In the spring of 1916, General John “Blackjack” Pershing gave the Apache Scouts of the 10th and 11th Cavalry a mission that would reignite their warrior spirit. For nearly three decades, these men had lived in relative peace along the border, a quiet existence compared to the fierce Apache campaigns of the 1880s when countless scouts and soldiers had hunted renegade Apaches across the American Southwest and Mexico. The scouts of this later generation were tough, highly skilled in tracking, fighting, and riding, but their duties had grown monotonous. That changed on March 9, 1916, when Pancho Villa and his revolutionary forces launched a daring attack on the border town of Columbus, New Mexico.
The assault on American soil sent shockwaves through the United States. Villa had miscalculated badly. His intent had been to rekindle the revolutionary spirit of “Tierra y Libertad”—Land and Liberty—but the attack had the opposite effect. Furious at the United States for supplying weapons to his rival Venustiano Carranza, and driven by a deep hatred for Carranza, whom he saw as a coward who had gained power without confronting the tyranny of General Huerta, Villa struck out violently at American citizens.
The attack left many dead and injured. In a rare display of speed, the U. S. government responded swiftly, mobilizing thousands of troops to apprehend Villa and punish his forces.
The mission, known as the Punitive Expedition, was placed under Pershing’s command. Pershing, a strict disciplinarian and master of organization with deep experience from the Indian wars, requested the Apache Scouts for the mission, knowing their exceptional tracking skills would be essential. He sought to complete the operation efficiently, although he was often frustrated by interference from President Woodrow Wilson, who frequently second-guessed his military commanders. For the Apache Scouts, the months spent tracking Villa would become one of their final and most thrilling chapters, an experience that eclipsed the quiet years that had come before.
By 1916, only 24 Apache Scouts remained, but Pershing expanded their ranks to 35 for the expedition. Many of the older scouts had served in, or had family members involved in, the Geronimo campaigns. Despite their long period of peace, they felt uneasy about entering Mexico, the territory of their traditional adversaries. To them, there was no distinction between friendly Mexicans and those aligned with Carranza or Villa.
Their perspective was simple: shoot them all. Caution became a significant factor in their operations, more so than they had anticipated. As Ace Dlugoi, the nephew of Geronimo, later explained to historian Eve Ball, an Apache Scout never wanted to be caught off guard; avoiding surprise was synonymous with survival. Successful commanders of the past, such as Captain John G.
Bourke, Emmet Crawford, and Lieutenants Britton Davis, Charles B. Gatewood, James Shannon, and H. B. Warfield, had understood that the more they respected Apache cultural traditions and beliefs, the more effective and responsive the scouts would be.
In 1883, Bourke had described the scouts as individuals deeply in tune with the natural environment, knowing every trail and every mark that told the story of the passage of people or animals. More than three decades later, Captain James Shannon, who was in charge of the scouts during the expedition, wrote that to achieve results, they must be allowed to operate in their own way. This extreme caution was one of the traits that made them perfect scouts; it would be nearly impossible to surprise a unit with Apache scouts at the front. Though Shannon was from the East, he had come to greatly appreciate his men, admiring their ability to maintain an organized camp, their care for their horses, and their commitment to traditional religious practices.
He observed that they used the sweat lodge almost daily and each scout carried sacred objects like hoddentin, a sacred pollen, in their uniforms for prayers. These were the men now tracking down Villa and his gang. Although there were numerous smaller clashes, two significant engagements took place in May and June 1916 where the Apache Scouts took the lead, relishing the opportunity to engage in battle while fulfilling their scouting duties. Historian Friedrich Katz described the action at Rancho Ojos Azules as the greatest victory achieved by the Punitive Expedition, one that significantly boosted troop morale.
The Apache Scouts particularly enjoyed this engagement, as it allowed them to showcase their abilities in both combat and tracking. On May 5th, after a grueling 35-mile march, a group of Apache Scouts accompanied by members of the 11th Cavalry arrived at El Rancho Ojos Azules, or Blue Springs. The area was known to be frequented by Villistas, making it an ideal opportunity to confront the enemy forces that had attacked the United States and possibly capture Villa himself. Julio Acosta, leading over 150 experienced soldiers loyal to Villa, was active in the region.
Major Robert L. Howze quickly assembled six troops of the 11th Cavalry, a machine gun unit, a pack train with four days of supplies, and the Apache Scouts, who acted as the vanguard. The small American force, comprising only a handful of officers and about 140 enlisted men, prepared to face the Villistas. Remarkably, no Americans were injured in the battle, while over 50 Villistas were reported killed with an equal number captured.
Howze, determined to secure a victory, pushed on with a forced night march to catch the enemy by surprise. Just a month earlier, he had been forced to abandon a pursuit of Villa due to a shortage of Apache Scouts, a situation exacerbated by accusations against the scouts of committing atrocities, which led to the temporary suspension of their operations. This failure had been frustrating for everyone involved. But this time, with the help of the Apache Scouts and two civilian guides, Howze felt confident he was closing in on the Villistas.
At dawn, the combined forces deployed and the charge at Ojos Azules began. Some reports consider this battle the final American cavalry charge in the traditional frontier style. It was executed with precision as dozens of Villistas were caught in the crossfire. Major Howze, commanding Troop A, acted as the mounted advance guard.
The initial objective for the scouts was to locate the Villistas and prevent their escape. However, once the Apaches discovered the enemy, they could not resist the urge to engage. They dismounted in their traditional fashion and fought fiercely until the rest of Howze’s troops arrived. The scouts fought alongside regular cavalry units, demonstrating their combat prowess.
