The Great Call-Up: The Guard, the Border, and the Mexican Revolution by Charles H. Harris & Louis R. Sadler

Author:Charles H. Harris & Louis R. Sadler [Harris, Charles H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2015-01-20T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

El Paso

El Paso was the principal National Guard concentration point on the border. While the Brownsville District contained more troops, some fifty thousand, they were distributed all the way from Brownsville through Llano Grande, the McAllen, Mission, Pharr triangle to Rio Grande City, a distance of 120 miles. By contrast, in and around El Paso were stationed more than forty thousand men. Brigadier General George Bell, Jr., commanded the El Paso District.

The city was the commercial hub of the Southwest besides being a major rail center. And Fort Bliss was the premier military installation on the international boundary.1 On March 18, it housed the 8th U.S. Cavalry, less Troops I, K, and M; Batteries A and E, 5th U.S. Field Artillery; the 7th U.S. Infantry; Headquarters and Companies E, F, G, and H, 20th U.S. Infantry; and the 103rd Company U.S. Coast Artillery. At Camp Cotton in El Paso were the 23rd U.S. Infantry, Companies H, I, K, and L, 20th U.S. Infantry, and the 69th Company U.S. Coast Artillery. Troops were also stationed in localities downriver: at Ysleta, Troop I, 8th U.S. Cavalry; at Fabens, Troop K, 8th U.S. Cavalry, and the 41st Company U.S. Coast Artillery; at Dick Love’s ranch Troop E, 6th U.S. Cavalry; at Hot Springs Troop F, 6th U.S. Cavalry.2

What loomed large in the army’s thinking was the question of just how loyal the Hispanic population was. On June 18, bugle calls in Juárez summoned Mexicans to the colors. This produced a veritable stampede in south El Paso—“virtually every Mexican in south El Paso ran for street cars and jitney busses, climbing on much like firemen to a fire truck, and hurried to answer the call.”3 In addition, many Mexican exiles volunteered to fight for their country in the event of war. The U.S. Army not just in El Paso but all along the border thus had figuratively to keep looking over its shoulder against the possibility of Hispanic unrest.

The first National Guard unit reached Fort Bliss on June 18: Battery A New Mexico National Guard, which was transferred from Columbus. The battery had four 3" guns and it supplemented the two batteries of the 5th U.S. Field Artillery, equipped with 4.7" howitzers, sent from Fort Sill, Oklahoma.4 But the real National Guard influx resulted from the War Department’s order on June 25 for fifteen thousand guardsmen to entrain immediately for border service. Beginning on July 1, a steady procession of troop trains brought a significant number of them to El Paso. Among the first arrivals was Battery B New Jersey Field Artillery (four 3" field pieces, five officers, 168 enlisted men, 120 horses, and 16 mules), who detrained on July 1 and went into camp near Fort Bliss. However, the next morning just after breakfast the dumbfounded guardsmen received orders to break camp, get back on the train (which they accomplished by ten o’clock that morning), and proceed to Douglas, Arizona, because the army had changed its mind about stationing the New Jersey National Guard at El Paso.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.