Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week At Work: Photographing the Punitive Expe...

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week At Work: Photographing the Punitive Expe...

The Punitive Expedition. Making the decision.

President Wilson convenes his cabinet, including his new, and pacifist, Secretary of War, to discuss responding to the Villista Raid on Columbus New Mexico.  The decision is made to send in a relatively small expeditionary force into Mexico to punish the Villistas.  Immediately following the meeting Wilson states:

An adequate force will be sent at once in pursuit of Villa with the single object of

capturing him and putting a stop to his forays. This can and will be done in entirely friendly aid of the constituted authorities in Mexico and with scrupulous respect for the sovereignty of that Republic

Lex Anteinternet: Mid-Week at Work: U.S. Troops in Mexico.

Lex Anteinternet: Mid-Week at Work: U.S. Troops in Mexico.

All around the water tank, waiting for a train
A thousand miles away from home, sleeping in the rain
I walked up to a brakeman just to give him a line of talk
He said "If you got money, boy, I'll see that you don't walk
I haven't got a nickel, not a penny can I show
"Get off, get off, you railroad bum" and slammed the boxcar door

He put me off in Texas, a state I dearly love
The wide open spaces all around me, the moon and the stars up above
Nobody seems to want me, or lend me a helping hand
I'm on my way from Frisco, going back to Dixieland
My pocket book is empty and my heart is full of pain


I'm a thousand miles away from home just waiting for a train.

Jimmy Rodgers, "Waiting for a Train".

The Buffalo Soldiers at Ft. Huachuca

Excellent treatment of The Buffalo Solders at Ft. Huachuca from Huachuca Illustrated, including excellent history of the Punitive Expedition.

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico: The news hit.

Most towns and cities in 1916 were served by a morning and an evening newspaper, or a paper that published a morning and evening edition.  Therefore, most Americans would have started learning of the Villista raid around 5:00 p.m. or so as the evening newspapers were delivered or started being offered for sale.

Here's the evening edition of the Casper Daily Press, a paper that was in circulation in Casper Wyoming in 1916 and which is the predecessor of one of the current papers.

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico, 1916

0730-balance of the day:  Troopers of the U.S. 13th Cavalry pursue retreating Villistas into Mexico.  Major Frank Tompkins, sought permission against the rules of engagement, to cross the border and was granted the same by Slocum.   His troops advanced past Palomas and fifteen miles into Mexico, where their pursuit is arrested by the Villista defense. As he had only a portion of the Camp Furlong garrison he was badly outnumbered in the pursuit but nonetheless engaged the Villista rear guard four times, inflicting heavy casualties on them.  When his advance was finally checked, he withdrew into the United States.

The raid leaves part of Columbus in ruins and will launch the United States into a punitive expedition into Mexico against Villa's forces, and which would nearly lead to war with Mexico.  Woodrow Wilson filled the vacant position of Secretary of War that very day.

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico: The Telegram.

The following telegram arrived in Washington, DC:

Columbus attacked this morning, 4:30 o’clock. Citizens murdered. Repulsed about 6 o’clock. Town partly burned. They have retreated to the west. Unable to say how many were killed. Department of Justice informed that between 400 and 500 Villa troops attacked Columbus, New Mexico about 4:30. Villa probably in charge. Three American soldiers killed and several injured; also killed four civilians and wounded four. Several of the attacking party killed and wounded by our forces. Attacking party also burned depot and principal buildings in Columbus. United States soldiers now pursuing attacking parties across the line into Mexico. No prisoners reported taken alive

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico, 1916

0730  A Villista bugler sounds retreat.  Villistas begin the process of withdrawing to Mexico with their wounded.

The raid on Columbus New Mexico, 1916

 Maj General John P. Lucas during World War Two.  Lucas, as a lieutenant, would react heroically to the Villista attack.

0415-0445 to 0730.  A pitched battle between Villistas against cavalrymen of the 13th U.S. Cavalry ensues. While caught by surprise, the US forces had some inkling that Villistas may have been on the move prior to the raid and reacted very quickly.  Local Columbus New Mexico residents also took part in the battle, defending their homes.  While the battle started in darkness, the fact that a hotel caught fire soon aided US. forces in being able to pick out Villista targets.

