The Battle of Columbus, New Mexico
On March 9th, 1916, Mexican revolutionary and bandit Francisco “Pancho” Villa (1878 – 1923), leading a force of about 400 men, crossed the US-Mexican border, and rode to the town of Columbus, New Mexico. The town, which had a US Army garrison of about 600 men, was home to a man named Sam Reval, whom Villa had paid for weapons, only to get stiffed when Reval kept the money without delivering the arms.
Pancho Villa had been born into a family of Mexican sharecroppers, and raised in poverty. At age 16, he reportedly killed his first man, a hacienda owner whom he accused of raping his sister. He then stole his victim’s horse and fled to the hills, which became his base for years to come as he turned to full time banditry. Captured in 1902, he was spared the death penalty, and inducted into the Mexican army instead. He deserted after killing an officer and stealing his horse, and returned to banditry.
When the Mexican Revolution began in 1910, Villa joined the rebels, and was instrumental in defeating the government’s forces in northern Mexico. After victory, Villa was appointed a brigadier general in the new government’s army, but struck a superior during a quarrel and was sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to imprisonment, and Villa eventually escaped from prison and fled to the US.
He returned to Mexico in 1913, after securing American support to fight against a new government that had seized power in a coup. Villa again achieved considerable success, and was appointed governor of the state of Chihuahua. As governor, he confiscated grand haciendas, broke them into smaller plots, and redistributed the land to the widows and families of fallen revolutionaries.
Villa’s side overthrew the coup-installed government, but when the victors again fell out, Villa did poorly in this third round of fighting. By 1915, he was reduced to a small band hiding in the hills of Chihuahua, and the US shifted its backing from Villa to his opponents. Feeling betrayed, he began attacking American interests in northern Mexico, and in 1916, crossed the border to attack Columbus, New Mexico.
Between resentment against the US for abandoning him, and resentment against Sam Reval for cheating him, Villa was in a foul mood. His men were in a similarly foul mood, after learning that American authorities had arrested 20 Mexicans two days earlier in El Paso, doused them in kerosene, and set them on fire. It had probably been accidental: it was routine practice in those days to delouse prisoners with kerosene before locking them up. But the news served to further raise the raiders’ hackles.
At 4:45 AM, Villa’s men rode into Columbus, and opened fire on a US Army barracks, shocking its sleeping soldiers awake. One detachment of raiders went looking for Sam Reval, but could not find him – he had gone to El Paso to see a dentist. Another detachment charged into a hotel, killing four guests and setting the establishment on fire. Yet other detachments rode around the town, firing into houses and shooting anybody who came out.
Once the American soldiers in Columbus recovered from their surprise, they began offering increasingly effective resistance. About 7:30 AM, Villa ordered a bugle blown, a signal for his raiders to retreat. They were pursued by US soldiers across the border, about 5 miles into Mexican territory, before they were repulsed by strong resistance.
By the time it was over, 8 American soldiers and 15 civilians had been killed in Columbus, while Villa’s raiders had lost about 100 men. The US responded with a punitive military expedition to Mexico, to hunt down Villa, that lasted into 1917. It proved futile, as Villa eluded his pursuers, and his popularity rose among Mexicans resentful of the intrusion.