In Pursuit of Pancho Villa 1916-1917 (An Almost Forgotten Episode of Terrorism on American Soil)

Doroteo Arango, alias Francisco “Pancho” Villa, was born in 1877 (1879 according to some sources) in San Juan del Rio, State of Durango, Mexico. During his lifetime, he was a ruthless killer (killing his first man at age sixteen), a notorious bandit (including cattle rustling and bank robbery), a revolutionary (a general commanding a division in the resistance against the 1913-14 Victoriano Huerta dictatorship), and despite his bloodthirsty nature, an enduring hero to the poor people of Mexico. In their minds, Villa was afraid of no one, not the Mexican government or the gringos from the United States. He was their one true friend and avenger for decades of Yankee oppression.

In late 1915 Pancho Villa had counted on American support to obtain the presidency of Mexico. Instead the U.S. Government recognized the new government of Venustiano Carranza. An irate Villa swore revenge against the United States.and began by murdering Americans in hopes of provoking President Woodrow Wilson’s intervention into Mexico. Villa believed that American interevention would discredit the Carranza government with the people of Mexico and reaffirm his own popularity.

Villa and his “pistoleros” launched raids along the U.S.- Mexico boundary to frighten the Americans living in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona border towns. Concerned for the safety of Americans, President Wilson ordered the War Department to begin deploying troops to Texas and New Mexico. In April, 1915, Brigadier General John J. Pershing and his 8th Infantry Brigade were sent to Fort Bliss, Texas with the mission of guarding the U.S.- Mexico border from Arizona to a bleak outpost in the Sierra Blanca mountains ninety miles southeast of El Paso.

While the presence of American troops served to deter Villa on the north of the Rio Grande, the murder of U.S. citizens in Mexico continued. One of the most heinous atrocities occurred January 11, 1916, when Villa’s bandits stopped a train at Santa Ysabel. The bandits removed a group of 17 Texas business men (mining engineers) invited by the Mexican government to reopen the Cusihuiriachic mines below Chihuahua City and executed them in cold blood. However, one of those shot feined death and rolled down the side of the embankment and, crawling away into a patch of brown mesquite bushes, escaped. The train moved on, leaving the corpses at the mercy of the slayers, who stripped and mutilated them. After the escapee arrived back at Chihuahua City, a special train sped to Santa Ysabel to reclaim the bodies. When the people of El Paso heard of the massacre, they went wild with anger. El Paso was immediately placed under martial law to prevent irate Texans from crossing into Mexico at Juarez to wreak vengeance on innocent Mexicans.

Despite outrage in the United States and Washington over the Santa Ysabel massacre, President Wilson refused to intervene and send troops into Mexico. Two months later, Villa decided to strike again. This time he would invade the United States. At 2:30 a.m., on the morning of March 9, 1916, he and 500 “Villistas” attacked the 13th U.S. Cavalry at Camp Furlong near Columbus, New Mexico. Despite prior knowledge that Villa and his men were pillaging, raping, and murdering their way toward the border, the cavalry was caught completely by surprise. One reason for the cavalry’s sluggishness was because some of the troops had been drinking, but perhaps more importantly, all of the troops’ rifles were chained and locked in gun racks. Still, the cavalry managed to get organized and fought off the “Villistas” killing many of them in the process.

During their retreat, however, the “Villistas” stopped at Columbus, New Mexico for a looting and window-shooting spree that left several U.S. civilians dead. For three hours, bullets struck houses and shouts of “Viva Villa! Viva Mexico! Muerte a los Americanos!” (death to americans) were heard in the streets. The town was set afire, though Villa’s men realized nothing beyond a few dollars and perhaps some merchandise from the burntout stores. The terror continued until about 7 a.m., and when Villa finally rode off, the smoke-filled streets of Columbus were littered with the dead and wounded. Fourteen American soldiers and ten civilians were killed in the raid.

