A fool’s errand. That’s
what General John J. “Blackjack” Pershing was
sent on by President Woodrow Wilson. On March 15,
1916 the General rode off at the head of about 12,000
troops of the Punitive Expeditionary Force on a mission to find
and destroy Pancho Villa and his rebel
army in Mexico.
Doroteo Arango, alias Francisco “Pancho”
Villa, was born in 1877 in San Juan del Rio, the State
of Durango in Northern Mexico. He was an outlaw by
16 and the head of his own gang of banditos shortly
after. Because he frequently clashed with the
forces of the hated dictator Porforio Díaz, he began to
be regarded as a folk hero by the dispossessed and landless peons of
his home state.
When the Mexican Revolution installed democratic
hero Francisco Madero as President,
Villa offered his services to battle a turncoat
Revolutionary commander Pascual Orozco. He
led his División del
Norte in the defense of the President
he actually deeply admired. He fought alongside another
general, the ambitious Victoriano Huerta. Huerta,
however betrayed him and almost succeeded in having him executed.
Madero commuted Villa’s
from his death sentence, but allowed him to be put in
prison, from which he soon escaped. Huerta went on
to betray Madero as well, seizing power with the connivance of
the nephew of Porforio Díaz and the U.S.
Ambassador. Madero was executed.
Villa in the
North, Emiliano Zapata in the South and other
generals rallied to Venustiano Carranza’s plan to restore
the revolution.
The colorful
Villa invited American film crews to cover his battles. He invented
new tactics, particularly the use of the armored train and specialized in lightening
cavalry assaults. He secured the State of Chihuahua and
was appointed Provisional Governor.
His campaigns were admired by U.S.
Army officers who studied them closely and he was even invited to
visit Ft. Bliss to meet with Pershing and his staff.
Villa turned his
army south in a drive to the capital. After
victories against Federal forces at Gómez Palacio and Torreón,
Carranza ordered Villa to divert his division from the drive on Mexico
City to allow rival generals to enter the capital
first. Despite the snub Villa attacked the last major Federal
stronghold in the north, Zacatecas finally forcing
Huerta to leave for exile in July 1914.
After
Carranza defied Villa, Zapata and other revolutionary generals
who had hoped for a democracy by assuming dictatorial power, Villa
went back into rebellion.
At first he
believed that the United States would back him. Instead,
the Wilson administration threw its support behind
Carranza. Outraged, Villa began plotting ways
to force the Americans to enter the war on
the side of Carranza, which he believed would lead to an even wider
popular uprising.
He attacked
and killed 16 American mining engineers hired
by the Carranza government to reopen the vast silver
mines of the north. When that failed to get Wilson to act,
he launched an audacious attack on a small cavalry
garrison at Columbus, New Mexico. He also burned and looted the
town killing several civilians then rode east attacking isolated
targets in Texas before re-crossing the Río Grande.
That left Wilson
no choice but to order Pershing’s intervention at the reluctant “invitation” of
the Carranza regime. By the time Pershing crossed the border Villa
was several days ahead and melted his forces
into the rugged mountains. Pershing’s forces were
primarily cavalry. In fact, this would be the last great
campaign of the U.S. Cavalry, but it also
included motorized units and a Signal Corps air
arm, both for the first time in American military
history.
The fragile Jenny
biplanes actually dropped some bombs by hand on Villista
stragglers, but harsh conditions and inexperienced
pilots put the air arm out of commission within
weeks.
Despite dividing
into two columns, Pershing could never make contact with
Villa’s main force. They simply melted away. There were
several small skirmishes, including a little engagement that made
a popular hero out of young Lt. George S. Patton.
When Villa tricked Pershing’s
troops into an attack on Carranza forces, the President was compelled by
popular outrage to demand the withdrawal of
American troops. There was even talk about full war between the
countries and the Georgia National Guard had to be mobilized to
take up defensive positions along the Río Grande in
Texas.
Wilson had
enough and he needed his Army back for the looming war in
Europe. He ordered Pershing’s recall in January
1917. Despite never capturing or engaging Villa,
Pershing declared victory.
The Mexican
people, delighted to see the Yankees gone, proclaimed Villa
the victor and hero. But his military
power was broken. After a few years of fruitless
campaigning, he finally negotiated his retirement and
was rewarded with a hacienda in Chihuahua. But the government feared
he might return to his old ways.
On
July 20, 1923 Villa was cut down with his bodyguards in a fusillade
of rifle fire while riding in his Dodge touring car. His Mexican enemies finally accomplished by
Black Jack Pershing could not.
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