The General and the Jaguar (48 page)

April 29, 1973:
Nicolás Fernández dies.

December 25, 1980:
Maud Wright dies.

T
HE
N
ATIONAL
A
RCHIVES

Many of the people who were in Columbus, New Mexico, at the time of the raid filed claims with a special commission in Washington,
D.C., to obtain financial compensation for the loss of property or a loved one. The claim files include sworn affidavits from
relatives and eyewitnesses who were in Columbus at the time of the raid and that were written within a few years of when the
attack actually occurred. Thus, they appear to be the most reliable source of what happened and I used them extensively to
reconstruct the characters and events leading up to and through the raid. The files, which are available at the National Archives
and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland, were still wrapped in red ribbon, tied together with string, or clipped
with straight pins, and appeared to have been undisturbed for decades. They can be found under the following citation: Record
Group (RG) 76, U.S. and Mexican Claims Commissions, Records of the Agency of the United States, Files for U.S. claimants,
entry 125. (Hereafter overall collection cited as U.S. and Mexican Claims Commissions, with specific subsets noted.)

Finding these files is a two-step process. First you must go through index cards to find out if someone actually filed a claim.
If so, he or she would have been assigned an agency number and that is the number you need in order to have the correct box
pulled. Among the claims I looked at were Corbett, No. 5842; Dean, No. 2007; Frost, No. 5995; Griffin, No. 1844; James, No.
2062; Lassiter, No. 1347; Lemmon and Payne, No. 2893; McKinney, No. 1419; Miller, No. 286; Moore, No. 126; O’Neal, No. 2261;
Palomas Land and Cattle Company, No. 1850; Ravel, No. 2004; Riggs, No. 3099; Ritchie, No. 1577; Smyser, No. 2277; Walker (filed
under name Ben Henry), No. 4094.

Another related and very helpful subset of the U.S. and Mexican Claims Commissions was the Research and Information Section,
Information File on Mexican History, which contained a vast quantity of documents on the Mexican Revolution and War Department
reports, gathered by commission staffers in preparation for the litigation of the claims. One of these documents was the Punitive
Expedition’s “Report of Operations of ‘General’ Francisco Villa since November 1915,” which was based in part upon prisoner
interrogations and went into great detail about Villa’s whereabouts before and after the raid.

At the downtown Washington branch of the National Archives is a third extremely valuable collection, RG 94, Records of the
Adjutant General’s Office, 1780s-1917, Correspondence Relating to Punitive Expedition, Doc. No. 2377632, which spans a dozen
boxes and contains hundreds of military telegrams, letters, and reports related to the raid or expedition. Other record groups
that have useful information include:

RG 153, Office of the Judge Advocate General, Mexican Claims Cases Files, 1914-1936, Administrative Correspondence, Entry
48.

RG 159, Inspector General Office, General Correspondence Files, 1914-1917, Entry 25.

RG 165, Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs, Records Relating to History of War Department, 1900-1941,
Historical Division Files, Entry 310.

RG 200, Papers of General John J. Pershing, Material Relating to the Punitive Expedition, Entry 17.

RG 395, Records of U.S. Army Overseas Operations and Commands, 1898- 1942, WWI, Organizational Records, Punitive Expeditions
to Mexico: Entry 1203, War Diaries of Commands and Units of the Mexican Punitive Expedition; Entry 1210, Notebooks and Scrapbooks
of Intelligence Officers; Entry 1217, General Correspondence of Intelligence Officer; Entry 1224, Correspondence of Commanding
Officer, Camp Dublán; and Entry 1229, Records of Stations in Mexico.

RG 407, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Mexican Expedition, box 2020.

O
THER
A
RCHIVES

Robert Bouilly collection, 4021 Esperanza Circle, El Paso, Texas, 79922-1910. Bouilly, a military historian at the U.S. Army
Sergeants Major Academy, Fort Bliss, Texas, has a large number of photographs, documents, newspaper clippings, magazine articles,
and books relating to the raid, as well as to the Punitive Expedition and the Mexican Revolution. Cited as Bouilly collection.