Although Villa’s losses from from his American incursion were high, he had achieved his aim of arousing the United States. Now, he and his men headed due south from Palomas seeking the safety of the mountains of the Sierra Madre. However, the 13th U.S. Cavalry was now in hot pursuit. Colonel Frank Tompkins had managed to gather 32 cavalrymen and was nipping at the heels of the fleeing Mexicans. His troops sighted Villa’s rear guard and killed over thirty men and horses. Colonel Tompkins kept up the chase for eight hours and killed a number of stragglers as well as more of Villa’s rear guard. Lacking supplies, Tompkins and his cavalrymen were forced to return to Camp Furlong. On their way back, they counted 75 to 100 “Villistas” killed during their hastily organized pursuit.

The populace of Columbus was in a state of hysteria. The American cavalry troops collected the bodies of the “Villistas” that had been shot in the streets and on the outskirts of town and piled them on funeral pyres and cremated them. For a day or more the fires smoldered and the odor of burning flesh permeated the air. Columbus lay virtually demolished, so completely burned and pillaged that it never recovered its former vitality.

To prevent repetitions of the Columbus outrage, President Wilson called out 15,000 militia and stationed them along the U.S. - Mexico border. Wilson also informed President Carranza that he intended to send a military expedition into northern Mexico to capture Pancho Villa, and Carranza reluctantly agreed. President Wilson then appointed Brigadier General John J. Pershing to lead 4,800 troops (mostly cavalry), supported by aircraft and motorized military vehicles (the first time either were used in U.S. warfare) on a punitive expedition into Mexico to capture Villa.

The rest of the article (which includes some interesting photos and maps) can be found here.

Bump - R'24, above, for author / writer Lansford's book. I'm going to see if the "liberry" has it.

Lester Warren Fish had published in 1948, a history of the Fish families in America:

Farnum Thayer Fish [whom I've gotten into the habit of calling Thayer, instead of his full name]
Son of Dr. Charles W. and Catherine (Goodfellow) Fish of Los Angeles, Calif.... He left the sophomore class of the old Los Angeles High School to study aviation at the Wright Brothers School of Aviation in Dayton, Ohio; at the age of 17, after three months of study, was licensed by the Aero Club of America, as the youngest pilot in the world. He lived at 2120 So. Union Ave., Los Angeles, [Calif.] and participated at air meets at the Old Dominguez Field. He was made a general in Pancho Villa's Army in 1914, and was the first soldier ever to be wounded while flying. During World War I, he was a test pilot in the U.S. Army, A.E.F., in France. [He returned to the U.S. and entered the shipping business in New York.]

For now, I'm guessing that stories about F. Thayer Fish, as part of the lore of the west, circulating around southern California, with such stories of Wyatt Earp, et al, were the basis for what Sam Peckinpah made out of what Mr. Lansford wrote; thence the movie, Villa Rides.

Thanks for the link to, 1st Aero Squadron; In Pursuit of Pancho Villa:

"The squadron was organized in September 1914 and first based at North Island, San Diego."

My grandfather [father's side of the family] was the local rep. for Union Oil of California, selling aviation gasoline to both the Army and the Navy on North Island.

A friend of my grandfather, ended up in France, flying in Tooey Spaatz's command. This particular gentleman flew reconnaisance missions which to this day, are secret in some details; but mostly that, because all the records, he kept: the pictures, the camera, the flight suit, etc. Link to Carl A. Spaatz:

Combat flying for "Tooey" Spaatz began in 1916 with service on the Mexican Border. With his country at war in 1917, he became architect and commander of the American Training Center at Issoudon, France, which provided the pilots and mechanics for the fledgling U.S. Air Service

My dad remembers the old fellow as a great family friend, who was always around, telling interesting stories, especially about Issoudon, France. He had a French name, but was an American. (I always wondered if he had made friends with Tooey Spaatz "over there" and then come over here? Nope. He was born here. But as a kid, listening to all this, the French-sounding name always threw me.)

Upon his death, the gentleman's daughter contacted my dad, because Pop was in the Air Force, and she wondered what she should do with her father's belongings.

What belongings?

Well, then Pop learned of all the military impedimenta of the gentleman, which had been used for the high altitude recon of the Western Front during World War I; practically everything but the plane used (a specially-engined Sopwith Camel or Pup, if I recall), which were all the requirements for flying up to 30,000 ft., well beyond the reported operational ceiling of the era.

