Editing Pancho Villa (section)

== From national leader to guerrilla leader, 1915–20 ==
{{Main|Pancho Villa Expedition}}
{{See also|United States involvement in the Mexican Revolution}}
[[File:Pancho Villa bandolier.jpg|thumb|Villa wearing [[bandolier]]s in front of an insurgent camp. Undated photo.]]

The period after Villa's defeat by Obregón has many dark episodes. His fighting force had shrunk significantly, no longer an army. Villa's opponents believed him finished as a factor in the Revolution. He decided to split his remaining forces into independent bands under his authority, ban [[soldaderas]], and take to the hills as guerrillas. This strategy was effective and one that Villa knew well from his bandit days. He had loyal followers from western Chihuahua and northern Durango. A pattern of towns being under government control and the countryside under guerrilla control reasserted itself.{{sfn|Knight|1990|p=338}} Civilian populations during warfare are often the victims of violence. In [[Namiquipa]], Villa sought to punish civilians who had formed a home guard, but when they learned Villa's men were approaching the village men took to the hills, leaving their families behind. Villa rounded up the wives and allowed his soldiers to rape them. The story of the rapes in Namiquipa was spread throughout Chihuahua.<ref>Katz, ''Life and Times of Pancho Villa'', 638, 643</ref><ref>Katz, ''The Life and Times of Pancho Villa'', 643.</ref>
Some historians have contended that crimes that he did not commit have been attributed to him; in addition, his enemies always told false stories to increase his status as an "evil person", since there were cases of bandits who were not part of the revolution and committed crimes which were later attributed to Villa.<ref>[Lartigue, Luciana: La Revolución Mexicana, Ocean Sur, 2011]</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Méndez Lara |first1=Francisco Iván |year=2020 |title=Francisco Villa en la prensa carrancista (1914–1915). La construcción del adversario |url=https://bibliographica.iib.unam.mx/index.php/RB/article/view/56/272 |journal=Bibliographica |volume=3 |page=211 |doi=10.22201/iib.2594178xe.2020.1.56 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

After years of public and documented support for Villa's fight, the United States refused to allow more arms to be supplied to his army, and allowed Carranza's troops to be relocated over U.S. railroads in the [[Second Battle of Aguaprieta]].<ref name="Katz" /> [[Woodrow Wilson]] believed that supporting Carranza was the best way to expedite establishment of a stable Mexican government. Villa was further enraged by Obregón's use of searchlights, powered by U.S. generated electricity, to help repel a ''Villista'' [[Second Battle of Agua Prieta|night attack]] on the border town of [[Agua Prieta]], Sonora on 1 November 1915. In Mexico and U.S. bordering towns, a vendetta was launched by Villa against Americans as he blamed Wilson for his defeat against Carranza. In January 1916, a group of ''Villistas'' attacked a train on the [[Mexico North Western Railway]], near [[Santa Isabel, Chihuahua|Santa Isabel]], Chihuahua, and killed a number of U.S. nationals employed by the [[ASARCO|American Smelting and Refining Company]]. The passengers included eighteen Americans, 15 of whom worked for American Smelting. There was only one survivor, who gave the details to the press. Villa admitted to ordering the attack, but denied that he had authorized the shedding of blood of U.S. citizens.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Katz|first=Friedrich|title=The Life and Times of Pancho Villa|pages=545–715}}</ref>

After meeting with a Mexican mayor named Juan Muñoz,<ref name=villauql /> Villa recruited more men into his guerrilla militia and had 400 men under his command.<ref name=villauql /> Villa then met with his lieutenants Martin Lopez, Pablo Lopez, Francisco Beltran, and [[Candelario Cervantes]], and commissioned an additional 100 men to the command of [[Joaquin Alvarez]], [[Bernabe Cifuentes]], and Ernesto Rios.<ref name=villauql>{{cite web |last=Font |first=Pedro |url=http://blue.utb.edu/localhistory/villapfont.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050107044147/http://blue.utb.edu/localhistory/villapfont.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 January 2005 |title=Pancho Villa's Impact in USA and Mexican Border |publisher=University of Texas, Brownsville |work=Brownsville & Matamoros History |year=2000 |access-date=10 November 2014 }}</ref> Pablo Lopez and Cervantes were later killed in the early part of 1916.<ref name=McLynn/>{{rp|364}} Villa and his 500 guerrillas then started planning an attack on U.S. soil.<ref name=villauql />

===Attack on New Mexico===
{{Main|Battle of Columbus (1916)}}
[[File:Columbus.jpg|thumb|Ruins of [[Columbus, New Mexico]] after being raided by Pancho Villa]]

