AZ Mil Hist 9 Pershing’s Hunt for

In 1916, the US sent a military force, named the “Punitive Expedition,” into . It’s task was to neutralize a bandit (or Mexican patriot) named Francisco “Pancho” Villa as a threat to US citizens and interests along the southern US border with Mexico. The Punitive Expedition failed to capture or kill Villa, but it damaged his capabilities to the point that he never again threatened US territory.

The operation also helped prepare the US Army for WW I in the new use of trucks and airplanes and provided valuable field experience to several thousand troops and officers. However, the Mexican peoples’ resentments of the Punitive Expedition, and the earlier Mexican-American War, linger to this day and influence our relationship with Mexico and the Mexican people.

The motivation for the Punitive Expedition can be traced to the 1910 Mexican Revolution according to Arizona historian Andrew Wallace. “A rebel faction led by Francisco I. Madero, Jr., and supported by a young man of dubious background named Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa,” forced the resignation of Porfirio Diaz, Mexico’s dictatorial president. The , for its part, watched the upheaval with keen interest, seeking to protect American business interests in Mexico and US citizens along the Mexican border.

Madero's victory did not last long, says National Archivist Mitchell Yockelson. “On February 19, 1913, General Victorio Huerta forced Madero to resign. On February 22, Madero was assassinated, presumably on orders from General Huerta.” Madero’s followers were incensed and attacked Huerta's forces in retaliation. Governor Venustiano Carranza now led the Madero faction, assisted by “Pancho” Villa. In the process, Villa had formed his own military force, “Division del Norte” (Division of the North), and began operations in the mountains of northern Mexico. Naturally, Villa and everyone else at that time claimed to be the true patriots of Mexico.

Gov. Carranza

1 According to historian Eileen Welsome, after a series of increasing conflicts, Carranza and Pancho Villa now turned against each other. Meanwhile, the US was seeking a stable Mexican government with whom a reliable partnership could be developed. Carranza, at the time, seemed to be the answer. So on October 19,1915, the United States and six Latin American nations formally recognized the Carranza government. Villa was stunned. He admired US President Woodrow Wilson and had many warm friends in the United States, including Wilson’s former Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan. But Wilson had to make a commitment. He chose to back the seemingly stable Carranza government and he needed to blunt the emerging influence of Germany and Japan on this important southern neighbor.

Pancho Villa Nevertheless, Pancho Villa and his followers took the recognition of Carranza as a personal insult. The Villistas seemed to feel betrayed and were determined to retaliate against the Americans. On January 8, 1916, Villa's irregulars brazenly killed seventeen U.S. citizens traveling by rail from Chihuahua City to the Cusi Mine at Santa Isabel Chihuahua. While this act immediately enflamed US public opinion, the following Villista raid on Columbus, , triggered an American military response in the form of the Punitive Expedition.

Why Villa chose Columbus for his most audacious raid is still unclear. The small town had only one hotel, a few stores, a population of some 350 Americans and Mexicans, and was generally unremarkable. However, a significant number of US Army cavalrymen were stationed nearby at the time. In fact, Welsome tells us that Villa might have had a change of heart as his force approached Columbus. Villa pointed out that the cavalry regiment garrisoned at Columbus seemed large, and he did not want to risk the lives of his men for such an “unimportant town.” But his key advisors minimized the threat and pressed for the attack. Villa finally succumbed to their arguments, to his later regret.

Andrew Wallace offers another view: “Some have supposed the raid to be one more angry outburst of hatred. It may have been, however, an intentional and calculated gambit to bring American intervention into the affairs of Mexico and to discredit Carranza among the poor Indians and peons of northern Mexico. If this was his purpose, the raid succeeded, for events thereafter moved swiftly in Washington.”

