The Battle of Carrizal occurred on June 21, 1916. It was a major skirmish between

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

troops of General John J. Pershing's

Punitive Expedition A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavio ...

and Carrancista troops fought at the town of Carrizal in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Battle

In June 1916, Gen. Pershing was informed that

Pancho Villa Francisco "Pancho" Villa (,"Villa"
''Collins English Dictionary''. ; ;

could be taken at Carrizal, west of Ahumada. When he sent

Captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Boyd and Morey to investigate with C and K troops of the 10th Cavalry, they were confronted by

Mexican Army The Mexican Army ( es, Ejército Mexicano) is the combined land and air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army. The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National De ...

troops, not Villa's men. The Mexican army was ordered by

Venustiano Carranza José Venustiano Carranza de la Garza (; 29 December 1859 – 21 May 1920) was a Mexican wealthy land owner and politician who was Governor of Coahuila when the constitutionally elected president Francisco I. Madero was overthrown in a February ...

to fire upon any American soldier moving any direction but north. The Americans were issued a warning by the Mexican army. Boyd ordered the men to attack anyway. In the resulting battle, the American attack was repelled. By legend Villa supposedly watched with delight as his two enemies fought it out with each other. However, this story is of doubtful veracity as Villa was badly injured at the time and being pursued by both the American Army and the federal Carrancistas. The cavalry's two officers ( Charles T. Boyd and

Henry R. Adair Henry Rodney Adair (1882–1916) was an American cavalry officer. He is most notable for his participation in the Battle of Carrizal of the Pancho Villa Expedition. Biography Adair was born in Astoria, Oregon, on April 13, 1882. He was a part ...

) and 10 other men were killed and 24 taken prisoner. The Mexican forces lost from 20 to 50 soldiers, including the commanding officer, Gen. Félix Uresti Gómez. General Pershing was furious at this result and asked for permission to attack the Carrancista garrison at Chihuahua. President Wilson, fearing that such an attack would provoke a full-scale war with Mexico, refused. The Battle of Carrizal marked the effective end of the Mexican Expedition. Pancho Villa survived, and small raids on American soil occurred while the expedition was in Mexico. The simultaneous deterioration of German-American relations while

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

raged made any escalation in Mexico undesirable and so negotiations followed. Gral

Legacy

*Lt. Henry Rodney Adair was killed in this battle. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Camp Adair Camp Adair was a United States Army division training facility established north of Corvallis, Oregon, operating from 1942 to 1946. During its peak period of use, the camp was home to approximately 40,000 persons — enough to have constituted t ...

was established in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...

, Oregon, as an Army training facility in honor of his service. *The Battle of Carrizal figured prominently in the plot of the 1917 race movie, '' A Trooper of Troop K''

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *Braddy, Haldeen (1957). "Pancho Villa: Fact, Fiction, or Folklore." ''Journal of American Folklore'' 70 (1957). *Calhoun, Frederick (1986). ''Power and Principle: Armed Intervention in Wilsonian Foreign Policy''. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. *Eisenhower, John (1993). ''Intervention!: The United States and the Mexican Revolution, 1913-1917''. New York: Norton. *Mason, Herbert M (1970). ''The Great Pursuit''. New York: Random House. *Salinas Carranza, Alberto (1937) ''La Expedicion Punitiva''. Mexico, DF: Ediciones Botas. *(1916) "Seek Only Nation's Peace." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' June 23. *Sweeney, William (1919). ''History of the American Negro in the Great War''. Chicago: Sapp. {{Buffalo Soldiers Carrizal Carrizal Carrizal 1916 in Mexico Carrizal June 1916 events

Battle

Legacy

See also

References