On 9 March 1916, General Villa ordered nearly 100 Mexican members of his revolutionary group to make a cross-border [[Battle of Columbus (1916)|attack against Columbus, New Mexico]]. Some historians believe that Villa attacked Columbus due to his concern for what Villa believed was American imperialistic interference in Mexican internal affairs.<ref>[https://www.krwg.org/regional/2024-03-19/mexican-president-praises-pancho-villa-for-his-1916-attack-on-columbus-new-mexico-that-killed-18 Mexican President praises Pancho Villa] KRWG.ORG. By Associated Press. March 19, 2024. Retrieved November 3, 2024.</ref>

From a purely military standpoint Villa carried out the raid because he needed more military equipment and supplies in order to continue his fight against Carranza.<ref name=Huachuca/> Many believed the raid was conducted because of the U.S. government's official recognition of the Carranza regime and for the loss of lives in battle due to defective cartridges purchased from the U.S.<ref name=Huachuca/>

They attacked a detachment of the [[13th Cavalry Regiment (United States)]], burned the town, and seized 100 horses and mules and other military supplies. Eighteen Americans and about 80 Villistas were killed.<ref name=Huachuca>{{cite journal |title=Buffalo Soldiers at Huachuca: Villa's Raid on Columbus, New Mexico |url=http://net.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/comment/huachuca/HI1-12.htm |journal=Huachuca Illustrated |volume=1 |year=1993 |publisher=Fort Huachuca Museum |access-date=12 January 2009}}</ref><ref name=USWarDept1>{{cite book|author=United States War Dept|title=Annual Reports of the War Department, 1916 |url=https://archive.org/details/annualreportswa110deptgoog |year=1916 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=[https://archive.org/details/annualreportswa110deptgoog/page/n287 278]–279 |chapter=The Raid on Columbus, N. Mex., and the Punitive Expedition}}</ref>

Other attacks in U.S. territory allegedly were carried out by Villa, but none of these attacks were confirmed to have been carried out by Villistas. These were:
* 15 May 1916. Glenn Springs, Texas – one civilian was killed, three American soldiers were wounded, and two Mexicans were estimated killed.<ref name=USWarDept2>{{cite book|author=United States War Dept|title=Annual Reports of the War Department, 1916 |url=https://archive.org/details/annualreportswa110deptgoog |year=1916 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=[https://archive.org/details/annualreportswa110deptgoog/page/n289 280] |chapter=Bandit Raids Across the Mexican Border}}</ref>
* 15 June 1916. San Ygnacio, Texas – four soldiers were killed and five soldiers were wounded by bandits, six Mexicans were killed.<ref name=USWarDept2/>
* 31 July 1916. Fort Hancock, Texas – two American soldiers were killed.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Yockelson |first=Mitchell |author-link = Mitchell Yockelson |url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/winter/mexican-punitive-expedition-2.html |title=The United States Armed Forces and the Mexican Punitive Expedition: Part 2 |journal=Prologue |volume=29 |issue=4 |year=1997|access-date=23 February 2011}}</ref> The two dead soldiers were from the [[8th Cavalry Regiment]] and Customs Inspector Robert Wood.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085187/1916-07-31/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=07%2F31%2F1916&index=0&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Customs+Inspector+Robert+Wood&proxdistance=5&date2=08%2F01%2F1916&ortext=&proxtext=Customs+Inspector+Robert+Wood&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1 |title=Americans Die in Clash on Border with Bandit Band |newspaper=The Tacoma Times |date=31 July 1916}} Available online at the Library of Congress, ''Chronicling America''. Retrieved 10 November 2014.</ref> One American was wounded, three Mexicans were reported killed, and three Mexicans were captured by Mexican government troops.

===U.S. Expedition to capture Villa===
{{Main |Pancho Villa Expedition }}
[[File:VillaUncleSamBerrymanCartoon.png|thumb|Political cartoon in the U.S. Press. Uncle Sam chases Pancho Villa, saying "I've had about enough of this."]]

As result of Villa's raid on Columbus, President Wilson chose to take action. Publicly it was announced that General Pershing would be sent to Mexico to capture Villa. In a private order to General Pershing, Pershing was told to cease the search for Villa once Villa's armies had been broken up.<ref>[https://www.laits.utexas.edu/jaime/jrn/cwp/pvg/punitive.html Pancho Villa, The Punitive Expedition] Stanford University Press. By Katz et. al. 1998. Retrieved November 3, 2024.</ref>

President Wilson sent 5,000 U.S. Army soldiers under the command of General Frederick Funston, who oversaw [[John Pershing]] as he pursued Villa through Mexico. Employing aircraft and trucks for the first time in U.S. Army history, Pershing's force fruitlessly pursued Villa until February 1917.<ref>{{cite book|last=Welsome|first=Eileen|title=The General and the Jaguar: Pershing's Hunt for Pancho Villa|year=2006|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|location=Lincoln|pages=177}}</ref> Villa eluded them, but some of his senior commanders, including Colonel Candelario Cervantes, General Francisco Beltrán, Beltrán's son, Villa's second-in-command [[Julio Cárdenas]], and a total of 190 of his men were killed during the expedition.

