Postcards from Pancho Villa - Part 1 of 3
EL PASO, TEXAS (August 10, 1916) -- While Gen. Pershing was tearing around Mexico trying to find Pancho Villa, my grandfather Joseph L. Bachus got his best glimpse of the conflict south of the border through a series of postcards, the most popular of which were called Kavanaugh's War Postals.
What strikes me about these photographs is that they show the growing mechanization of modern warfare that would become all too familiar to the doughboys as they prepared for WW I and joined the fighting in France. While some scenes of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920 did look like something out of an western movie, including Lt. George Patton's famous gunfight with Villa's second-in-command, these postcards reveal the use of sophisticated military weaponry and tactics that were cutting edge for their day. Tanks, planes, and machine guns all made their appearance in these postals. There was a lot more to this bloody Mexican conflict than the stereotypical image of bandolier-chested banditos roaming the countryside. And the massive American build-up of forces and weapons shows that President Woodrow Wilson was more than just a bit concerned that the violence to the south would continue to spill over into the United States.
In August, Joe sent a batch of postcards home to his wife back in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which I've included below. In this heyday of postcards, the captions were typically written on the front of the card. Joe never sent these individually or wrote on them, but kept them together in a set for his wife. I've done my best to decipher any writing that appears on either side of the cards.
1. 1177 Yaqui Indians of Mexico
2. Unidentified Villistas
3. Part of the crowd gathered _________ (illegible) executions at Juarez
4. (W.M. Horne Co. El Paso, Tex.) 10th Cavalrymen who were captured at the Battle of Carrizal. Released by Mexico
5. (Kavanaugh's War Postals) Old Glory on Border Backed up by 200,000 Fighting Men
6. (Kavanaugh's War Postals) Mexican Raiders
7. (Kavanaugh's War Postals) Barberious Mexico
8. (Kavanaugh's War Postals) After the raid
It's important to remember that many of these postcards came from entrepreneurial photographers who may or may not have had historical integrity in mind when they took these pictures. I'll come back and add as much historically accurate detail to these as I continue to research this era for my next book, which I am calling CAPTAIN BECKER'S BORDER.
In the meantime, I recommend the book that my Latin American history professor friend, Eric Zolov of Stony Brook University, cites as the premier biography on Pancho Villa -- THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PANCHO VILLA by Friedrich Katz. Our fear of danger from south of the border, whether misplaced or not, casst a long shadow upon our nation's history.
NEXT WEEK: "Postcards from Pancho Villa: Part 2 of 3"
~~~