[PDF] The Punitive Expedition Into Mexico 1916 eBook

Author : Julie Irene Prieto
Publisher : St. John's Press
Page : 72 pages
File Size : 44,12 MB
Release : 2016-09-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781944961459

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On 9 March 1916, the forces of Doroteo Arango, better known as Francisco "Pancho" Villa, attacked the small border town of Columbus, New Mexico. In response to the raid, President Woodrow Wilson authorized Brig. Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing to organize an expedition into Chihuahua, Mexico, in order to kill or capture Villa and those responsible for the assault. By 15 March, 4,800 Regular Army soldiers had assembled in Columbus and Camp Furlong, the Army garrison just outside of the town's center. These men fanned out into the Mexican countryside on horseback in small, highly mobile cavalry detachments-sometimes led by local guides or by the Army's Apache scouts-that could cover large swaths of sparsely populated and rough terrain. Cavalrymen employed skills and strategies developed in the preceding decades on frontier campaigns in the West and in warfare against irregular, guerrilla forces in the Philippines. The Mexican Expedition, popularly called the "Punitive Expedition," was to be one of the last operations to employ these methods of warfare and one of the first to rely extensively on trucks. It also provided a testing ground for another new technology-the airplane. During the eleven months that Pershing's expedition was in Chihuahua, U.S. troops failed to kill, capture, or even spot Pancho Villa, but the impact of the expedition reached far beyond the deserts of northern Mexico. The approximately 10,000 regulars that served in the Punitive Expedition gained experience in large, multiunit field operations at a time when small-unit actions were the norm. The Mexican Expedition, 1916-1917, by Julie Irene Prieto, examines the operation, led by General John Pershing, to search for, capture, and destroy Francisco "Pancho" Villa and his revolutionary army in northern Mexico in the year prior to the United States' entry into World War I. This campaign marked one of the final times cavalry was used on a large scale, and it was one of the first to use trucks and airplanes in the field. While Pershing's troops failed to capture Villa, both Regular Army troops and National Guardsmen stationed on the border gained valuable experience in these new technologies.

Author : Grady McCright
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 166 pages
File Size : 33,31 MB
Release : 2008-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0595515096

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Nate Hayes accompanies the Punitive Expedition under the command of General John J. (Blackjack) Pershing as United States Army troops march into Mexico searching for Pancho Villa. The President authorized the invasion of foreign soil in 1916 after the devastating raid on Columbus, New Mexico. Modern soldiers need old fashioned tracking talents that have almost disappeared. Ol' Nate Hayes was a scout for the bluecoat Army during the Indian campaigns in the late 1800's, where he knew Lieutenant Pershing, and is the best tracker still alive. Pershing calls him from retirement to support the endeavor. Nate pairs up with a young Lieutenant fresh out of West Point, George S. Patton. During the campaign, the old scout and the young lieutenant discover a black market operating within the military ranks. Obtaining proof of this internal graft turns ugly as the pair put their heads together to rid the Army of this corruption.

Author : Joseph Franklin Moffett
Publisher :
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 16,33 MB
Release : 1933
Category : Mexican-American Border Region
ISBN :

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"This account of the American Punitive Expedition is attempted after a full year's study and research, and is the result of a topic chosen for a history seminar course at New Mexico State Teachers' College." The author lived in Colonia Dublan, Mexico when Villa proceeded northward for his attack upon United States territory, and when he made his retreat to the south after his defeat at Columbus, New Mexico. Moffett lived near the expedition's main base camp for the duration of their stay in Mexico.

Author : James W. Hurst
Publisher : Praeger
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 18,41 MB
Release : 2008
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0313350043

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A photographic record unprecedented in the annals of bandit-heroes spread the legend, and motion pictures gave an extraordinary boost to his notoriety. He is arguably the most widely recognized Mexican in America, and his picture is often found on the walls of Mexican-American restaurants. Catching Villa would prove to be difficult, and to do it, Black Jack Pershing and his force needed to rely on local intelligence. Pershing referred to his intelligence-gathering organization as the Intelligence Section, whose officers interrogated prisoners, recruited guides, interpreters, and informers, and organized a secret service of Mexican expatriates who were more than willing to provide their services against Villa. There were a number of Japanese who were employed with mixed results, and a few reliable local Mexicans were employed in the Secret Service with fairly good results.