The early minutes of the action featured a heroic reaction by Lt. John P. Lucas who fought his way alone from his tent to the guard shack in spite of lacking shoes and shirt.  Lucas who commanded a machinegun troop, organized a single machinegun in defense until the remainder of his unit could come up.  He then organized them and worked to repel the Villistas.  Lucas made a career of the Army and died after World War Two at age 59 while still serving in the Army.

The Raid on Columbus New Mexico, 1916

 Col Herbert J. Slocum, U.S. 13th Cavalry.  Slocum was in command of the 13th Cavalry Regiment at Columbus New Mexico, or more accurately Camp Furlong which was next to Columbus.

0415:  Villistas enter Columbus New Mexico from the west and southeast crying "¡Viva Villa! ¡Viva México!"

They expected to encounter an American garrison of only 30 men, as noted above, based upon their scouting and intelligence.  However, Columbus had a garrison of over 300 men, to Villa's force of approximately 500 men.  The US forces were from the U.S. 13th Cavalry who occupied adjacent Camp Furlong.  Moreover, U.S. troops were equipped in a modern fashion, complete with the Benet Mercie light machine gun which had been adopted for cavalry use.

The Raid On Columbus New Mexico. 1916

 Villa leading his forces prior to his 1915 defeat at Celaya

0100: Forces under Francisco "Pancho" Villa cross the border near Palomas, Chihuahua to advance on the small town of Columbus New Mexico, which they intend to raid in retaliation for Woodrow Wilson's actions in allowing Carranza's forces to be transported by rail across Texas to be used against Villa's forces in northern Mexico.  

Most are on foot.  Columbus is 2.5 miles to the north of the Mexican border town, where Villistas had been located and recuperating after a recent defeat at the hands of Carranza's forces.

Villa, who may or may not have accompanied his troops that day, commanded approximately 500 men.  His force of horsemen was in disarray after being defeated at the  Battle of Celaya in April of the prior year, from which it had still not recovered.  Villa had gone in that battle with 22,000 men, 8,000 of which were killed, and another 8,000 of which were captured in the battle.  His forces at Palomas, while dangerous, were a shadow of his prior Division del Norte.

Villa believed that nearby Columbus was garrisoned with about 30 US soldiers.  This intelligence was erroneous and US forces in the region were alerted to the possibility of trouble occurring.

Last edition:

Remembering Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus, N.M.

Labels: 1910s, Army, Columbus New Mexico, Mexican Border War, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, New Mexico, The Punitive Expedition

Remembering Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus, N.M.

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The Columbus Raid. Why did it occur?

As I noted yesterday, this week 100 years will pass since Francisco "Pancho" Villa ordered a party of his men across the United States border into a raid on Columbus New Mexico.  Columbus was a little tiny town across the border, but it had come to have an American military presence.  Villa's actions was extraoridinary and the question has always been, why on earth did he do it.

Unlike some historitans,  I think the answer is obvious, and I've touched on it before in our thread  Lex Anteinternet: The Mexican Revolution.  As the anniversary of the event came upon me at a time when work and activities kept me from posting a really new entry here on the episode, I'm linking in, over the course of the week, a variety of items, but this particular item addressed some of these topics.  So I'm basing this post on what I earlier wrote.  Perhaps that's bad form, but none the less I think the earlier entry was pretty good.

I'm not going to repeat all that was there, but let's note that Mexico had slid into revolution, and the US had already intervened in Mexico during that revolution.  Mexico's long standing dictator Porfirio Diaz had fallen in revolution.  In turn, Modero, who overthrew him in the name of liberal democracy, had ruled naively and had gone down in a 1913 military coup that brought Victoriano Huerta to power.  Unfortunately, that coup had the local support of the American ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson.  Mexico erupted into civil war.  That civil war brought the radical Venustiano Carranza into power and soon remaining Mexican revolutionaries took sides with or against him as Mexico descended into chaos.  One of the revolutionary generals opposing Carranza was Pancho Villa with his Army of the North.

We pick up the story after the U.S. first intervened military at Vera Cruz to keep arms being supplied to Huerta.

Indicative of things to come, perhaps, Huerta was defeated and fled while the United States occupied Vera Cruz, but he was no more pleased about the American presence there than a disgruntled Huerta was, who went on to plot with German agents to bring Mexico into war with the United States, as noted.  American forces withdrew in November 1914, but they'd be back, as we'll see, in a different location only shortly thereafter.  The intervention at Vera Cruz, however, did prevent the Germans from supplying a shipment of arms to Huerta, which may or may not have had an impact on the Mexican Revolution.  Ironically, the arms were actually American made as the Germans, in 1914, were not in a position to export arms to Mexico.