The Carranza government and the Mexican population were against U.S. troops violating Mexican territories. There were several demonstrations of opposition to the Punitive Expedition. During the expedition, Carranza's forces captured one of Villa's top generals, Pablo López, and executed him on 5 June 1916.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://content.library.arizona.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15399coll20/id/20204/rec/15 |title=Pablo Lopez Pays Grim Penalty for Career of Murder |newspaper=El Paso Morning Times |date=6 June 1916 |agency=Associated Press}} Available online at University of Arizona Libraries Digital Collections.</ref>

===German involvement in Villa's later campaigns===
Before the Villa-Carranza irregular forces had left to the mountains in 1915, there is no credible evidence that Villa cooperated with or accepted any help from the German government or agents. Villa was supplied arms from the U.S., employed international mercenaries and doctors including Americans, was portrayed as a hero in the U.S. media, made business arrangements with Hollywood, and did not object to the 1914 [[United States occupation of Veracruz, 1914|U.S. naval occupation of Veracruz]]. Villa's observation was that the occupation merely hurt Huerta. Villa opposed the armed participation of the United States in Mexico, but he did not act against the Veracruz occupation in order to maintain the connections in the U.S. that were necessary to buy American cartridges and other supplies. The German consul in Torreón made entreaties to Villa, offering him arms and money to occupy the port and oil fields of [[Tampico]] to enable German ships to dock there, but Villa rejected the offer.

German agents tried to interfere in the [[Mexican Revolution]] but were unsuccessful. They attempted to plot with Victoriano Huerta to assist him to retake the country and, in the infamous [[Zimmermann Telegram]] to the Mexican government, proposed an alliance with the government of Venustiano Carranza.

There were documented contacts between Villa and the Germans after Villa's split with the Constitutionalists. This was principally in the person of Felix A. Sommerfeld (noted in Katz's book), who allegedly funneled $340,000 of German money to the [[U.S. Repeating Arms Company|Western Cartridge Company]] in 1915, to purchase ammunition. Sommerfeld had been Villa's representative in the United States since 1914 and had close contact with the German naval attaché in Washington [[Karl Boy-Ed]], as well as other German agents in the United States including [[Franz von Rintelen]] and [[Horst von der Goltz]].<ref>von Feilitzsch, Heribert, ''In Plain Sight: Felix A. Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico, 1908 to 1914'', Henselstone Verlag LLC, Amissville, Virginia, 2012, p. 381.</ref> In May 1914, Sommerfeld formally entered the employ of Boy-Ed and the German secret service in the United States.<ref>Auswaertiges Amt, Mexiko V, Paket 33, Boy-Ed to Auswaertiges Amt, Marinebericht Nr. 88, 27 May 1914</ref> However, Villa's actions were hardly that of a German [[wikt:cat's-paw|catspaw]]; rather, it appeared that Villa resorted to German assistance only after other sources of money and arms were cut off.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/panvill.html |title=Pancho Villa as a German Agent? |first=Jim |last=Tuck |date=1 January 2006 |journal=Mexconnect}}</ref>

At the time of Villa's 1916 attack on Columbus, New Mexico, Villa's military power had been marginalized. He was repulsed at Columbus by a small cavalry detachment, albeit after doing a lot of damage. His theater of operations was limited mainly to western Chihuahua. He was [[persona non grata]] with Mexico's ruling Carranza constitutionalists and was the subject of an embargo by the U.S., so communication or further shipments of arms between the Germans and Villa would have been difficult.

A plausible explanation for contacts between Villa and the Germans, after 1915, is that they were a futile extension of increasingly desperate German diplomatic efforts and ''Villista'' dreams of victory as progress of their respective wars bogged down. Villa effectively did not have anything useful to offer in exchange for German help at that point. When assessing claims of Villa conspiring with Germans, portrayal of Villa as a German sympathizer served the propaganda needs of both Carranza and Wilson and has to be taken into account.

The use of [[Mauser]] rifles and carbines by Villa's forces does not necessarily indicate a German connection. These weapons were used widely by all parties in the [[Mexican Revolution]], Mauser longarms being enormously popular. They were standard issue in the Mexican Army, which had begun adopting 7&nbsp;mm Mauser system arms as early as 1895.<ref name=MarleyMauser>{{cite book |first=David F. |last=Marley |title=Mexico at War: From the Struggle for Independence to the 21st-Century Drug Wars |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LBqDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 |year=2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-61069-428-5|chapter=Mauser (1895–1907)}}</ref>