Apparently (if I recall the details correctly), the gentleman had even brought back the air cylinders used for air supply and suit pressurization. The suit was made of leather.

Pop doesn't remember exactly what the daughter chose to do; and later, upon reflection, while in Dayton, Ohio, he regretted not having made contact with her again, to see if she might forward the equipment to the U.S. Air Force Museum at W.P.A.F.B.

Of course, I cannot remember the fellow's name, but will try to get that.

From Desert Diary [online]:

In 1916, Columbus, New Mexico, was a rail watering stop and border station for the El Paso and Southwestern Railway. The United States Government was backing Mexico's President Carranza in his struggles, so the revolutionist Francisco "Pancho" Villa could no longer purchase munitions here...

Photograph taken in 1915 of Pancho Villa (center), General Pershing (right), and Álvaro Obregón (left). Obregón later joined Carranza against Villa; he became president of Mexico in 1920. Image from the collections of the Centennial Museum [click on the picture].

Elsewhere on the Internet:

In Pursuit of Pancho Villa 1916-1917
Pancho Villa, Hero or Villain?
Book: Pancho Villa, by William Douglas Lansford
Pancho Villa, Legends Before the Revolution, based on the book: The Life and Times of Pancho Villa, by Fredrich Katz
And the extraordiary, comprehensive Pancho Villa HomePage.

See the report by Capt. Benjamin D. Foulois, commander of the U.S. Army Signal Corps 1st Aero Squadron aircraft ordered into support for the Pershing Punitive Expedition in Mexico, 1916.

If you can locate the full story, freelance writer Gary Glynn also relates the events of that aerial operation, in his short story, "1st Aero Squadron in Pursuit of Pancho Villa; Taking part in Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing's 1916 Mexican expedition was a learning experience for the U.S. Army's first air arm--mainly in regard to its own deficiencies. " (Aviation History magazine)

See (it's in Spanish): The Body of Aviators of Pancho Villa; The Foreign Aviators of the Division of the North, 1914-1915, by Doctor Lawrence D. Taylor, referenced via this webpage about one of the aviators, William A. Mattery, which webpage has this excerpt of Dr. Taylor's work, in English:

The Mexican Revolutionary Fight from 1910 to 1920 constituted one of the first wars of this century in which the airplane was used as a battle weapon. The Italian Army was first in using the airship in war during its conquest of the Turkish territory of Cirenaica and Tripolitania between 1911 and 1912. They also used it against the belligerent forces that fought in the War of the Balkan Mountains from 1912 to 1913,1

Almost immediately, these " Constitutionalist " rebels tried to smuggle an airplane across the border in an attempt to provide air support to their dispersed armed groups that fought in the north of Mexico. The airplane they acquired in this manner was a twin-engine Martin Pusher equipped with a Curtiss motor of 75 horsepower. It then comprised the entire airforce of the Army of the Northwest of Alvaro Obregon. With this airplane, piloted by the French Didier Masson and the Mexican Gustavo Salinas Camina, several bombings were carried out in the summer of 1913 and the spring of 1914. As part of the rebel operations in the regions the northwest of Sinaloa and Nayarit, the airplane attacked several groups of naval forces and infantry. Three other Moisant military single-engine airplanes in tandem, designed by Harold Kantner for the Moisant Aviation School and Company, were dispatched to Chihuahua to be united with that portion of the Constitutionalist forces.

Other American aviators arrived as reinforcements for the squadron: J. Floyd Smith with his mechanic, W. E. "Billy" Gibson; Gover Cleveland Bergdoll, and William "Sailor Anthony" Lamkey. The Division of the North, with their forces remarkably diminished, was sent on Aguascalientes in a desperate attempt to delay the advance of Obregon. Equipped with new pilots and more powerful airplanes, the aerial flotilla of Villa was in better condition to perform missions of reconnaissance and bombing in support of the defense of this railway center of strategic importance. Pancho Villa supported airborne operations in the central region of Mexico from April to July, 1915

During the battle to conquer the city, Lamkey flew a Martin twin-engine plane Tractor TT, one of the more advanced models of the period, accompanied by Floyd E. Barlow as observer and bombardier, In spite of this technical improvement, their efforts and those with which they combined with the ground forces of the Division of the North, were not sufficient to prevent Obregon's forces from taking the town on July 10, 1915.