A charge was made with pistols drawn, and the American forces advanced in columns of four through the ranch, pushing the Villistas into retreat. Other troops moved to the sides of the ranch house, blocking any possible escape routes. With the support of the machine gun squad, the Apache Scouts eagerly led the charge against their longtime Mexican adversaries—an unusual role, as scouts were typically tasked with locating the enemy and then retreating to avoid direct confrontation. First Lieutenant S.
M. Williams, the adjutant and quartermaster for the expedition, later wrote an account describing the battle as around 20 to 25 minutes of intense fighting, during which Apache Scouts added to the chaos with their high-pitched war cries. The scouts returned to camp with a variety of spoils, including saddles, bridles, captured horses and mules, ammunition, blankets, rifles, and pistols. First Sergeant Chicken Esena was quoted as saying, “Hully damn fine fight,” and his men agreed.
It was a remarkable achievement considering the exhausting all-night march with heavily burdened horses and mules, leaving both men and animals fatigued upon arrival. Nevertheless, the courage and quick thinking of the scouts and soldiers led to their success. Around a month later, on June 2nd, Lieutenant Shannon and his 20 Apache Scouts engaged in a skirmish with some of Candelario Cervantes’s men, who had recently stolen horses from the 5th Cavalry. Horse and mule theft was a common and fiercely contested activity during this period.
Even though the Villista trail was more than a week old, the scouts managed to track them to Las Varas Pass. Shannon noted that his scouts quickly resumed tracking after a brief delay caused by a rocky section of the trail. The Apaches spread out, and soon one scout signaled the others, prompting them to resume their pursuit using the same method. Within an hour, the scouts had scattered the thieves as they fled into the mountains.
No casualties were reported among Shannon’s men, but once again, there was no sign of Villa. The battles at Ojos Azules and Las Varas Pass did not go unnoticed in Mexico City, even though all casualties had been among the Villistas. Survivors of the Ojos Azules fight later admitted that facing the feared Apaches was a deeply unsettling experience. On June 28th, 1916, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Elizio Arredondo, sent a stern note to Secretary of State Lansing, accusing Pershing’s officers and the Apaches of committing atrocities.
Pershing responded by dismissing these allegations as baseless, citing investigations that proved the charges to be untrue. His conclusions have been accepted by historians ever since. However, this controversy delayed progress in capturing Villa for several months. Interestingly, military reports from the time suggest that officers believed Villa could have been apprehended if the scouts had been used more effectively—after all, that was the main goal of the Punitive Expedition.
Throughout the seven months spent waiting to appease Carranza, the Apaches played a vital role in various military tasks, including tracking down American deserters, conducting reconnaissance, hunting, and repairing telegraph wires that had been sabotaged by the enemy. Shannon occasionally led scouting trips, gaining a new appreciation for their tracking skills. The Apaches not only tracked animals but also used their deep knowledge of local wildlife to provide fresh meat for the camp, something the white soldiers assigned to the same task struggled with. The scouts were also highly effective at locating deserters.
After three soldiers vanished without a trace, the Apaches used their expert tracking skills to follow an invisible trail. One observant scout noticed that a fast-moving horse had tripped in a prairie dog hole, leaving a subtle mark where a cactus branch had been broken off. Using only hand signals, the scouts silently moved along the trail, and within 24 hours they had located the deserters. This technique was deployed successfully many times thereafter.
Mexico was a wild and barren land, particularly in the vast and rugged Sierra Madre mountain range. Villa was familiar with the terrain, but Pershing’s troops were not. The campesinos, the local peasants, supported Villa and his Dorados while harboring a deep resentment for the Americans. The only real advantage Pershing had were the Apache Scouts, recruited in a similar manner as they had been during the Apache Wars to track down renegades.
It was a strategic and effective choice. The Punitive Expedition might have been the last military campaign carried out in the traditional frontier warfare style, blending the old and the new. Soldiers used truck convoys and traveled on mules or horseback as they transitioned into a more modern form of combat, but when following the elusive outlaws through the treacherous Sierra Madre, they were still stuck on primitive trails. Few roads existed; most were dangerous paths winding through canyons and ravines.
Pershing understood that success depended on utilizing every available resource. Sometimes the Apache Scouts would uncover caves filled with supplies, weapons, and ammunition. Yet despite all the resources and strategies at his disposal, Pershing was repeatedly outwitted by the cunning revolutionaries. While some bloody skirmishes did yield a few prisoners, they also enraged the Mexican residents of small villages, reflecting negatively on Pershing’s operations, especially in the large city of Chihuahua, his headquarters—a city that held significant sentimental value for Villa as his former stronghold.
It was a humbling reality for Pershing that after more than 11 months in the field, there was still no sign of the elusive Centaur of the North. While there were plenty of rumors and lightning-fast raids for supplies and horses, Villa himself remained a shadow. The campesinos responded with defiance, composing corridos, folk songs, to express their resilience: “Maybe they have guns and cannons, maybe they are much stronger, we only have rocks and mountains, but we know how to endure longer. ”
After the Punitive Expedition concluded in February 1917, the military reduced its forces, disbanding roughly half of the troops and leaving just 22 Apache Scouts on active duty at Fort Huachuca.
Their role in the conflict, however, was far from finished. Tensions between U. S. and Mexican forces persisted until 1920, and Apache renegades from the Sierra Madre region continued to disrupt ranching activities well into the 1930s.
The scouts also took on border patrol duties, ensuring livestock did not stray into Mexican territory. Despite these continued efforts, service with General Pershing and the Punitive Expedition marked what could be seen as the final chapter in the Apache Scouts’ military involvement.
