's men and 18 Americans were killed and part of the town was burned down. The U.S. reacted quickly to this raid and organized a force of 5,000 men placed under the command of General John J. Pershing to defeat Pancho Villa. The Mexican government did not like the idea of having U.S. troops stomping around their country side, and so did not allow them the use of their railways. This caused the U.S. to make use of trucks, the first time the army ever had. General Pershing brought with him a Curtiss JN-3 airplane which he sent out on reconnaissance missions. The expedition also gave junior officers such as 1st Lieutenant George S. Patton Jr. practice in the field.  While the expedition had failed to get Villa by the time it ended in February 1917, many of Villa's senior commanders were either captured or killed, along with 190 of his men. After the expedition Pancho returned to guerrilla warfare, since he no longer had a major fighting force. After the assassination of Carranza in 1920, he asked the new president for amnesty and was allowed to retire from his fighting later that year. However, unfortunately for Villa, he himself was assassinated while driving home in 1923. The two major theories for the assassination are for political purposes, or revenge against Villa for his vendetta against the Herrera family. Either way, this era of U.S.-Mexican relations is a very interesting and not highly discussed time in both of our histories.