In Search of Poncho Villa: The Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916
In the pre-dawn hours of March 16, 1916 approximately five hundred soldiers led by General Francisco “Poncho” Villa attacked the small border town and military camp at Columbus, New Mexico. The “Villistas” killed twenty American soldiers and civilians before withdrawing into Mexico. The attack highlighted a long history of animosity between the United States and its Southern neighbor dating back to the Mexican War of 1846-1847 and heightened excursions by United States troops into Mexico to protect American nationals and property.
Concerned
for the safety of American citizens President Woodrow Wilson sent
Brigadier General John J. Pershing and his 8th Infantry Brigade to guard
the US and Mexico Border.
The presence of US troops did not deter Villa. Villa and his men continued to brutally attack American business investments and military posts in New Mexico and along the Mexico border. When the word of continued attacks reached Washington, Wilson ordered Pershing and his 4,800 troops into Northern Mexico to capture Poncho villa
Villa proved elusive to the American forces and Pershing enlarged his army to 11,000 men. This action depleted the regular army and left the border unprotected. In May 1916, President Wilson mobilized the Nation Guard in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and called out the remainder of the states the following month. The border mobilization was the first nationwide call of the National Guard in US history.
Arkansas units responded enthusiastically to the mobilization. On July 29, 1,208 Arkansas Guardsmen received orders from the War Department to Deming, New Mexico, joining 112,000, other guardsmen throughout the nation headed to the border.
The guardsmen found themselves pulling garrison duty with little more than training to break the monotony. One soldier described the routine as “a daily grind of drill, drill, shoot, shoot, and fatigue, fatigue and more fatigue.” On January 12, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson ordered US troops out of Mexico and by the end of February the Arkansas units were mustered out. Although the guard never saw combat, the training they received provided a valuable introduction to modern military techniques and rapidly approaching involvement in World War I.
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