Back on the Border: Battle of Ambos Nogales. August 27, 1918

 Nogales in 1899.

On this day elements of the 35th Infantry Regiment and the 10th Cavalry Regiment engaged Mexican Mexican forces at Nogales on the Mexican border.

The entire thing came about basically by accident, and ongoing border tension.

On this day at about 4:10 in the afternoon Mexican carpenter Zeferino Gil Lamadrid attempted to cross the border back into the Mexican side of Ambos Nogales.  The town was, and is, on both sides of the border in Arizona and Sonora respectively.  He was carrying a bulky parcel and was stopped ordered to stop for inspection.  A Mexican customs agent countermanded the order as he had actually crossed into Mexico by that time.  Gil Lamadrid became confused by the competing orders and the ensuing argument. 

 Border guards.  U.S. soldiers on left, well armed but poorly outfitted Mexican soldier on the right.

At this point, a Pvt. William Klint of the 35th U.S. Infantry attempted to cause Gil Lamadrid to return to the U.S. side of the border by brandishing his rifle which he then fired for an unknown reason.  Gil Lamadrid dropped to the ground for protection and Mexican Customs officer Francisco Gallegos returned fire killing Klint.  U.S. Customs Inspector Arthur G. Barber then drew his revolver and opned up, killing Gallegos and Mexican Customs Officer Andres Cecena.  Gil Lamadrid fled in the confusion (he'd be killed in a bar altercation many years later).

Mexican civilians, alerted to something going on due to the gunfire, armed themselves and rushed to join Mexican soldiers who likewise had started engaging under the assumption something was going on.  Perhaps fortunately most of the Mexican Federal soldiers (i.e., the soldiers of the now officially recognized Carranza government) were out of the town at the time fighting rebel soldiers loyal to the governor of Sonora, Plutarco Calles, who would later rise to the be Mexican president himself, and found the PRI Party, and whose hostility to Mexican Catholicism resulted in the Cristero War.  Calles rather obviously was always a controversial figure and that was already proving to be the case in Sonora.

For this reason, the majority of the Mexican combatants were civilians.  On the U.S. side, however, the combatants were soldiers, first of the 35th Infantry and then of the 10th Cavalry.

Soon thereafter Mexican forces joined in the gunfight, on the probable assumption that a battle was up and rolling.  The 35th Infantry at the start of the battle called on the 10th Cavalry for assistance which shortly arrived under the command of Lt. Col. Frederick Herman, who ordered an assault across the border to seize hills overlooking the town.  Those hills were the site of trenches and machinegun emplacements which had been put in several weeks earlier and Herman wanted to occupy them before Mexican forces did.  Mexican combatants in turn rushed the home of Gen. Alvaro Obergon, the Mexican revolutionary hero, who was absent, but whose house made a good fortress due to its stone walls.  In an irony typical of this battle his terrified family was escorted to the safety of the U.S. side by the U.S. Consul in Nogales.

Following this, and under fire, U.S. infantry and dismounted cavalry fought through the town with the 10th Cavalry, a regular U.S. unit comprised of all black enlisted soldiers, taking the red light district of the town where, in another irony, they were met with relief on the part of the town's Mexican working girls who soon went to work as impromptu nurses.  They were joined by American civilians in the same effort with both attending the wounded of both sides.  American civilians also became involved in the combat by firing from houses on the American side of Nogales which proved to be a hindrance to the U.S. Army.

A cease fire was upon when the Mayor of Nogales, Sonora, Felix B. Peñaloza, took a white handkerchief, tied it to his cane and ran into the streets of his city in a brave effort to stop the fighting.  He was in turn shot by a round fired from the American side, and did thirty minutes later.   This panicked, justifiably, Mexican town officials and the Mexican Consul in the American Nogales who caused a white flag to be raised over the custom house.  Snipers on both sides continued to fire for some time, but the battle basically concluded at that point.  Mexican civilians began to evacuate the town out of a fear of further violence.  The border remained closed the following day.

Both governments dispatched representatives to learn what happened.  Calles represented the Mexican government and Gen. DeRosey Cabell, a veteran of the Punitive Expedition, represented the U.S.   Both government expressed regrets about the incident.  Sniper fire continued to come from the Mexican side for some days during this process with the Mexican government maintained that they could not control, but the Mexican government did make an effort to seize civilian arms in Nogales.  The border reopened, but one further American soldier was killed by rifle fire from the Mexican side and a Mexican soldier killed by an American soldier in reprisal before the violence ceased.  By the time this occurred, four U.S. soldiers had died and twelve American civilians, while about thirty Mexican soldiers and one-hundred Mexican civilians had lost their lives.

American participants in the battle persistently maintained that German military men, in uniform, were present at the battle, but there is little evidence of that.  Their insistence was based on first hand observation, so it cannot be entirely discounted, and it is correct that a German officer was in fact killed in an earlier battle skirmish of this type.  However, while it is not impossible, this battle featured a lopsided proportion of Mexican civilians on the Mexican side, which partially explains why the Mexican causalities were predominantly civilians and why the Mexican effort fared fairly poorly in spite of being dedicated in nature.

In a final irony, Gen. Cabell recommended that a border fence be placed on the border through the town and for a distance of two miles.  His recommendation was followed and it was the first such border fence placed on the U.S-Mexican border.  A fence remains in place in the town today.

So, oddly, this forgotten battle is not only a tragedy, overshadowed by the greater tragedy of World War One, it remains oddly contemporary.