Carranza soon found himself fighting the two main stars of the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa and Emiliano  Zapata. Zapata, while he receives less attention, is by far the most interesting of the two as he had a real political vision for Mexico, that being a distributist agrarian state.   Villa was more of a peasant free agent, with less defined goals. Suffice it to say, however, both had been highly successful revolutionaries and a betting man would have bet against Carranza at that point.

However, Carranza was a radical as well, and that position allowed him to undercut support for a war weary Mexican population in the south.  This began to undercut support for the agrarian Zapata, and he began to face supply problems and accordingly set backs in the field.  Nonetheless Zapata was still in the field in 1919 when he was lured into a trap in an effort to secure supplies and assassinated.  In the north, Pancho Villa, who had been a very successful natural cavalry commander, found himself unable to adapt to the changes in battlefield tactics that were also being used in Europe.  Constantly in battle against Carranzaista commander Alvaro Obregon, who used barbed wire and trenches, his fortunes rapidly declined.

 

Alvaro Obregon, whose competence and study of military tactics lead to the defeat of Pancho Villa and his Division del Norte.  He'd ultimately become present of Mexico following his coup against Carranza.  Obregon would serve one term as president of Mexico, and was elected to a second term to follow his successor Calles, but he was assassinated prior to taking office.

But before they did, Carranza, in spite of a dislike of the United States, approached the Wilson administration about transporting troops through Texas by rail to be used against Villa.  Wilson had been horrified by H L. Wilson's actions in bringing about Madero's downfall, and he deeply desired to see an end to the fighting in Mexico.  Deciding to recognize Carranza as the legitimate ruler of the country, he granted permission for this to be done in 1915. Traveling under arms, they were used against Villa.  Villa retaliated against the United States for its entering the conflict in this fashion by raiding Columbus New Mexico on March 9, 1916.

 

The raid on Columbus has seemingly baffled American historians ever since, but the reasons for it couldn't be more apparent.  Villa was a fairly simply man, not a diplomat, and he had been attacked by Carranza's forces after they'd crossed the United States by rail.  By doing that, the US had taken a position in the war, which indeed it had whether President Wilson recognized that or not.  Indeed, Wilson had been warned by those knowledgeable not to support Carranza, who deeply disliked the US, and when it wasn't clear who was going to win the civil war.  Wilson's actions did nothing to engender love from Carranza but it did inspire Villa to retaliate against the US.

And so started an episode that would take U.S. troops deep into Mexico.

This entire episode seems oddly contemporary and from a distant less powerful past for the Americans.  It's hard to imagine ourselves being raided in this fashion, but then perhaps the events of 9/11 were not entirely dissimilar.    And the entire event serves as a cautionary tale today.  Nobody would have foreseen a newspaper interview bringing down Diaz.  Nobody would have seen Modero becoming the president of Mexico.  Nobody would have anticipated a victorious Modero leaving the Mexican army and its officer corps in place following their defeat.  Wilson, for his part, apparently didn't appreciate that he was directly intervening in a Mexican civil war by allowing Mexican troops in that war to be transported across U.S. territory.  Things have a way of working out contrary to our expectations.

Lex Anteinternet: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scenes of the U.S. Army in the Punitive Expedition

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scenes of the U.S. Army in the Punitive Exp. Era

One of the themes that we're going to try to explore here is the Punitive Expedition, that event following the raid by Poncho Villa on Columbus New Mexico which saw the U.S. Army enter Mexico in search of Villa.

This SMH thread has a great collection of photos dating to this era, so I'll kick off the exploration of this topic with a link to some of them.

Lex Anteinternet: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - A Punitive Expedition Time Line.

Society of the Military Horse • View topic - A Punitive Expedition Time Line

Additions?  Subtractions?

Lex Anteinternet: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scenes of the Punitive Expedition.

Lex Anteinternet: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scene...: Society of the Military Horse • View topic - Scenes of the U.S. Army in the Punitive Exp. Era

Random Snippets: Too much capitalism

Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists.

G. K. Chesterton:  The Uses of Diversity, 1921

Question for the readers. Source for historical weather data?

Is there any source for the weather in any one place in North America for a century or more ago.

I.e., if I wanted to know what the weather in Denver Colorado was on March 7, 1916, would there be a place I could look that up?