Columbus Historical Society Museum, Columbus, New Mexico. The museum has numerous photographs and artifacts, as well as some
reports about the raid. Cited as Columbus museum.

Richard Dean collection, P.O. Box 203, Columbus, New Mexico 88029-0203. Dean has one of the most complete collections of documents,
newspaper clippings, photographs, and other memorabilia related to the raid, as well as bound copies of the
Southwestern
newspaper, which contain many articles on the raid and life on the border. Cited as Dean collection.

Deming Luna Mimbres Museum. Newspaper clippings, photographs, documents related to the prisoners, unpublished academic papers
on the raid and Punitive Expedition. Cited as Deming museum.

El Paso Public Library, Border Heritage Center. Vast repository of photographs and books related to the Mexican Revolution,
the Columbus raid, and the Punitive Expedition.

Fray Angélico Chávez History Library, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Numerous photos of expedition and raid, as well as letters and
diary of Colonel Charles S. Farnsworth, base commander at Columbus.

Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C. Papers of Hugh Lenox Scott and John Joseph Pershing. Scott’s papers
are arranged chronologically and by category and most of the material relating to the Mexican Revolution and the Punitive
Expedition can be found in his general correspondence, cartons 21 to 27. Pershing’s papers are similarly arranged and records
relating to the Columbus raid and the Punitive Expedition can be found in his general correspondence, particularly cartons
372 and 373. A card index in the Manuscript Reading Room, arranged alphabetically by the names of correspondents and subjects,
is of great assistance to researchers interested in exploring the Pershing papers.

Luna County Clerk’s Office. Microfilm records of indictments, arrest warrants, and other miscellaneous information related
to the Villista prisoners. Also has bound volumes of
Columbus Courier,
Deming Headlight,
and
Deming Graphic.

New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Repository for the only surviving transcript of the trial;
photographs and penitentiary information on the prisoners; correspondence of governors; photographs of the raid and of National
Guard units stationed on the border.

New Mexico State University, Rio Grande Regional Archives, Las Cruces, New Mexico. Contains photographs of the Mexican Revolution,
the Columbus raid, and the Punitive Expedition; papers belonging to Albert Fall and other individuals; and a handwritten map
of Columbus prepared by Frank Tompkins.

University of New Mexico, Center for Southwest Research. Contains microfilm copies of Senator Albert Fall’s correspondence
and other Fall material; papers of Ruth Miller (the wife of Charles DeWitt Miller); clippings and miscellaneous reports on
Columbus and the raid itself and on the surrender of Pancho Villa.

University of Texas at El Paso, Special Collections. Contains Haldeen Braddy papers and many other original documents and
photographs relating to the Mexican Revolution and early El Paso.

A
BBREVIATIONS

AGO: Adjutant General’s Office

AMJ: Albuquerque Morning Journal

CC: Columbus Courier

DG: Deming Graphic

DH: Deming Headlight

EPH: El Paso Herald

EPMT: El Paso Morning Times

EPPL: El Paso Public Library

IGO: Inspector General’s Office

JAG: Judge Advocate General

LC: Library of Congress

LCCO: Luna County Clerk’s Office

NARA: National Archives and Records Administration

n.d.: no date

NMSRCA: New Mexico State Records Center and Archives

NYT: New York Times

PWW: The Papers of Woodrow Wilson,
edited by Arthur Link

RG: Record Group

RMN: Rocky Mountain News

RO: “Report of Operations of ‘General’ Francisco Villa since November 1915”

SFNM: Santa Fe New Mexican

UNM: University of New Mexico, Center for Southwest Research

UTEP: University of Texas at El Paso

Prologue

1 They were tortured by: The New Mexico State Records Center and Archives has high-quality photographs of the Villistas
captured by the U.S. Army, as well as penitentiary records, which contain physical descriptions and background information.

