June 20, 1919. German government dissolves Villa asks why, and Californians go for root beer

On this day in 1919, the German government dissolved in protest over the Allied ultimatum to sign the Paris Peace Treaty.

The dissolution put the question of German acceptance of the treaty into real doubt in some quarters, as would soon be evident, but in the U.S. it was largely treated as a sign that the Germans were sure to sign.

The same newspaper brought a headline that the U.S. would face an inevitable war with Japan.

And a delegation from Villa's forces wanted to know why the U.S. had intervened in Juarez.

The news from Cheyenne was largely the same, except for the honoring of the 75th birtday of Francis E. Warren.

In Lodi, California, a California farming town, the firm that would become A&W was opened by Roy W. Allen as a root beer stand.  The firm would be expanded into a restaurant in 1923 when Allen partnered with his employee Frank Wright.

Our town had an A&W the entire time I was growing up, but for whatever reason, my parents didn't frequent it and it wasn't until high school that I became very familiar with it.  I never picked up a taste for it, probably due to that late exposure, even though I've always thought their root beer was pretty good.  It had a very 1950s feel to it, as it featured the sort of drive up ordering spots common to drive ins of the 1950s.

June 18, 1919. Aftermaths

President Wilson toured Belgium.

While in the U.S., the aftermath of the fighting in Juarez was still in the headlines.  The Mexican government was regarding the incident as closed, the U.S. Senate, now in GOP hands, was considering investigating U.S. relations with Mexico since the onset of the Revolution, and Americans in Chickasaw were advised to get out.

Meanwhile, the Germans were reported to be considering what would occur if they rejected the Paris Peace Treaty.

The Mexican Border War: The Third Battle of Ciudad Juarez. June 15-16, 1919 Part 3.

The Juarez racetrack on June 16, 1919.  The large hole in the cupola was caused by it being hit by American artillery.

And with this, the story of the United States and the Mexican Revolution, which we started following nearly daily with the 1916 Columbus Raid, and which became as story which bled into World War One, while not definitively over, is significantly over.

As we saw first on June 14, the Villistas launched their anticipated attack on Juarez very late in the night of June 14.  That attack first met with success, but by morning the Villistas had been pushed back.  American forces that had moved up in anticipation of crossing the Rio Grande accordingly went back into Ft. Bliss.

Those troops were soon back out.  Villa's renewed attack was proving successful and the troops reassembled to cross the Rio Grande.  This time they also brought up two armored gun trucks, the first time they'd been used by the U.S. Army in this locality.  Searchlights were also deployed to illuminate Juarez's streets and buildings in the night.

As the battle raged in Juarez shots inevitably began landing in El Paso, wounding and killing American civilians.  At first the Americans held their fire, but ultimately after taking a few casualties the U.S. Army intervened.  The final blow for the U.S. Army was when Pvt. Salvatore Fusco was killed by Villista sniper fire and Pvt. Burchard F. Casey was wounded.  With that, the American troops were ordered across the border to restore order.  The armored gun trucks crossed the Santa Fe Bridge followed by the 24th Infantry Regiment.  The 5th and 7th Cavalry, under Col. Tommy Tomkins, crossed the Rio Grande directly and moved to the western part of the city with the goal of creating a pincer movement in which Villa would be caught.  Near the Juarez racetrack the infantry encountered withdrawing Constitutionalist who informed them that the Villistas were dug in at the racetrack, which the 82nd Artillery then shelled.  Cavalry advanced from the east on the racetrack but encountered no Villista forces.

 Pvt. Salvatore Fusco.

At daybreak, the Cavalry returned to the river to water their horses and then moved south into Mexico in hopes of assaulting Villa's base.

They did in fact locate it, shell it and then assault it.  However, the Villistas, while at first surprised while eating breakfast, rapidly abandoned the camp, leaving their wounded as well as horses, mules and equipment.

The American infantry remained in Juarez itself while this was going on and received a protest from the Constitutionalist forces for entering the country without invitation, which was ironic under the situation as they were outnumbered and well on their way to defeat at the time that the Americans intervened.  Indeed, they speant the rest of the battle in their barracks.  The Americans soon  nonetheless withdrew, deeming their mission accomplished.   Three Americans were killed in the battle, Pvt. Fusco, Pvt. Anthony Cunningham of the 24th Infantry and Sgt. Pete Chigas of the 7th Cavalry.

