In the hot, dusty days of September 1915, events in El Paso and along the Texas border with Mexico reached critical mass as years of unrest and violence brought by Mexican revolutionaries spread across the Rio Grande River and into American communities and onto isolated ranches in far West Texas. President Woodrow Wilson responded to the developing crisis with increased troop deployments to a growing network of patrol districts and outposts across the long border with Mexico. In 1915, the War Department ordered additional units to Texas for border patrol duties. Soon more soldiers would come as Pancho Villa triggered a new crisis that saw National Guard divisions federalized for service on the Texas border and beyond. Villa’s impending attack on Columbus, N.M., March 9, 1916, would have far-reaching implications for Texas and for the nation at large.
On Sept. 15, 1916, Lt. George S. Patton stepped off the train in downtown El Paso with orders to join the Eighth Cavalry. Patton couldn’t know that in a few short months, President Wilson would order the army into Mexico to pursue Pancho Villa, and Patton would ride alongside Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing deep into the hostile, desert country of northern Mexico in pursuit of their quarry. The mobilization of the American Army along the Mexican border and combat operations on the Mexican Punitive Expedition in 1916 helped to forge the frontier army into a new mobile fighting machine that would soon face the trials of modern warfare in Europe. For Patton and his comrades, the road from Texas to Mexico would lead far into the future, to France and the Great War, and still later to World War II, where Patton would rise to become one of the U.S. Army’s greatest combat commanders. But that was all in the future.
Border service
Patton joined Troop D, Eighth Cavalry and soon shipped out to Sierra Blanca, 90 miles to the east. Sierra Blanca served as a base of operations for a series of smaller outposts along the border. The trip from El Paso was made on horseback, and although it could be traveled by truck or automobile in about four hours, the trip took almost four days.
Patton believed Sierra Blanca deserved its reputation as an old west town. Its citizens included cowboys who “wear boots and spurs and carry guns,” and these gunfighters fascinated Patton. At noon on Oct. 29, Patton received a telegram from Fort Bliss ordering Troop D to guard 30 miles of track while Mexican Federal troops moved over it. Patton took 10 men and rode to Hot Wells.
Three trains came through, one that day and two the next. Patton described the procession as a circus. The ragtag army rode a combination of old carriages dating back to the mid-19th cen- tury. What little artillery they had was mounted on cars, wagons and anything that would roll. The large group of women and children accompanying the army astonished Patton who quotes one of his men in describing the Mexican army of Carranza: “About half the Mexican troops are, in the words of McCauley, ‘Ancient men on crutches and women great with child.’”
A month later, Pershing at Fort Bliss telegraphed Patton a series of warnings that the Mexican bandit Chico Cano was en route to Sierra Blanca to raid the town and cautioned that Pancho Villa had driven a Carranza force of about 80 men across the river. Pershing ordered Patton to inter- cept Chico Cano and any Carranzistas found on the northern side of the river, either capturing or driving them back across into Mexican territory. Patton immediately sent out four patrols to look for the Mexican forces and waited for reports. Garbed in “everything but my spurs and pistol,” Patton spent a sleepless night. By the next day, the patrols had returned without engaging any Mexican forces, although they did find evidence of their presence. He wrote his wife that “if this is the eve of battle, it is not at all interesting nor so exciting as a polo game.”
Both Carranza’s forces and Villa’s dorados troubled the Americans, for both Mexican factions violated American territory and property. Depredations along the border were so severe by this time that “Americans can’t live there and if they do they don’t live long.” From November 1915 until Villa attacked Columbus in March 1916, Patton performed routine duty at Sierra Blanca before returning to Fort Bliss, without the slightest possibility of a fight with Mexican bandits.