The Pancho Villa supporters also been had occupied reconstructing their old corp of aviation. Hipolito, the brother of Villa, solicitor of the Division of the North, had been made an impression with the demonstration of an airplane that the American pilot Eugene " Wild " Bill Heth had done for him in the Passage in February of 1915. Hipolito made the preliminary arrangements with John S. Berger, manager of the company, that had sponsored the aerial spectacle of Heth, for the purchase of three airplanes Wright Model B. He also acquired other airplanes, " Wright with fuselage ", Wright SS and a Christofferson. Nevertheless, most of the airplanes acquired by the Pancho Villa supporters in the United States were obsolete and were in poor condition.

Thrown out of Aguascalientes, the decimated Division of the North was forced to retreat towards the north via Zacatecas and Tower. When arriving at Tower, the other aviators, Barlow and Berger included, asked for their release and returned to the United States. The airplanes that did not suffer damage or destruction during the combat were captured in Juarez City in December of 1915 by the Constitutionalist expeditionary forces commanded by General Jacinto B. Trevino. He had followed the Pancho Villa supported army in its retreat towards the north to Tower. The booty, consisting of three twin-engine Wright planes and a Main was dispatched to Mexico City, where they arrived in May of 1916, 35

References

35. .........of armament, park and other objects gathered to the Pancho Villa supporters pardoned in Juarez City; document reproduced in Alvaro Obregon, p·g. 476-477; Tohtli, v. 1, N?m. 5 (31 of May of 1916). In the course of his retirement towards the north of Aguascalientes, it was reported that William Mattery, another one of the American pilots to the service of Villa, had perished in a plane crash. This report turned out to be false, since Mattery did not die until 1?. of October 1, 1960.

Chirp, N?m. 64 (November of 1960), page. 11.

Among that group of adventuring aviators, is this clip from another of the same webpages: Howard Max Rheinhart:

"Twenty-five Years Ago Today"
Early in the month Howard Rinehart established himself at Monterey, Mexico, with two Wright B's and a Wright HS fuselage tractor, to FLY FOR VILLA, along with Eugene "Bill" Heth. A little later Farnum [Thayer] Fish followed Rinehart to Mexico and was shot down by rifle fire. William A. Lamkey, Didier Masson, Dean I. Lamb, Lawrence Brown, Silas Christofferson, George M. Keightley, Floyd Smith, Mickey" McGuire, Grover Bergdoll, Chas. S. Niles, L. W. Bonney, Alberto Salinas, Gustavo Salinas and J. H. Worden were other Amereican aviators on the various sides during the three years of aerial activity.
[F]rom Chirp - July 1940- DEARBORN MICH. - NUMBER 27
courtesy of Steve Remington - CollectAir.

Farnum Thayer Fish was the first American to be shot down during warfare and also the youngest graduate of the Wright Brothers aviation school near Dayton, Ohio. From among the preceding set of webpages:

In Ol' Mexico, 1914-1915
Reports On EB Flights During Revolution
by Ernest Jones
"[...W]e sent him out one afternoon,' writes Lester Barlow, to the staff correspondent of Chirp, 'to make observations of Obregon's troops, with strict instructions not to fly over the troops. But all Mexicans looked alike to Fish."

"He flew at about 500 to 600 feet and it seemed to me that every Mexican---and there were thousands of them---opened fire on him."
NEARLY LOST CONTROL
"Fish was several miles from my point of observation, but I noticed the old Wright go into a steep banked turn and then start back for our lines. It came in on a long flat glide and as we ran up to the machine, Fish fell over in a swoon."

"He was bleeding badly, and the machine clear back to the tail was spattered with blood. Only one bullet had struck him, but it made four holes. It started in the fleshy part of the leg, went in the back side of the thigh, out again and into the shoulder."

He was not dangerously wounded, but after this his ambition for war apparently was satisfied, for he returned to his home in Los Angeles."
...

[F]rom Chirp, Saturday, August 17, 1935, DETROIT MICH[.]
[C]ourtesy of Steve Remington - CollectAir.

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