Author :
Publisher :
Page : 100 pages
File Size : 11,36 MB
Release : 2003
Category :
ISBN :

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This thesis examines the strategy of the United States Army's Punitive Expedition into Mexico following the raid on Columbus, New Mexico, by Francisco Pancho Villa and his followers on 9 March 1916. In analyzing this topic, the thesis focuses on the roles and inter-relationship of the three men most responsible for the strategic direction of the campaign. President Woodrow Wilson, Secretary of War Newton Diehl Baker, and Chief of Staff of the Army Hugh Scott all played essential roles in the formation, conduct, and ultimate outcome of the expedition. This study analyzes the orders authorizing the expedition, and the limitations placed on the actions of the U.S. forces in Mexico by President Wilson and War Department officials. This study concludes that the Punitive Expedition, although largely an operational success, was a strategic miscalculation and the potential benefits of the operation did not outweigh the risks of triggering a general war with Mexico. A major war with Mexico was narrowly averted on two occasions by the actions of Major General Scott and the steadfast determination of President Wilson.

Author : Charles J. Dorsey
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 26,24 MB
Release : 1997
Category : Mexico
ISBN :

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This study examines the political-military insights offered by the Punitive Expedition into Mexico, 10 March 1916 to 5 February 1917. This thesis uncovers these insights by examining how Major General Frederick Funston, commander of the United States Southern Department, and Brigadier General John J. Pershing, commander of the Punitive Expedition, in conjunction with the Department of War and the Department of State within the Wilson Administration, planned and conducted this nearly year-long campaign. This study examines how Funston and Pershing planned and conducted a military campaign in a country with which the United States was not at war, as well as a campaign characterized by numerous restraints placed upon its operations by the Wilson Administration. As such, this study highlights several important insights into the nature of an operation in a restrictive environment, to include the importance of establishing clearly defined and achievable objectives, establishing and maintaining legitimacy, maintaining perseverance, establishing unity of effort, operating with restraint, and continuously maintaining security of friendly forces.

Author : James W. Hurst
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 223 pages
File Size : 29,62 MB
Release : 2007-12-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0313350051

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The focus of this book is the Expedition, the Villistas, and their leader Francisco Pancho Villa. Villa's early life witnessed the advent of the typewriter, the telephone, linotype, the automobile, the Kodak camera, the first motion pictures, wireless telegraphy, the airplane, and the radio. In the days before his defeat at Columbus and the subsequent routing of his bands by the Punitive Expedition, Villa had a coterie of journalists wherever he traveled, and he went to great lengths to secure their comfort. In return they provided him with what today would be called good press, and American public opinion was shaped in a generally favorable direction. Villa instinctively realized that image was everything: it was not what you were that mattered but rather what you seemed to be that really counted. In addition to the American newspaper press, both Mexican and American photographers contributed to Villa's role as a legendary hero. A photographic record unprecedented in the annals of bandit-heroes spread the legend, and motion pictures gave an extraordinary boost to his notoriety. He is arguably the most widely recognized Mexican in America, and his picture is often found on the walls of Mexican-American restaurants. Catching Villa would prove to be difficult, and to do it, Black Jack Pershing and his force needed to rely on local intelligence. Pershing referred to his intelligence-gathering organization as the Intelligence Section, whose officers interrogated prisoners, recruited guides, interpreters, and informers, and organized a secret service of Mexican expatriates who were more than willing to provide their services against Villa. There were a number of Japanese who were employed with mixed results, and a few reliable local Mexicans were employed in the Secret Service with fairly good results. The narrative is itself a reflection of the success of the Intelligence Section in gathering information in the field and preserving what was gathered in detailed, written reports. The reports would not have been possible without the cooperation of the local population, particularly in the Guerrero district and specifically in the pueblo of Namiquipa. Both were hotbeds of Villista sentiment, and early Expedition reports stressed the hostility of the locals. Within a matter of weeks of its arrival, however, the local situation had changed radically. Local farmers were collaborating with the Americans, selling their labor and supplies to the troops and, more importantly, furnishing the invaders with military intelligence.