2 Colonel Nicolás Fernández dismounted: Background taken from photographs and author interviews conducted in June and
July of 2004 with two grandchildren, Gloria Roach and Rudy Herrera, who both now live in Washington State. There is conflicting
information about the last name of the colonel who captured Maud. She gives the name Hernández in her interview with Federal
Bureau of Investigation agent E. B. Stone on March 10, 1916. The
New York Times,
quoting Maud in a March 10, 1916, article, uses the name Servantes. However, I believe that Nicolás Fernández is the correct
name for several reasons. First, there was no Nicolás Hernández among the high-ranking Villistas who attacked Columbus. Second,
the Punitive Expedition’s “Report of Operations of ‘General’ Francisco Villa since November 1915,” which was put together
by the army’s intelligence officers and is based upon prisoner interviews, notes that Nicolás Fernández was one of Villa’s
top officers and that he arrived in camp one evening with “the American woman” (p. 7). And finally, Juan Muñoz, one of the
highest-ranking prisoners captured by U.S. forces in Mexico, states that he saw Mrs. Wright on the march up to Columbus and
that she was “under the escort of Nicolás Fernández” (M. H. Díaz, “Villa Raid on Columbus [Examination of Prisoners],” February
7, 1917, Miller claim).

2 Maud Wright touched: The story of Maud’s captivity is taken from multiple interviews conducted by the author between
2002 and 2004 with her son, Johnnie Wright, and two unpublished written reports, which Wright graciously made available to
the author. One is an undated account entitled “Maud Wright’s Experiences as a Captive of Pancho Villa,” as told to Wallace
and Verna Crawford, and the second, also undated, is notes in narrative form that were apparently written sometime before
1942 by J. K. Richardson. Articles about her captivity also appeared in numerous newspapers, including the
New York Times,
the
El Paso Herald,
and the
El Paso Morning Times.
E. B. Stone, a federal agent, interviewed her on March 10, 1916, and the following day State Department agent George Carothers
interviewed her and sent a report to Secretary of State Robert Lansing. (These latter two documents can be found in the claim
of Arthur McKinney.) Some details of Maud’s captivity vary, but her basic story, particularly the information surrounding
the Columbus attack, is supported in numerous court documents and eyewitness accounts. There have been rumors and speculation
that Maud was raped, but there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that any sort of sexual assault occurred and, in fact,
it appears that the soldiers treated her with respect.

3
Puedo comprar:
I use quotation marks whenever dialogue is taken directly from documents or interviews. Conversations that are not surrounded
by quotation marks are an approximation of what was said. While they are also taken from documents or interviews, they are
not necessarily the exact words of the individuals.

4 “It was the custom”: Affidavit, Martin Lyons, December 12, 1916, NARA, RG 94, AGO, Doc. No. 2377632. This document number
is actually a huge collection of documents spanning more than a dozen boxes at the National Archives.

4 Frank Hayden: “Wee Wright Boy Brought Safe and Sound to Pearson,”
EPMT,
March 11, 1916.

6 Before the revolution: Friedrich Katz,
The Life and Times of Pancho Villa
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), 271.

6 “It’s not easy”: Ibid.

6 “preferred death to”: Headquarters Punitive Expedition, Mexico, “Report of Operations of ‘General’ Francisco Villa since
November 1915,” July 31, 1916, 23 (hereafter cited as RO). There are several versions of this report in various stages of
completion in the National Archives. I am using what appears to be the original and completed version found in U.S. and Mexican
Claims Commissions, Research and Information Section, Information File on Mexican History, box 11.

10 “Man of the Hour”: Gregory Mason, “The Mexican Man of the Hour,”
Outlook,
June 6, 1914, 292.

10 “sinister beauty”: Enrique Krauze,
Mexico: Biography of Power,
A History of Modern Mexico, 1810-1996
(New York: Harper Perennial, 1997), 318.

1. A Microbe Challenges an Elephant

13
pan y palo:
Anita Brenner,
The Wind That Swept Mexico
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1943), 6; Jack Sweetman,
The Landing at Veracruz: 1914
(Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute, 1968), 9.

13 fifteen million: Krauze,
Mexico,
31-32.

16 “By 1910”: John Mason Hart,
Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and Process of the Mexican Revolution
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), 6.

16 90 percent of the Mexican campesino: Ibid., 162.

16 “Practically all of the railways”: Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, “Investigation of Mexican Affairs,” 2255
(hereafter cited as Fall hearing).

17 torture chamber: Hart,
Revolutionary Mexico,
64.