The Battle of Columbus, also known as the Burning of Columbus or the Columbus Raid, began on March 9, 1916, as a raid conducted by remnants of Pancho Villa's Division of the North on the small United States border town of Columbus, New Mexico, located 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the border with Mexico. The raid escalated into a full-scale battle between Villistas and the United States Army.
Villa himself led the assault, only to be driven back into Mexico by elements of the 13th Cavalry Regiment stationed at the town. The attack angered Americans, and President Woodrow Wilson ordered Brigadier General John J. Pershing to lead the Punitive Expedition in which the US Army invaded Mexico but failed to capture Villa.
After the 1915 Battle of Celaya during the Mexican Revolution, where Villa sustained his greatest defeat, the Division of the North was in a disorganised condition, wandering around northern Mexico foraging for supplies. Lacking the military supplies, money, and munitions he needed to pursue his war against Mexican President Venustiano Carranza, Villa planned the raid and camped his army of an estimated 1,500 horsemen outside of Palomas on the border three miles south of Columbus, which was populated by about 300 Americans and about as many Mexicans that had fled north from the advancing Villistas. The reasons for the raid have never been established with any certainty. An American kidnap victim travelling with the raiding party, Maud Hawk Wright, said that Villa came with 1,500 men but only attacked with about 600 because there was not enough ammunition for more raiders.
At their camp, Villa sent spies into the town to assess the presence of U.S. military personnel. Upon their return, the spies told him that only about fifty soldiers were garrisoned in Columbus, a significant error. Villa then moved north and crossed the border at about midnight. The garrison came from the 13th Cavalry Regiment, usually stationed at Cavalry Camp Columbus, which was located immediately south of downtown and consisted of the headquarters troop, machine gun troop, and four of the seven rifle troops deployed to patrol the border, totaling in all 12 officers and 341 men, of which approximately 270 were combat troops. On that night, half were out of camp on patrol or other assignments
Villa divided his force into two columns, most of which approached the town on foot, and launched a two-pronged attack on the town in the dark at 4:15 am on March 9. The town's population was asleep, along with most of the garrison, when they entered Columbus from the west and southeast shouting "¡Viva Villa! ¡Viva Mexico!" and other phrases. The townspeople awoke to an army of Villistas burning their settlement and looting their homes. The commander of the 13th Cavalry was Colonel Herbert Jermain Slocum. He had been advised the day before, from three conflicting reports from Mexican sources, that Villa and his soldiers were on the move, possibly against Columbus. One warning was given by Juan Favela, the foreman of a ranch near Palomas (three miles south in Mexico), who had seen them headed north the day before the attack. Amidst many such reports that had proved false, the warning was ignored as unreliable, although the troop at the Border Gate was reinforced and all three troops in the field were ordered to step up patrolling of the 65-mile long border. However, U.S. soldiers were forbidden to reconnoiter inside Mexico and thus unable to check reports of Villa's whereabouts.
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