So who was Pancho Villa, the man who caused so much trouble in 1916 and nearly started another Mexican-American war? Welsome tells us that Villa’s life was such a tangle of stories, myths, and half-truths that even during his lifetime biographers and writers had a hard time profiling this man. Villa seemed like a simple, ordinary man, an image he cultivated publicly. But in fact, he was an unusually complex person. The deprivations and humiliations he had suffered in his youth had formed in him a volatile personality capable of cruel and unpredictable acts.

This very proud man and his family had suffered all the humiliations of lower-class people in Mexican society. These memories had developed into a deep resentment in the adult Villa. “The 2 Spaniards, he believed, had exploited and enslaved the Mexican people; the Chinese were parasites who sent their profits back to China instead of investing in Mexico; and the Catholic priests were simply corrupt.” However, it was not until the Wilson “betrayal” that Villa turned against the Americans.

Villa did not drink alcohol, but he suffered rheumatism from years of sleeping outside on cold ground. He was a “superb horseman, was full of energy, and he exuded a genuine charisma. On the battlefield, amid the dust and smoke, his dashing figure could inspire his men to hurl themselves willingly into the withering machine-gun fire of their enemies.” Villa was a hardened and disciplined opponent and would prove to be a worthy adversary.

In response to Villa’s raid, President Wilson quickly authorized Army Secretary Newton D. Baker to set in force the Punitive Expedition. The official orders to the area commander, General Frederick Funston, dated 10 March 1916, read as follows:

“Commanding General, Southern Department Fort Same Houston, Texas

“You will promptly organize an adequate military force of troops, under the command of Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing, and will direct him to proceed promptly across the border in pursuit of the Mexican band which attacked the town of Columbus, N. M. and the troops there on the morning of the 9th inst. [sic] These troops will be withdrawn to American territory as soon as the de facto Government of Mexico is able to relieve them of this work. In any event, the work of these troops will be regarded as finished as soon as Vila’s band or bands are known to be broken up.”

Pershing The choice of commander for the expedition was not difficult. Funston, himself, was too old for strenuous field service. A survey of active general officers quickly suggested Pershing (See photo below). His service included frontier cavalry duty and challenging tours worldwide. Pershing had commanded the 8th Infantry Brigade at Fort Bliss, El Paso, since 1915 and was already familiar with events in Mexico. Wilson endorsed his Pershing appointment without hesitation.

Pershing graduated from West Point in 1886 and was assigned to the Sixth Cavalry in New Mexico. “He participated in General Nelson Miles’ campaign against Geronimo. In 1895 he joined the Tenth Cavalry, one of the six all-black regiments authorized by Congress after the Civil War. The colored troopers consisted of two cavalry and four infantry regiments and were commanded mostly by white officers. The Indians called them Buffalo Soldiers allegedly because they wore jackets made from buffalo hide and had hair that was similar to the animals’ curly coats.” Pershing and the Buffalo Soldiers got on well and his association with them would bestow on him the name “Black Jack.”

When war broke out in 1898, Pershing was sent to . His commander in Cuba found admirable traits in Pershing and said, “Pershing is the coolest man under fire I ever saw.” Later, while assigned to the Headquarters Army staff in Washington, Pershing met and married the daughter of Wyoming Senator Francis E. Warren, chairman of the military affairs committee. 3

In 1913, Pershing returned from another tour in the Philippines and was stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco. He now had four children. He was soon ordered to Fort Bliss in El Paso and prepared to bring along his family. However, before they could join him, the family died in an accidental fire in their Presidio house. Only his five-year-old son survived. Pershing reacted stoically and began to assume a no-nonsense demeanor.

With his physical fitness, erect posture, riding boots and crop, Pershing seemed to represent the perfect image of a soldier. His superiors viewed him as a strict disciplinarian and a highly competent leader. They were confident he would be able to maintain firm control of his men and his own temper in facing the challenges and uncertainties of the Punitive Expedition. “But there seemed another reason the kindly old generals wanted him to lead the expedition: the assignment might ease his crushing grief.”

In the spring of 1916, Pershing’s grief began to lift and he started dating Anne “Nita” Patton, the twenty-nine-year-old sister of Lt. George Patton. By then, Patton was a brash young officer stationed at Fort Bliss with the eighth cavalry. (See Patton at right in photo below; Pershing at left) Pershing was fifteen years older, but “Nita nevertheless found him exceedingly attractive, drawn in part by the tragic air that now surrounded him.”

The thirty-year-old Patton had mixed feelings about the relationship. Patton had become a superb horseman and expert marksman. He was determined to climb the army ranks on his own merits. At the moment however, his progress seemed stalled because his regiment had not been included in the expedition. Patton was determined to go anyway. He contacted Pershing’s aide, and finally the general himself. “Everyone wants to go; why should I favor you?” Pershing asked.” “Because I want to go more than anyone else,” answered Patton. Pershing did not respond. Some time later Pershing returned and asked,”Lieutenant Patton, how long will it take you to get ready?” Patton replied that he was already packed. “You are appointed my aide,” Pershing responded.

On March 14, 1916, Pershing was assigned command of two cavalry brigades and a brigade of infantry (roughly 10,000 men), with orders to find, pursue and destroy Villa’s forces. So on March 15th, Pershing arrived in Columbus and led the Punitive Expedition into Mexico. At first President Carranza supported the expedition. However, as the deployment wore on through the next 11 months, he became increasingly hostile and eventually appeared to actively oppose it.

Pershing started out with little current intelligence of Villa’s location. And the farther Villa retreated into the depths of the huge state of Chihuahua, the more difficult it would be to find him. The prospects of finding Villa in this wild, trackless area seemed remote. The sullen and sometimes active resistance of the local populace would add to the challenge.

Pershing (L) and Patton (R)

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Pershing’s force pushed south into Mexico (see map at left) looking for Villa and established a headquarters first at Colonia Dublan near the Casas Grandes River. Supply problems plagued the expedition from the beginning. The US Army had never before attempted an operation on the scale of this expedition and Pershing was breaking new ground. Pershing could not use the Mexican railroads without permission from the de facto government, which it stubbornly withheld. So the expedition invented a system of “truck trains” using Dodge trucks to transport the needed supplies 100 miles from Columbus, N.M.

Historian Alejandro de Quesada tells us that allied armies in Europe were already using thousands of trucks. However, the “US Army only had about 100 vehicles, located at widely scattered at posts and depots throughout the country.” So the Army “Quartermaster General purchased 54 one-and-one-half-ton trucks” and delivered them by train to Pershing’s forces at the Columbus staging point. The trucks helped at once, “validating the trucks’ worth and in the process revolutionizing the US Army’s transport.” These capabilities would later prove vital when the US entered World War I. In fact, Pershing himself now traveled often by an automobile staff car during the expedition deployment.

Staff car on the move The new flying machines also made their first appearance for the fledgling Army Air Service at this time. The First Aero Squadron, under Captain Benjamin Foulois was America’s entire air force. Their machinery included eight Curtiss JN-3s, or Jennies, which they flew into Mexico to support the expedition. “Foulois was another of the larger-than-life officers who seemed to fill the ranks of 5 Pershing’s force.” He had started his career in his father’s plumbing business, but a restless spirit led him to join the Army. He had served as an enlisted man in both Engineers and Infantry and was commissioned from the ranks in 1901. He eventually gravitated to aviation and learned to fly dirigibles. He flew a test airplane with Orville Wright in 1909 at .

“In an academic paper, he made a number of far-fetched statements about the new flying machines. For example, he predicted that “the airplane would someday replace the horse in reconnaissance missions and that it would someday be possible to transmit words and pictures between people on the ground and men in the air. The ideas seemed wildly improbable, but nevertheless they attracted the attention of the Army’s chief signal officer, who instructed Foulois to conduct airship and aircraft trials.”

