And so the day by day, so to speak (with a lot of non posts in between) entries on the Mexican Border War, which commenced with the threads on the attack of Columbus New Mexico in 1916, which I posted in 2016, start to come to an end.
And that's because this was the last battle of the Border War.
The battle commenced very late on the night of June 14 (approximately 11:35) when Villa attempted to take Juarez from the Constitutionalist army, putting the city in contest for at least the third time since 1911 and oddly reprising some of the events that had sent the US into Mexico in in 1916.
The attack was not any kind of a surprise and had been expected for days. Indeed, the presumption that the attack was going to be launched on June 14, which ultimately it was but only very late at night, resulted in newspaper headlines regarding its delay. Whatever the source of that delay actually was, it would have done speculators well to recall that Villa liked to attack at night.
The attack on the night of the 14th spread into the next day with the Constitutionalist forces withdrawing towards the city center. But during the day they recovered and forced Villa back to the eastern part of the city. In the meantime, the U.S. Army ordered up troops from the 24th Infantry, the 2nd Cavalry, the 82nd Field Artillery and the 8th Engineers to a location near a ford across the Rio Grande in case an American intervention proved necessary. By daybreak it appeared it would not be, so the troops were ordered back to Ft. Bliss.
The battle was not yet over however. The Villistas would launch another nighttime assault that night.
The attack was not any kind of a surprise and had been expected for days. Indeed, the presumption that the attack was going to be launched on June 14, which ultimately it was but only very late at night, resulted in newspaper headlines regarding its delay. Whatever the source of that delay actually was, it would have done speculators well to recall that Villa liked to attack at night.
The attack on the night of the 14th spread into the next day with the Constitutionalist forces withdrawing towards the city center. But during the day they recovered and forced Villa back to the eastern part of the city. In the meantime, the U.S. Army ordered up troops from the 24th Infantry, the 2nd Cavalry, the 82nd Field Artillery and the 8th Engineers to a location near a ford across the Rio Grande in case an American intervention proved necessary. By daybreak it appeared it would not be, so the troops were ordered back to Ft. Bliss.
The battle was not yet over however. The Villistas would launch another nighttime assault that night.
No comments:
Post a Comment