Julio Cárdenas (unknown – May 14, 1916) was a captain in
Pancho Villa
Francisco "Pancho" Villa ( , , ; born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula; 5 June 1878 – 20 July 1923) was a Mexican revolutionary and prominent figure in the Mexican Revolution. He was a key figure in the revolutionary movement that forced ...
's Villista military organization. He was second-in-command to Villa and the head of his personal bodyguard. The
Battle of Columbus,
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
, in which 18 Americans were killed, sparked the campaign, led by General
John J. Pershing, to eradicate Villa's organization.
One of Pershing's
aides-de-camp was Lt.
George S. Patton, who had been searching haciendas of known Villa leaders while on a foraging expedition to obtain corn for horses. Cárdenas and two other men (a private and a captain in the Villa force) were found during a carefully planned search of the San Miguelito Ranch, after Patton arrived in three cars with ten additional American troopers and two civilian guides. Cárdenas and his two men fled on horseback, were cut off, and then opened fire on the Americans, resulting in a small firefight between the two groups. In the skirmish, Lt. Patton was popularly said to have personally shot Cárdenas with his
six-gun. Patton then put a notch in his gun and strapped Cárdenas to the hood of his car (along with two other dead villistas). He later took Cárdenas's spurs as a souvenir. These spurs are now in the
Museum of World War II.
However, in the actual fighting, Patton only reported shooting the horse of one of two other men at close range, allowing that man to be killed shortly thereafter. All of the three men who were killed in the fight were shot at by Patton at some point. However, in the end, all the bodies had multiple wounds and with four or five men in the American force firing at the same time, it was impossible to attribute these kills individually to any one trooper. Cárdenas was killed last, by that time fleeing on foot. According to Patton's account, one of the two civilian guides, an ex-Villista named
E.L. Holmdahl (now working for the Americans) actually fired the last shot that killed the wounded Cárdenas, who at the end of the fight had refused to surrender and continued firing.
[ D'Este, ''A Genius For War'', Chapter 13, pp. 172–175]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardenas, Julio
People of the Mexican Revolution
Mexican rebels
Mexican outlaws
Deaths by firearm in Mexico
1916 deaths
Year of birth missing