Pancho Villa’s raid triggers moves in Texas
By October 1915, events inside Mexico had turned sour for Pancho Villa. Having suffered repeated defeats during 1915, his once large army had been reduced to little more than a small band of loyal followers. Carranza’s military superiority in Mexico had prompted Wilson, on Oct. 19, 1915, to grant diplomatic recognition of the Carranza
government. This proved to be a severe blow to Villa. He had been convinced that he’d receive American support, and Villa followed a course of moderation with regard to U.S. interests in Mexico. Villa considered the Carranza recogni- tion a personal betrayal. His moderation turned to bitterness, and American life and property felt his fury. Villa launched a series of attacks on Americans in Mexico and along the Texas bor- der, leading to his infamous raid at Columbus on March 9, 1916.
In the early morning hours of March 9, Pancho Villa and his force of 500 dorados made their way toward Palomas and the border. Ahead lay the town of Columbus, just 80 miles west of El Paso, where the American families and the nearby soldiers at Camp Furlong lay sleeping, unaware of the approaching danger.
When it came, the attack was sudden and swift. Under cover of darkness, Villa’s men swept through the Army camp and town, firing and burning at will, eager to loot and exact a costly price on the Americans they found there. A few Army officers organized a hasty defense with machine guns and soldiers who rallied together to deliver a withering crossfire on the attacking Villistas in the downtown area. It was enough to break Villa’s attack, but not before 18 soldiers and civilians were killed and many more wounded. As Villa ordered the retreat, they left the town burning and in disarray.
Left As commander of the División del Norte (Division of the North) in the Constitutionalist Army, General Francisco “Pancho” Villa became one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution. His raids into Texas and New Mexico helped set the stage for America’s entrance into World War I. Right Many American military leaders gained their early training on the Texas frontier. In 1916, a young Lieutenant George S. Patton, Jr., arrived in El Paso to serve in the Eighth Cavalry, guarding the border and pursuing hostiles. In WWII, Adolf Hitler would refer to Patton as “that crazy cowboy general.”
Aftermath
Reaction from the rest of the world was slow in coming. As first word came over the telegraph, Washington queried regional headquarters at San Antonio for details. Gen. Frederick Funston, com- manding the Department of Texas at Fort Sam Houston, had little information. Funston received a report on the raid late that night and forwarded the news to Washington.
Meanwhile at Columbus, the bodies were prepared for burial or transport to El Paso. The smoking ruins smoldered throughout the day as the townspeople and soldiers at Camp Furlong recovered from the pre-dawn attack.
At Fort Sam Houston the next day, Funston sent the War Department a recommendation for an immediate large-scale pursuit into Mexico to chase down Villa and his men. Washington agreed and ordered Pershing at Fort Bliss to take command of an expeditionary force at Columbus and, when ready, to move into Mexico with all deliberate speed. The stage was set. Across Texas and the United States, regiments were ordered to El Paso and Columbus.
First aero Squadron goes to war
Soon after Villa’s attack, the First Aero Squadron at San Antonio received orders to prepare for field duty. Their mission would be communications and observation. It would be the first deployment in the history of what would later become the U.S. Air Force.
The First Aero Squadron needed 36 aircraft for field operations. In March 1916, the squadron had only eight aircraft with engines that were desperately underpowered, short on spare parts and equipment, fuel, pilots and all the things an air force needs.
Immediately squadron commander Benjamin Foulois ordered all aircraft disassem- bled and crated for shipment to Columbus. The Squadron’s eight aircraft, machine shops, parts and supplies, equipment, trucks and the entire command were placed on board a train and headed west to El Paso, where Foulois picked up rations and two leased trucks, and arrived at Columbus on March 15, just six days after Villa’s attack. There they found that the expedition was already in Mexico. The stage was set for air operations in Mexico. The First Aero Squadron from San Antonio would be the first air unit in American history to fly in combat.
What began as depredations along the Texas border escalated into something larger as Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution grew more desperate. In 1915-1916, the mobilization of the United States Army along the Texas bor- der and beyond led to combat operations on the Mexican Punitive Expedition in 1916. Along the way, the experience helped to forge the frontier army into a new mobile fighting machine that would soon face the trials of modern warfare in Europe. Among the subalterns who participated in that experience was George S. Patton, who’d develop into one of the U.S. Army’s great combat commanders.
