Francisco "Pancho" Villa was initially a bandit, who became a general in the Mexican Revolution. He was a key figure in the revolutionary violence that forced out President Porfirio Díaz and brought Francisco I. Madero to power in 1911. When Madero was ousted by a rightwing coup led by General Victoriano Huerta in February 1913, he led anti-Huerta forces in the Constitutionalist Army 1913-14. The commander of the coalition was civilian governor of Coahuila Venustiano Carranza. After the defeat and exile of Huerta in July 1914, Villa broke with Carranza. Villa dominated the meeting of revolutionary generals that excluded Carranza and helped create a coalition government that was weak and ineffective. Emiliano Zapata and Villa became formal allies in this period, but it was in only in principle. Like Zapata, Villa was strongly in favor of land reform, but his plans were not implemented when he had power. At the height of his power and popularity in late 1914 and early 1915, the U.S. considered recognizing him as Mexico's legitimate authority. Civil war broke out when Carranza challenged Villa. Villa was decisively defeated by Constitutionalist General Alvaro Obregón in summer 1915, and the U.S. aided Carranza directly against Villa in the Second Battle of Agua Prieta in November 1915. Much of Villa's army left after Villa's defeat on the battlefield and his lack of resources to buy arms and pay soldiers' salaries. Angered at the U.S. aid to Carranza, Villa conducted a raid on the border town of Columbus, New Mexico to goad the U.S. to invade Mexico in 1916-17. Despite a major contingent of soldiers and the latest military technology, the U.S. failed to capture Villa. When President Carranza was ousted from power in 1920, Villa negotiated an amnesty with interim President Adolfo de la Huerta and was given a landed estate, on the condition he retire from politics. He was assassinated in 1923. Although his faction did not prevail in the Revolution, he is one of its most charismatic and prominent figures.
Heroica Nogales, more commonly known as Nogales, is a city and the county seat of the Municipality of Nogales. It is located on the northern border of the Mexican state of Sonora. The city is abutted on its north by the city of Nogales, Arizona, across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Buffalo Soldiers originally were members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on September 21, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This nickname was given to the Colored Cavalry by Native American tribes who fought in the Indian Wars. The term eventually became synonymous with all of the African-American regiments formed in 1866:
Álvaro Obregón Salido better known as Álvaro Obregón was a Sonoran-born general in the Mexican Revolution. He became the 46th President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924 and assassinated in 1928 as President-elect. In the mythology of the Revolution, "Alvaro Obregón stood out as the organizer, the peacemaker, the unifier." He joined the Revolution after the February 1913 coup d'etat against Francisco I. Madero that brought General Victoriano Huerta to the presidency. Obregón supported Sonora's decision to follow Governor of Coahuila Venustiano Carranza as leader of the northern revolutionary coalition, the Constitutionalist Army, against the Huerta regime. Obregón rose quickly in the ranks and became, along with revolutionary general Francisco Villa, the Constitutionalist Army's best general. Carranza appointed Obregón commander of the revolutionary forces in northwestern Mexico. When the Constitutionalists defeated Huerta in July 1914, Villa broke with Carranza, while Obregón remained loyal to him. In the civil war of the winners (1914-15), between Carranza and Obregón on one side and Villa and peasant leader Emiliano Zapata on the other, Obregón decisively defeated Villa's army in 1915. Carranza became the undisputed leader of Mexico. In 1915 Carranza appointed him as his minister of war. Obregón became increasingly disillusioned with Carranza, who he believed should have become interim president of Mexico and thus been excluded from election as the constitutional president. Carranza was elected president in 1917 and Obregón returned to his ranch Sonora, planning on running for the presidency in the 1920 elections. Since Carranza could not be re-elected, he designated a civilian political nobody to succeed him, with the move seen as a way for Carranza to remain the power behind the presidency. In response, in 1920, Obregón and fellow Sonoran revolutionary generals Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta launched a revolt against Carranza. Carranza was assassinated while fleeing the capital on a train carrying most of the nation's gold. De la Huerta became interim president until elections were held. Obregón won the presidency with overwhelming popular support.
Ignacio Bonillas Fraijo was a Mexican diplomat. He was a Mexican ambassador to the United States and held a degree in mine engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was tapped by President Venustiano Carranza as his successor in the 1920 presidential elections, but the revolt of three Sonoran revolutionary generals overthrew Carranza before those elections took place.
Naco is a Mexican town in Naco Municipality located in the northeast part of Sonora state on the border with the United States. It is directly across from the unincorporated town of Naco, Arizona. The name Naco comes from the Opata language and means prickly pear cactus. The town saw fighting during the Mexican Revolution and during a rebellion led by General José Gonzalo Escobar in 1929. During the second conflict, an American pilot by the name of Patrick Murphy volunteered to bomb federal forces for the rebels, but mistakenly bombed Naco, Arizona, instead. Today, the town has been strongly affected by the smuggling of drugs, people and weapons across the international border.
José Inés Salazar was a leading Orozquista General in the Mexican Revolution who later fought with Pancho Villa. He was a native of Casas Grandes, Chihuahua.
The Battle of Ambos Nogales, or as it is known in Mexico La batalla del 27 de agosto, was an engagement fought on 27 August 1918 between Mexican military and civilian militia forces and elements of U.S. Army troops of the 35th Infantry Regiment, who were reinforced by the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, and commanded by Lt. Col. Frederick J. Herman. The American soldiers and militia forces were stationed in Nogales, Arizona, and the Mexican soldiers and armed Mexican militia were in Nogales, Sonora. This battle was notable for being a significant confrontation between U.S. and Mexican forces during the Border War, which took place in the context of the Mexican Revolution and the First World War.
