To a child’s mind it was an exciting combination of courage, adventure, and old west banditry. So appeared to me the military experience of my paternal grandfather John Denyes Arntfield (1894 – 1983) in what is formally known as the Mexican Expedition or informally the Pancho Villa Expedition.
It is no wonder my imagination was fired up. Amongst my grandfather’s possessions was a post card written to his mother in 1916 with a picture, an apparent official army photograph for home consumption, of five mounted soldiers viewing a man dead on the ground. The message to his mother scribbled on the back was “This is one of the bandits we got while they were on a raid”. To add to the excitement was a mark above one of the soldier’s heads. It was always represented that the soldier beneath the mark was my grandfather.
Francisco “Pancho” Villa (1878 – 1923) was a Mexican bandit whose paramilitary forces during the Mexican Revolution had made a military incursion into Columbus, New Mexico in January of 1916 killing 18 people and looting the town. This and previous attacks the same year on United States property as well as the execution of 17 Americans within Mexico had been in protest of the support of the United States was giving to the existing government of Mexico.
The New Mexico incursion and murder of several of its citizens was, however, the last straw for the United States. In March of 1916 President Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924) ordered General John “Blackjack” Pershing (1860 – 1948) to lead an expeditionary force of 10,000 men into Mexico to capture Villa.
As a result Pershing (later to gain renown as leader of American forces during World War I) led an expeditionary force of 10,000 men on a punitive incursion into Mexico in search of Villa. George Patton, the General George Patton of World War II fame, was one of his aides.
Although the expedition engaged in some skirmishes with mixed success, the mission was ultimately unsuccessful and forces withdrew in January of 1917 without capturing Villa who lived on until his 1923 assassination. During the time Pershing was in Mexico with his men, there were also many troops stationed at El Paso, Texas assigned to border patrol duty. It appears that my paternal grandfather was one of these troops.
As an off and on again resident of Detroit, my grandfather, always resourceful in obtaining employment, no doubt saw an opportunity when he decided in 1916 to join the Michigan National Guard at age 22. A brief history of the 31st Michigan Volunteer Infantry, my grandfather’s unit, indicates that it departed in June of 1916 for service at the El Paso, Texas border. The unit’s time there is described as generally uneventful, consisting mainly of guard duty, drill instruction, and marches. In November of 1916 after Pershing’s unsuccessful efforts, the 31st was ordered back to Michigan. Although no records of his service have to date been located, it is assumed that my grandfather signed on for only the duration of the expedition since May 3, 1917 finds him back in Canada enlisting for World War I.
Whether my grandfather’s unit ever had a cavalry branch is unknown just as is whether or not the post card of soldiers with a dead bandit that so fascinated me as a child actually depicts my boyhood hero. My grandfather, with a lifelong penchant for self-aggrandizement, was not beyond telling tall tales when it suited his purpose.
Another post card sent home to his mother with the inscription “U.S. Soldiers On The Mexican Border” with a mark ostensibly above my grandfather along with several other prone soldiers engaged in rifle drill may or may not also depict him. His message to his mother on this card was “These are true photos of what is going on down here”. Once again there is a mark above a soldier my grandfather claimed to be him.
Research tends to indicate that my grandfather’s infantry unit time while stationed at El Paso, Texas was limited to only mundane soldiering drills for the duration of the expedition. Whether or not he ever made an official incursion into Mexico is unknown. He always represented, however, that he had in fact been to Mexico and in fact spent one night in a jail there. Although the circumstances were never made clear, my grandfather was a hard living man and it may have involved some drunken escapade while on leave after crossing the border El Paso shares with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. It has been recorded that one of the reasons for the general failure of the expedition was the attraction of liquor provided by cantinas that remained open all night to provide service to thirsty soldiers.
It is entirely likely
that, though serving with the general Pancho Villa Expedition, my grandfather
never saw any active service in Mexico itself.
The only true representation of him during the expedition may be the
photograph of him in his U.S. army uniform.
For me, however, he is still the mounted soldier in the post card who
maybe, just maybe, killed the Mexican bandit.
David Arntfield
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