The Battle of Ojinaga Click on the photos to see larger view Then use you browser back button to return to this page. Pancho Villa hamming it up for an American photographer at a spot known as "La Bajada de los Carretones"o n the north side of Ojinaga, Chihuahua, shortly after the taking fo that town from general Salvador Mercado, "The Great Evacuator" in the earliest weeks of 1914, after an unsuccessful campaign by generals Panfilo Natera and Toribio Ortega in the closing weeks of 1913. He is rding his horse "Siete Leguas" at full gallop The photographer had to take several shots before he finally got one that the timing was right, because Villa refused to ride any slower. There was a great amount of carnage as a result of the battle, which Villa conducted by flinging his 10,000 man strong army at the 3,500 troops that Mercado and Orozco had entrenched in a well planned defence of the town, which was built on a hill specifically for reasons of defence against marauding Indians, and Mercado's core forces were inside a very strong fort in the heart of the town. Nevertheless, he was only able to hold out for two hours before hastily evacuating to the American side of the Rio Grande, where he surrendered his forces to the Amercan officer in charge there, genral John Pershing. The corpses of the battlefield casualties were carted away and hastily buried in mass graves to prevent an outbreak of disease. Mercado had a large number of women and children with him - most of whom were Mexican soldaderas and their children, and these became refugees along with the troops. In this photograph, a woman bids a last farewell to Mexico before being herded off on a 70 mile walk to Marfa, Texas. Mexican federales and their families prepare for their trek to Marfa, Texas, where they were then herded into railroad cattle cars and carried off to a concentration camp at Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas. Looking out from behind the barbed wire that confined them inside of the concentration camp at Fort Bliss, Texas, Mexican refugees of the Battle of Ojinaga pose for photographs. The refugees became the objects of pity for some Americans, such as these soldiers who posed with some children in the camp. One of the principal leaders of the rebel forces in Ojinaga was a colonel Sanchez, shown here in a photo taken with Pancho Villa after the revolution.

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