Captain Foulois now saw a chance to further the cause of his new air service. He had earlier been in charge of the first airplane owned and operated in the service of the U.S. Army. He was the only pilot, navigator, instructor, observer and commander in the heavier-than- air division of the U.S. Army from 1909 until 1911. He would go on Capt. Benjamin Foulois to become the chief of the air service and a tireless advocate for what is now the US Air Force. Meanwhile, he faced the considerable challenge of using heavier-than-air machines in actual military operations for the first time.

Foulois established a forward operating base at Colonia JN-3 “Jennies” Dublan near Pershing’s headquarters. The squadron would support the expedition by carrying mail and dispatches. It would also fly limited reconnaissance and would act as liaison between Pershing and forward units. Dee Brown, writing in The American West, tells us that Pershing later said, “One airplane is worth a regiment of cavalry.” Foulois’ improbable predictions were becoming more probable.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the expedition’s campaign included dozens of minor skirmishes with small bands of Villistas and bandits, and nothing especially significant. Then on March 29th, Col. George F. Dodd, the very able commander of the famed 7th Cavalry, attacked Guerrero, which was believed to be a Villa stronghold. Guerrero would mark the first battle between the expedition and any hostile forces in Mexico. Dodd prevailed at Guerrero, but learned after the battle that that Villa had left only hours earlier. A rifle shot from one of Villa’s own men had shattered his shinbone and he was hurriedly evacuated by wagon just before Dodd’s arrival.

Arizona historian Jim Turner, writing in the Arizona Military Museum Courier, tells us that this first battle was the closest the Punitive Expedition would come to capturing Villa. An early and continuing challenge for the expedition was developing accurate, reliable intelligence and finding trustworthy local guides in an increasingly hostile environment. With more reliable guides and information on the incoming march, Dodd would probably have caught Villa at Guerrero.

Led by Major Tompkins’ 13th Cavalry, the expedition continued to advance south toward Parral in 6 pursuit of Villa. Tompkins had earlier convinced Pershing that Villa would head for Parral because, when hard pressed, Villa could hide in the mountains surrounded by his friends. He told the general that he could take a small force and head swiftly to Parral to surprise Villa. A small force might even draw Villa out and tempt him to attack. Pershing consented and said, “Go find Villa wherever you think he is.”

Parral, however, would mark a turning point. Tompkins would not find Villa Major Thompkins in Parral and Parral would turn out to be the farthest the expedition would ThomkinsMajor advance into Mexico, a distance of 516 miles.

When the 13th Cavalry reached Parral on April 13th, they faced a hostile populace and contentious and unpredictable government forces. Welsome says that the Mexican commander told Major Tompkins that he should not have entered the town and must leave at once. A large and hostile crowd shouting “Viva Villa” pursued Tompkins and his men as they left town. “Then Tompkins did something that seemed totally out of character: wheeling his horse around, he shouted ‘Viva Villa!’ The mob stopped and laughed. Then it surged forward.”

Once outside Parral, Tompkins’s men came under fire by Carranzista soldiers, the first time the expedition forces had clashed directly and openly with the de facto government. At this point, the opposing forces greatly outnumbered the Americans and were gathering in greater numbers. Tompkins decided he must withdraw and led his forces on a series of delaying actions to buy time and try to put distance between his men and the Carranzistas.

Meanwhile Tompkins’ scouts were out looking for reinforcements for the outnumbered 13th and found elements of the 10th a few miles away. Major Charles Young (see Young at left in photo below), one of the few black officers in the US Army at that time, then spurred his Buffalo Soldiers to the support of the 13th. Major Charles Young (L) Major Young was an extraordinary officer himself, as outlined in his biography on the US Army web site. When Young was born, his father was still a slave. The future major won an appointment to West Point and became only the third African-American in history to graduate from the Military Academy. Now in Mexico with the expedition, Major Young had led his troops in a successful cavalry pistol charge against Villa forces at Agua Caliente, Mexico on April 1st. His troopers drove back approximately 150 enemy troops with no losses to his own force. Two weeks later, at the Hacienda Santa Cruz de la Villegas, Young now again led his troops to relieve a wounded Major Frank Tompkins and his 13th U.S. Cavalry, still under threat by Mexican government troops.

