War on the Border: Villa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion by Jeff Guinn
War on the Border: Villa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion by Jeff Guinn
The war began in 1916 with Mexican rebel Pancho Villa's bloody raid on a U.S. border town, the latest incident in simmering tensions between the two countries. In response, the U.S. launched what it called the Punitive Expedition -- a military invasion of Mexican territory. Commanded by Gen. John J. Pershing, who would go on to lead U.S. troops in Europe a year later during World War I, the expedition included U.S. Army troops and the National Guard. Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers, who were little more than organized vigilantes with a deep racial bias against Mexicans, continued to raise havoc along the border. Villa's rebels were a ragtag group sometimes recruited at gunpoint. But they knew the landscape and used it to their advantage.
The American expedition was the last action by the legendary African American "Buffalo Soldiers." It was also the first time the Army used automobiles and trucks, which were of limited value in Mexico, a country with no paved roads or gas stations. Curtiss Jenny airplanes did reconnaissance, another first. One era of warfare was coming to a close, and another was beginning. But despite several bloody encounters, the Punitive Expedition eventually withdrew without capturing Villa.
Today, Anglos and Latinos in Columbus, New Mexico, where Villa's raid took place, commemorate those events, but with differing emotions. And although the bloodshed has ended, the U.S. - Mexico border remains a vexed and volatile issue.
Simon & Schuster, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2021
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK.