The March 9, 1916, edition of The New Mexican bore news of the first foreign invasion of U.S. soil since the War of 1812.
“VILLA INVADES THE U.S.” the headline blared. “Bandits burn and kill in Columbus,” read the sub-headline below it.
One of the wire service stories below is headlined “‘Death to Americans’ Pancho’s cry; wants to choke hated gringo.” Another article, also from an unspecified wire service, tells quite the story: “American torn from wife’s arms, shot like a dog and roasted.”
“American Citizens on American Soil Enticed From Home by Blood-Mad Torch-Squad of Mexican Brutes and Shot Down; Murderers Laugh at Woman’s Frantic Appeals for Mercy; Bandits Go Through Hotel Firing Into Rooms at Defenseless Occupants,” the headline below it elaborates.
Earlier that day, around 2:30 a.m., about 485 Mexican revolutionary troops under the command of Francisco “Pancho” Villa crossed the border into the United States, as Friedrich Katz describes in his 1998 book The Life and Times of Pancho Villa.
Though it’s not known if Villa crossed the border himself, he gave his troops coordinated, strategic instructions beforehand. One group would attack the border town of Columbus, just north of Puerto Palomas, Mexico, from the north while another would attack from the southwest.
By around 4 a.m., troops were in position and started to move in.
Map
A display at the Pancho Villa State Park Visitors Center in Columbus showing Villa’s 1916 attack on the city.
Fred Griffin, a U.S. Army sentry, was reportedly the first to be shot dead by the Villistas — his death alerting the rest of the town.
Villa’s stealthy coordination of the attack had gone out the window. The quiet town had heard the shots, and the organized military operation turned to chaos.
While some Villistas focused the attack on the town’s barracks and military presence, others looted buildings and set them ablaze.
As legend goes, the town’s clock tower was struck in the early minutes of the raid, freezing the clock at 4:11 a.m. forever — a snapshot of the attack, now on display in Santa Fe’s New Mexico History Museum.
Around 5:30 a.m., a Villista bugler sounded the order for retreat, and the revolutionary troops fled south to the border, many riding U.S. cavalry horses they had stolen during the raid.
When the dust settled, 17 Americans lay dead in the streets, including 10 civilians. Villa’s men took more casualties than the Americans, amounting to at least 70 dead, and at least seven captured, six of whom were later hanged, as reported by The New Mexican.
U.S. troops followed in pursuit of Villa’s about 15 miles into Mexico, failing to capture Villa but killing a few retreating attackers.
That incursion into Mexico would kick off an 11-month “Punitive Expedition,” led by Brig. Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing, which led around 100,000 troops into Mexico in a failed effort to apprehend Villa.
Plane
A model plane at the Pancho Villa State Park Visitors Center in Columbus similar to the ones that would have been used during Brig. Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing’s unsuccessful “Punitive Expedition” seeking to capture Villa. The expedition marked the first use of motorized vehicles and aircrafts for U.S. Army operations.
There was an upside to the expedition for the U.S., though — it marked the first use of motorized vehicles and aircrafts for U.S. Army operations. While the planes had no guns or bombs, they proved to be valuable scouts for the U.S., and pilots earned expertise in military aircraft which would prove useful in the soon-to-follow World War I.
‘New Mexican’ calls for blood
“ENOUGH,” reads the headline of a New Mexican article printed March 10, the day after the raid.
The article goes on to claim the attack as proof the U.S.-supported Mexican President, Venustiano Carranza, “is unable to restore or maintain order in Mexico,” and to express an ode of support to the U.S. troops entering Mexico in pursuit of the raiders.
“This newspaper believes we have had enough of mere ‘punish-after the fact,’ what we want is punishment that will mean prevention.”
The New Mexican goes on to write the only “adequate measure” to prevent Villista violence would be “nothing short of the death of Villa and every one of his followers involved in the raid,” adding “they should be shot down with no more consideration [than] that given a Gila monster or a rattlesnake.”
The article also misreports the number of Villista raiders as being “a thousand bandits,” with the real number likely less than half that.
Newspaper
The March 9, 1916, edition of The New Mexican, with news of Pancho Villa’s attack on Columbus.
On June 30 of that same year, The New Mexican reported the hanging of four Villistas in Deming for taking part in the Columbus raid, and the earlier hanging June 9 of two other men. One man, Jose Rodriguez, was granted a stay of execution and sentenced to life in prison.
“This completes the disposition of the cases of the Columbus raiders,” The New Mexican wrote.
Why attack Columbus?
Why Villa ordered his troops to attack Columbus is still a point of debate for historians.
“We’re still trying to unfold those layers of history about him and trying to figure out what is myth and what is legend,” said State Historian Robert Martinez.
One theory is that the raid aimed to kill one man — Sam Ravel, a merchant who supposedly absconded with money Villa gave him to buy weapons. At the time of the raid, Ravel was 80 miles away in El Paso for a doctor’s appointment.
Others center Villa’s desire for revenge against the United States.
Trail Dust: Questions remain about Villa’s raid on Columbus
Pancho Villa rides at the head of his rebel army in Mexico in 1916. American soldiers pursued Villa into Mexico after the raid on Columbus, N.M., but he eluded capture. He was assassinated by political enemies in Mexico in 1923.
In 1915, he was infuriated at America’s recognition of Carranza as legitimate president and humiliated by his army’s defeat at the Battle of Celaya by Carranza. He suspected Carranza was aided by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who was rumored to have let Villa’s foes use U.S. railroads to transport their troops.
On Jan. 9, 1916, 17 Americans aboard a Mexico North-Western Railway train were pulled off by Villa’s forces, lined up and shot one by one. One Texan reportedly feigned death, returned to El Paso, and enraged the population with news of the attack.
On March 5, 1916, at least 20 Mexican prisoners were burned alive in El Paso after they were soaked in kerosene to delouse them and someone lit a match, by accident or not, resulting in the death by fire of all the men.
Just four days later, Villa sent his men to burn and raid Columbus.
Martinez pushed back on the idea that revenge was in Villa’s mind alone. He argued instead the raid was one “defining moment” of Mexican-American tensions, which had been building for “at least 60 years,” he said, starting with the Mexican-American War, which ended in Mexico losing more than half of its territory including New Mexico.
“Pancho Villa violated that border. But the Americans had violated that border before — and were violating it economically and politically during the revolution, which contributed to the tensions.”
Tensions were also deeply felt by the agrarian peasant Mexican revolutionaries, who were displeased with both Mexican authorities and American interference with Mexico, Martinez said.
“ People like Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata — they’re at the right place at the right time, but it’s not enough for there to be tension amongst the people. They have to be strong, charismatic leaders,” he said, equating their “folk hero” status to figures like Daniel Boone, and Paul Bunyan.
“People like Pancho’s army — they just didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘We have nothing else to do today. Let’s raid into a little New Mexico town.’ There are reasons. It’s just a little cloudy as to what they were — but that’s history,” said Martinez.
There is still debate today over the deadly attack. But if Villa being the namesake of dozens of Mexican restaurants across the country — including the “Pancho Villa Burritos” food truck in Columbus — is anything to go by, then it’s safe to say, at least in some circles, an admiration for him lives on.