Young would soon be promoted to Lieutenant and then Colonel, the first African-American soldier in US Army history to reach that rank. He would later serve as commander of Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

At this point, the situation at Parral had developed into a standoff between US and Mexican forces and pushed the US and Mexico closer to open war. To avert this possibility, Pershing ordered his t troops to withdraw north from Parral. 7

“Thus ended the most serious engagement fought in Mexico by the Punitive Expedition. And it wasn’t fought against Pancho Villa but rather with the uniformed troops of Venustiano Carranza’s de fact government.” Pershing now “realized that his government was unwilling to carry the pursuit of Villa farther than Parral in the face of Mexican opposition.”

“On April 21 Colonel Brown and Major Tompkins met with the Mexicans for the last time…. The Mexican commander demanded the Americans withdraw at once. For the first time he issued the pronunciamento of Carranza that Americans ‘would be permitted to move north, but not south, east or west.’“ As word of the situation made its way up the chain of command, Pershing was ordered to “suspend all operations against the Villistas south of Parral.” The Punitive Expedition was instructed, in effect, to revert roughly to the status of a police force. War with Mexico was to be avoided.

“On June 21 two troops of the 10th cavalry under Capt. Charles Boyd were scouting toward Ahumada,” as Wallace relates. “When they arrived before the town of Carrizal, they were told by the Mexicans not to enter. Boyd, for unfathomable reasons, deployed his troopers to fight in the face of a superior force. His “sole intention, presumably, was to force his way through the town, an action wholly inconsistent with his reconnaissance mission. In the tragic incident that followed, the Mexicans employed machine guns, of which Boyd had none, with deadly effects. Boyd, another officer, and ten troopers were killed; twenty-four Americans were taken prisoner.” To some Americans, this was sufficient cause for war. However, all the prisoners captured by the Carranzista troops were returned to US custody ten days later in El Paso, Texas.

The events in Carrizal shocked both sides to the negotiating table. Pershing noted that animosity toward the US troops was growing and “the de facto government was in a complete shambles and unable to control the local warlords.” He even advocated capturing the entire state of Chihuahua to impose order. Cooler heads within the War Department quashed this idea. Washington dispatched US Army Chief of Staff, General Hugh Scott and General Funston to meet with Mexican officials, seeking and end to the conflict.

“The Carrizal incident was the last fight of the Punitive Expedition.” Pershing’s superiors forbade him even to send out patrols and left him “nothing to do but await orders to withdraw.” The orders would not come for another seven months because President Wilson felt an early withdrawal would show weakness. Pershing’s task now was to keep an army of 10,000 men in Mexico occupied and out of trouble.

Pershing’s “troops were divided into two camps, with roughly 6,000 men at Colonia Dublan and another 4,000 troops stationed sixty-five miles to the south near the town of El Valle.” Dozens of Chinese entrepreneurs descended upon the Dublan camp and it soon had laundries and concession stands. Pershing forbade alcohol in the camps, so “cantinas sprang up outside the fences.” The camps included an arena for boxing, as well as football and baseball fields. In fact, the camps began to resemble small, thriving towns.

“Pershing despised idleness and drilled the troops relentlessly in the use of machine gun fire and mounted pistol charges.” He continued to request permission to hunt for Villa; his requests were continuously denied. He then seemed to resign himself to awaiting the withdrawal.

8 Pershing’s aide, Lt. Patton, had performed well and had gained valuable experience under General Pershing. But by November 1916, he was cold, miserable, and bored. Columbus Staging Point He wrote to his wife that he was actually considering getting out of the army. “If I was sure that I would never be above the average army officer I would, for I don’t like the dirt and all except as a means to fame. If I knew that I would never be famous I would settle down and raise horses and have a great time.” Patton would stay in the army and rise to fame during World War II as commander of the Third US Army, racing his tanks through German army defenses toward history.

