Someone recently told me of their grandmother telling them about her cousin being locked up in some closet to prevent her from being raped while their house was ransacked and looted ---apparently rape of girls was part of it unless people are making up these kinds of stories, her parents were both killed but the girl survived and was taken to the US by other relatives. A lot of people living here left Mexico at the time of the Revolution and not all were the wealthy.
Mom recently told be a story about her mother and siblings having to ride down a mountain in mine cars to avoid Villa's horsemen.
My maternal grandfather was an engineer for the Edison and Bell electrical goods laboratories, surveying Southwestern railroad maintenance facilities for their suitability in having steam-boiler driven electrical lighting *dynamo* generation plants installed.
In March of 1916 he was in Columbus, and in the early morning of March 09, having completed his sketches and report for the El Paso and Southwestern RR facility in that community, was packing and preparing for his next stop down the line when the Villa raiders hit. Among the notations in his diary of that period was the observation ...must replace the double-barrel with a quality repeater....
As it turned out, he stayed on in Columbus for a few more days. His personal equipment during his trip included two serious handguns, two quality rifles, and the shotgun. I guess any doubts as to the usefullness or need for it were answered on that morning.
-archy-/-