Battle of Carrizal
Part of the Mexican Border War

Captured U.S. soldiers after the battle
DateJune 21, 1916
Location
Carrizal, Chihuahua, Mexico
Result Mexican victory
Belligerents
Carrancistas  United States
Commanders and leaders
Félix Gómez  † Charles T. Boyd  †
Henry R. Adair †
Strength
150 200
Casualties and losses
27 killed
39 wounded[1][2][3]		 12 killed
28 wounded
24 captured

The Battle of Carrizal occurred on June 21, 1916. It was a major skirmish between United States Army troops of General John J. Pershing's Punitive Expedition 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 could be taken at Carrizal, west of Ahumada.[4] When he sent Captains Boyd and Morey to investigate with C and K troops of the 10th Cavalry, they were confronted by Mexican Army troops, not Villa's men.[3] The Mexican army was ordered by Venustiano Carranza to fire upon any American soldier moving in any direction but north. The Americans were issued a warning by the Mexican army.[5] 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) 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[citation needed]. The simultaneous deterioration of German-American relations while World War I raged made any escalation in Mexico undesirable and so negotiations followed.

General Felix U. Gómez

Legacy

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ The Battle of Carrizal, Mexico June 21, 1916 Archived January 8, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 04 May 2020
  2. ^ Pierce, Frank Cushman (1917). A Brief History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. George Banta publishing Company. ISBN 9781548742218. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Buffalo Soldiers at Huachuca: The Battle of Carrizal".
  4. ^ "Battle of Carrizal (1916)". April 2012.
  5. ^ Howard Francis Cline, The United States and Mexico (Harvard University Press, 1965), p. 181.
  6. ^ "Henry Adair and Camp Adair". Retrieved 27 November 2014.


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