“The following months were neither idle nor wasted. But the battle-hardened veteran troopers of the 5th, 7th, 10th, 11th, and 13th Regiments did not know they had seen the last instance when their units would perform as independent horse cavalry against an enemy. Never again would they rush an enemy on horseback, with only drawn pistols, clad in no more armor than a wool shirt. Some of the regiments would eventually lose their identity in tank battalions or be permanently dismounted. Only one unit, the 11th cavalry, was destined to retain its independent organization as an armored regiment. The day of the horse soldier was gone forever.”

Pershing reduced the overall scope of his operations, concentrating around the main Back Across The Border base at Colonia Dublan. President Wilson was faced with avoiding increased American military commitment in Mexico. He “must have known by now the futility of negotiating with a weak and vacillating Carranza, and he had learned that German agents had encouraged Pancho Villa and had supplied him with munitions.” But, in the end, Villa had been severely whipped and never again threatened the border of the United States.” The troops marched out of Colonia Dublan and re-crossed the border at Columbus, New Mexico on 5 February 1917.”

Pershing’s Report of the Punitive Expedition of 10 October 1916 summarized the accounting of the Columbus raiders at that time:

“Of the total number of 485 Villistas who attacked Columbus, N. M. March 9, 1916, two hundred seventy three [sic] have been reported killed; one hundred eight [sic] wounded, who were not captured; nineteen are held in confinement by US troops; one hundred fifty six [sic] are still at large, of whom sixty have been amnestied by the de facto government, leaving thirty seven [sic] unaccounted for.” 9

The Punitive Expedition did not kill or capture Villa, but it could claim several achievements. They did neutralize Villa as a threat, in line with their authorizing directive. They introduced the airplane and the truck to large-scale military operations and provided a base for wartime expansion. The expedition developed a seasoned well-trained and experienced core of combat soldiers and officers that would provide a base for Pershing’s expeditionary force in World War I. Pershing, Patton, Tompkins, and others would go on to serve with distinction. Pershing would ultimately be awarded five stars, the highest rank in the US armed forces.

The leaders of the Mexican revolution, on the other hand, all died violent deaths. On July 20, 1923, assassins in Canutillo shot Villa himself in his touring car.

Finally, the Punitive Expedition further antagonized a Mexico that still remembered the effects of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 and years of economic domination by her northern neighbor. That effect might have been the most lasting.

References:

Brown, Dee, The American West, Simon and Schuster, 1994

De Quesada, Alejandro M., The Hunt for Pancho Villa, Osprey Publishing, 2012

Eisenhower, John S. D., So Far from God: The US War with Mexico, Random House, 1989

Pershing, John J., Major General, US Army, Report of the Punitive Expedition, Appendix M, October 10, 1916. (Written in Colonia Dublan, Mexico. Document from Library, US Army War College, Carlisle, PA.)

Turner, Jim, Black Jack Pershing and Pancho Villa: The Punitive Expedition, Arizona Military Museum Courier, Issue 41, Spring 2014.

Wallace, Andrew, The Sabre Retires: Pershing’s Cavalry Campaign in Mexico, 1916, The Smoke Signal, No. 9, The Tucson Corral of the Westerners, Tucson, AZ, 1964.

Welsome, Eileen, The General and the Jaguar, Little, Brown and Company, 2006

Yockelson, Mitchell, The United States Armed Forces and the Mexican Punitive Expedition, National Archives and Records Administration, 1997 www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/fall/mexican-punitive-expedition-1.html

Army Center for History, Mexico 1916-1917, 14 March 1916-7 February 1917. http://www.history.army.mil/html/reference/army_flag/mexex.htm http://www.army.mil/article/129675/Colonel_Charles_Young__Buffalo_Soldier_and_Intelligence_O fficer/ Colonel Charles Young: Buffalo Soldier and Intelligence Officer, 9 July 2014

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