Col. Tommy Tomkins in Juarez, whose brother Frank Tomkins had led American cavalry across the border following the Columbus Raid, and who lead the U.S. Cavalry contingent across the border in the Battle of Juarez. The Tomkins effectively bookended the Border War.

The battle was not only the last battle of the Border War, it was the last battle to be fought by Pancho Villa.  He did not retire thereafter, but instead actually conducted areal warfare through an air corps formed in his service. Although he remained very resentful against the US intervention in the battle, as well as of course earlier American intervention in the Mexican Revolution, he never participated in another battle against American troops and he was not really capable of doing so after the Battle of Juarez.  Villistas may have raided in Arizona as late as 1920, when some Mexican forces attacked Ruby Arizona, but the loyalty of those troops is not known.

Funeral procession for Pvt. Fusco.

While the battle didn't result in Villa's capture and it didn't fully end his activities, for all practical purposes he was done for.  So in a way, the 1919 battle achieved what the 1916 intervention had not.  Villa was effectively destroyed as a force in the field.  Once again, the U.S. Army was frustrated in a desire to capture Villa, but it didn't really matter.  Villa, while sufficiently resurgent to have mounted such a campaign, was not the force he had been earlier in the Mexican Revolution even if the Constituionalist forces in Juarez proved inadequate to contest him.  The American reaction to his presence in Juarez, justified by American troops being in harm's way, ended his career as a serious contender in the Mexican Revolution.

The Mexican Border War: The Third Battle of Ciudad Juarez. June 15-16, 1919 Part 2.

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.

July 14, 1919. Wars and Rumors of War. Villa attacks Juarez, World waits for German decision, AFL protests Prohibition

On this day, in 1919, readers of the papers were treated to the odd news of an attack having been announced, and then delayed, almost like that of a sporting event.

Pancho Villa's reconstituted forces had been approaching Juarez for days and had announced their intent to attack the city.  The attack was delayed.

And the news reported it delayed.

According to the Tribune, that was because Villa's scouts had determined that the Constitutionalist forces defending Juarez were ready and able to withstand his intended assault.

On the same day, the paper reported the ominous news that if the Germans didn't sign the Versailles Treaty by June 21, the war may well resume.

The Wyoming State Tribune was more blunt in its assessment that the war in Europe may very well resume.

On the same page, however, it noted the arrival of the 148th Field Artillery, containing Wyoming National Guardsmen, back in the states.  How exactly the Allies intended to resume a war against Germany, on its own soil, with the US and the British disbanding their armies as quickly as possible was certainly an open question.

That paper also noted the Villista's delay in attacking Juarez.

The Laramie Daily Boomerang didn't bother with the Villistas, but it did with the looming deadline, as well as disturbing news from the Russian Civil War.

The Cheyenne Daily Leader reported, however, both that the assault was coming today, and that there were no rebels near Juarez.  It also celebrated Flag Day.

The prediction of an assault today was correct.  At 11:35 p.m., the Villista's attacked from the East.  Villa, who seems to have favored nighttime assaults, in an era in which they were very difficult, launched one yet again.  The Constitutionalist began to withdraw towards the center of the town.

Things weren't looking good for Carranza's men.

It wasn't looking good for drinkers either, which is perhaps why the American Federation of Labor had a big Prohibition demonstration in Washington D. C. on this Flag Day.

Others just wanted to send letters home.

Norfolk, Virginia, June 14, 1919.

June 13, 1919. Misleading Headlines

American troops had not been sent into Mexico.

They were taking up positions near Columbus, New Mexico, however.  As well as standing ready in El Paso.  It was clear by this day that Villa was going to attempt to move north. . . maybe to Juarez, and less likely on Columbus.

And it was unlikely that he was going to try to cross the border.  But being on guard was well warranted.

Vladivostok was also a location where a lot of troops, and refugees, were in evidence on this day in 1919.  In this case, White Russian troops, and refugees fleeing the Reds as the lines changed every day.

June 12, 1919. Villa arrives at Villa Ahumada.

The R34.  A British airship that had crossed the Atlantic.

Villa's forces arrived at Villa Ahumada, a town directly sought of Juarez.  Mexican forces commenced to prepare to receive Villa's assault.

June 10, 1919. Meanwhile, in Texas. . . .

The "World's Wonder Oilfield", Burkburnett Texas.  June 10, 1919.

Burkburnett, Texas oilfield north-west extension from opposite Golden Cycle well.  June 10, 1919.

Oil exploration was going great guns in Texas, but guns were beginning to sound again just south of the border.

No peace had yet arrived with Germany, officially, and things were getting pretty tense in Juarez as residents began to flee the border town just south of El Paso.  And Mexican revolutionaries were reported as active elsewhere.

The huge strike in Winnipeg and the impending Telegraph strike were also on the front page.  In fact, the strike in Winnipeg had not been broken and the municipality had been forced to fire nearly the entire town's police force.

And the Boy Scouts were in town.

February 23, 1919. Villa advances on Juarez

Which is news that would have seemed current a couple of years ago, and then seemed impossible, only to be current again.

November 30, 1918. Americans enter Germany for the first time, Villa threatens Juarez, Wyomingites get Reserve Plates, Teenage Bride Mildred Harris Chaplin rumored to be planning a visit home, No beer for New Years.

The first Americans to cross into Germany, November 30, 1918.  1st Division.  Wormeldauge Luxembourg to Winchrenger Germany.

On this date in 1918 the U.S. Army entered Germany from Luxembourg.

Gen. Campbell King, left, in Luxembourg on this date in 1918.  King was Harvard educated before attending becoming a lawyer in Georgia.  He entered  the Army in 1897 as a private and was commissioned an officer in 1898.  He was a Major entereing World War One and was breveted the rank of Brigadier General and served as Chief of Staff of the Third Army.  He retired as a Major General in 1932 and lived until 1953.  The officer on the right is an unidentified Marine Corps officer.  Note the much darker uniform and the different pattern of overseas cap, with that type being the type that would later become the service wide pattern after the war.

Headquarters for the occupation force remained, on this day, in Luxembourg itself.

Cheyenne residents read Gen. Pershing's address to his troops and the Governor was demobilizing the Home Guard.

And Wyoming was introducing its coveted "reserve plates" for motor vehicles, in which you could get the same license plate number every year (at a time in which you received new plates every year. . . which was the case at least into the 1970s).

In the other Cheyenne paper readers learned that yes, Villa was threatening Juarez again. So he'd returned from near defeat back to threatening and was back on the very top of the front page yet again. . . just as he had been prior to World War One.

Mildred Harris Chaplain at approximately this time. Her stardom was in ascendancy at the time but her life was is in turmoil.  She's married much older Charlie Chaplain at only age 16, something that would have wrecked both of their careers in and of itself in the present age, under the false belief that she was pregnant.

Cheyenne was hoping for a visit, we also learned, from Mildred Harris, now Mrs. Mildred Chaplin, who had turned 17 years old only the day prior.

In Casper the headline, like on many other papers, dealt with Woodrow Wilson's decision to lead the American peace delegation, something that was not a popular decision with Congress.  Casperites also read of the terrible massacre of the Jews in Lemberg (Lvov) by the Poles.

Casperites also were reading of the disbandment of UW's military training unit.

Casperites also read, in the other paper, Pereshing's Thanksgiving day address.

They also read that the Kaiser was that no longer.

And suds for New Years would be no longer as well. The committee that had suspended brewing as of the first of the year declined to rescind its order now that there was peace.

Boxing match in Archangel Russia between enlisted U.S. and French servicemen, November 30, 1918.

The Wyoming Tribune for March 8, 1917: Guardsmen muster out tomorrow.

Wyoming National Guardsmen called up to guard the Mexican border during the Punitive Expedition were being mustered out on March 9, it was reported.

Meanwhile, that border was getting very tense once again. 

The Cheyenne State Leader for March 8, 1917: Troops Rushed To Protect Border

Juarez was in the news again, and troops were going to the border.

And the Senate was preparing to adopt the cloture rule.