General Jacinto Blas Treviño González was a Mexican military officer, noteworthy for his participation in the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to 1921.
The Battle of Naco, or the First Battle of Naco due to a later siege was a battle of the Mexican Revolution between Constitutionalist forces and Mexican government forces. Rebel forces under General Alvaro Obregon defeated the Mexican Army garrison and captured Naco, Sonora.
The First Battle of Tijuana was an early engagement of the Mexican Revolution and the first significant victory for the Magonistas. Tijuana was captured and held by rebel forces on May 9, 1911 and was used as a haven for recruiting American volunteers from California.
The Second Battle of Tijuana was fought during the Mexican Revolution in June 1911. The opposing sides were rebel Magonistas and federal Mexican troops of President Francisco León de la Barra with American militia volunteers from Los Angeles, California. Tijuana was retaken by federal forces after a short battle just south of the town.
The Capture of Mexicali, or the Battle of Mexicali, was the first action of the Mexican Revolution taken by rebel Magonistas against the federal Mexican government of Porfirio Diaz. Under the direction of Ricardo Flores Magón, a group of rebels captured the border town of Mexicali with little resistance.
The Mexican Border War, or the Border Campaign, refers to the military engagements which took place in the Mexico–United States border region of North America during the Mexican Revolution. The war's time period encompassed World War I, during which Germany attempted to have Mexico attack the United States and engaged in hostilities against American forces there itself. The Border War was the fifth and latest major conflict fought on American soil, where its predecessors were the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the American Civil War. The end of the Mexican Revolution on 1 December 1920, marked the close of the American Frontier. The Bandit War in Texas was part of the Border War. From the beginning of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, the United States Army was stationed in force along the border and on several occasions fought with Mexican rebels or federals. The height of the conflict came in 1916 when revolutionary Pancho Villa attacked the American border town of Columbus, New Mexico. In response, the United States Army, under the direction of General John J. Pershing, launched an expedition into northern Mexico, to find and capture Villa. Although Villa was not captured, the US Army found and engaged the Villista rebels, killing Villa's two top lieutenants. The revolutionary himself escaped and the American army returned to the United States in January 1917. Conflict at the border continued, however, and the United States launched several additional, though smaller operations into Mexican territory until after the American victory in the Battle of Ambos Nogales in August 1918, leading to the establishment of a permanent border wall. Conflict was not only subject to Villistas and Americans; Maderistas, Carrancistas, Constitutionalistas and Germans also engaged in battle with American forces during this period.
Colonel Cornelius Cole Smith was an American officer in the U.S. Army who served with the 6th U.S. Cavalry during the Sioux Wars. On January 1, 1891, he and four other cavalry troopers successfully defended a U.S. Army supply train from a force of 300 Sioux warriors at the White River in South Dakota, for which he received the Medal of Honor. He was the last man to receive the award in battle against the Sioux, and in a major Indian war.
The Yaqui Wars, were a series of armed conflicts between New Spain, and the later Mexican Republic, against the Yaqui Indians. The period began in 1533 and lasted until 1929. The Yaqui Wars, along with the Caste War against the Maya, were the last conflicts of the centuries long Mexican Indian Wars. Over the course of nearly 400 years, the Spanish and the Mexicans repeatedly launched military campaigns into Yaqui territory which resulted in several serious battles and massacres.
The Yaqui Uprising, also called the Nogales Uprising, was an armed conflict that took place in the Mexican state of Sonora and the American state of Arizona over several days in August 1896. In February, the Mexican revolutionary Lauro Aguirre drafted a plan to overthrow the government of President Porfirio Díaz. Aguirre's cause appealed to the local Native Americans, such as the Yaqui, who organized an expedition to capture the customs house in the border town of Nogales on August 12.
The Second Battle of Nogales was a three-sided military engagement of the Mexican Revolution, fought in November 1915 at the border towns of Nogales, Sonora, and Nogales, Arizona. On the morning of November 26, rebel forces of Pancho Villa, who occupied Nogales, Sonora, began firing on United States Army soldiers in Nogales, Arizona. The Americans responded with counter fire for over two hours before a force of Carrancistas arrived to attack the Villistas. Later that day, the Constitutionalistas accidentally opened fire on American soldiers and another short skirmish was fought. The battle resulted in the deaths of several Mexicans and was the first significant engagement fought between Villistas and the United States military.
The Siege of Naco was a major battle fought in the border town of Naco, Sonora, Mexico, between March 31 and April 6, 1929, during the Escobar Rebellion. Following their capture of Cananea in 1928 and the drafting of the "Plan of Hermosillo", rebel forces under the command of General José Gonzalo Escobar occupied Agua Prieta and from there moved to take control of Naco, which at the time was a small, dusty village opposite of Naco, Arizona, occupied by government forces loyal to President Emilio Portes Gil. The rebels hoped to fund the revolution using the revenue generated by Naco and Agua Prieta, where there was a significant amount of public support for their cause.
The Escobar Rebellion was a conflict in northern Mexico in 1929 during the Maximato, between the government forces of President Emilio Portes Gil and rebel forces under the command of General José Gonzalo Escobar. After some initial success in taking over several key cities in the northern half of the country, the Escobar rebels were decisively defeated in a major battle at Jiménez, Chihuahua, and were eventually swept aside by the advancing government forces under the command of General Calles.
Alvaro Obregon 
Emilio Kosterlitzky 
