The U.S. Cavalry’s last campaign on American soil saw a mixture of the old and the new in weaponry and tactics.
After Pancho Villa and his bandits raided Columbus, New Mexico, and the troops stationed there on March 9, 1916, Brig. Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing received orders to: “…proceed promptly across the border in pursuit of the Mexican band…the work of [your] troops will be regarded as finished as soon as Villa’s band or bands are known to be broken up.”
Within six days of the attack, Pershing led about 4,800 troops across the Rio Grande into Mexico to launch what would be an 11-month campaign. A raid into Texas on May 5 further incited President Woodrow Wilson to dispatch the National Guard from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to seal the border.
The Punitive Expedition was primarily a cavalry operation, with several regiments seeing active service, including the 5th, 7th, 10th, 11th and 13th Cavalries. Accompanying the horse soldiers were two batteries of field artillery, several units of infantry, two companies of engineers and a contingent of Apache scouts. Support units of the Signal, Quartermaster and Medical Corps joined the march.
This expedition marked America’s first tactical use of mechanized vehicles and airplanes in war. Out of eight Curtiss “Jenny” biplanes that began the campaign, to provide aerial observation, only two remained in service by the end of the first month. The 1st Aero Squadron ended up field testing airplanes rather than contributing much to locating the enemy.
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