The First Battle of Ciudad Juárez commenced at the border city with 1,500 men under the command of Maduro, 500 under Villa and another 500 under Orozco, with American mercenaries under Captain E.L Holmdahl and Captain Karl Linderfeldt, launching their assault on Temosachi and Bauche.
The surrounded the city, which retained only one route to the outside.
Long time readers here may recognize Linderfeldt for his role at Ludlow, Colorado, which of course lay in the future at this point in time.
Linderfelt had served in the Philippine Insurrection and in China with the U.S. Army and Colorado National Guard. He's also served in the Mexican Army in 1911 and his name was in the Colorado newspapers frequently due to that at the time, usually under his nickname "Monte". Prior to the 1913 mine labor troubles in Colorado, he's been working as a mine guard. He was activated again during the Puntive expedition and then again for World War One, during which he rose to the rank of Colonel in the Colorado National Guard in spite of Ludlow. His name was frequently in the news in the teens, with the papers being very hostile to him at first, but later more sympathetic as the Punitive Expedition and World War One rolled on. The troops he was in command of did deploy to France, but not until October 1918, making it unlikely that hey saw much, if any, wartime combat. In 1919 he purchased a farm in Custer County, Colorado. In 1922, however, he was being foreclosed upon. He died at age 80 in 1957, at which time he was living in Los Angeles.
Homdahl had fought in the Spanish American War and the Philippine Insurrection, joining the Army at age 15, under Lee Christmas in Central America, and then as a mercenary in the Mexican Revolution. He's serve in the U.S. Army during World War One. He's one of the people accused of stealing Pancho Villa's head.
Homdahl as a Mexican Revolutionary.
Unlike Linderfeldt, Homdahl served the revolutionary side for most of the Revolution, before becoming disenchanted with Pancho Villa. He had some fairly substantial commands under Madero. In 1915 he was convicted in the U.S., along with some other Mexican Revolutionaries, of violating the neutrality laws. He turned against Villa shortly thereafter and sought to join the U.S. Army as an officer, which was denied to him because of his conviction.
During the Punitive Expedition he seems to have served as a scout for the U.S. Army, although the details are murky as the records were destroyed after the event. He began an extensive campaign to be pardoned which paid off in July 1917, although it also exhausted his financial resources. He thereafter rejoined the Army, but with difficulty due to prior wounds at first disqualifying him.
After the war he was a prospector and spent time searching for the "buried gold" of Pancho Villa. As noted, he's suspected of having stolen Pancho Villa's head, but he's not the only suspect. He died in April, 1963.
Linderfeldt certainly lived a life of adventure, but not a wholly admirable life. Linderfeldt certainly didn't live a wholly admirable life.
The Department of Justice obtained its first conviction of a member of the Black Hand, that being of Gianni Alongi for his role in sending death threats to butcher shop owner Garmila Marsala.
A fire at the Price-Pancoast Colliery at Throop, Pennsylvania, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, killed 73 coal miners, many of them boys.
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