On March the 9, 1916, Villa's forces attacked the town of Columbus, New Mexico, on United States soil, in retaliation for an arms deal that had gone sour - according to Mexican tradition. American popular wisdom has it that the raid was an expression of Villa's frustration with the fact that the United States was backing Carranza.

Supposedly, Villa's troops did not do very well, and were routed by American defenders - but not until they largely laid waste to the town. The persons who had sold them movie blanks in place of real ammo - setting off the Villa reprisal against Columbus - happened to be out of town at the time of the raid. So they escaped the Mexicans' revenge.

As a result of this raid, a call to arms was issued by the Americans, who sent a well equipped army into Chihuahua to try and chase Villa down. He eluded them by allegedly following them around and hiding behind the huge cloud of dust that they kicked up with their mule trains and motorized vehicles. The Americans, meanwhile, were taking this opportunity to test all of their fancy, modernized military equipment in preparation for their entry in WW1. They never caught up with Villa, however.

Legend has it that Villa, disguised as a peasant, actually walked right up to Pershing, who had met him on several earlier occasions. Pershing failed to recognize him out of uniform, while Villa blithely performed his own spying operations, rather than relying on the work of others. Pershing withdrew, and Villa managed to stay in the field for four more years before finally surrendering to the Mexican government.