The Battle of Ambos Nogales (The Battle of Both Nogales), or as it is known in Mexico La batalla del 27 de agosto (The Battle of 27 August), was an engagement fought on 27 August 1918 between Mexican military and civilian militia forces and elements of U.S. Army troops of the 35th Infantry Regiment, who were reinforced by the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, and commanded by Lt. Col. Frederick J. Herman. The American soldiers and militia forces were stationed in Nogales, Arizona, and the Mexican soldiers and armed Mexican militia were in Nogales, Sonora.DeRosey C. Cabell, "Report on Recent Trouble at Nogales, 1 September 1918", Battle of Nogales 1918, Pimeria Alta Historical Society (Nogales, AZ). See also DeRosey Cabell, "Memorandum for the Adjutant General: Subject: Copy of Records to be Furnished to the Secretary of the Treasury. 30 September 1918", PAHS. This battle was notable for being a significant confrontation between U.S. and Mexican forces during the Border War, which took place in the context of the Mexican Revolution and the First World War.
Prior to the late 1910s, the international border between the two Nogaleses was a wide-open boulevard named International Street, but during the course of the decade the violence associated with the Mexican Revolution and growing hysteria related to World War I brought stricter U.S. control of the border. Anti-foreign sentiment grew in the border region with the publicizing of the German Empire's Zimmermann telegram in February 1917. (Some U.S. military historians of the 10th Cavalry and 25th Infantry later claimed German military advisors encouraged Mexican rebels under General Francisco "Pancho" Villa to fight against the U.S. in Nogales.) Related to the World War I anti-foreign sentiment, the shooting deaths of Mexican nationals at the border by U.S. soldiers in Nogales in early 1918 increased racial tensions in the two border towns. As a result of the 27 August battle, the U.S. and Mexico agreed to divide the two border communities with a chain-link border fence, the first of many permanent incarnations of the U.S.–Mexico border wall between the two cities along the two countries' border.
Background U.S.–Mexico relations in Ambos Nogales during the Mexican Revolution
The outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 against the long-time rule of President Porfirio Díaz initiated a decade-long period of high-intensity military conflict along the U.S.–Mexico border, as different political/military factions in Mexico fought for power. The access to arms and customs duties from Mexican communities along the U.S.-Mexico border made towns such as Nogales, Sonora, important strategic assets. The capture of the key border city of Ciudad Juárez in 1911 by Mexican revolutionaries led by Francisco I. Madero (and his military commanders Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Pascual Orozco) led to the downfall of President Diaz and the elevation of Madero to president. The violent aftermath of Madero's assassination during a coup in 1913 again highlighted the importance of the U.S.-Mexico border, as battles for control of Mexican Nogales between Villistas and Carrancistas (forces of Gen. Venustiano Carranza, a former Villa ally) led to American involvement because of cross-border firing into the U.S.. This took place during the Battle of Nogales (1913) and again during the Battle of Nogales (1915). The inability of the various political factions in Mexico to reach consensus on fundamental political, social and economic reforms prevented the conclusion of the Mexican Revolution until a significant time after the 1918 Battle of Ambos Nogales.
During the November 1915 Battle of Nogales fought between the forces of Francisco Villa and Carranza (led by Gen. Álvaro Obregón and Gen. Plutarco Elías Calles), one U.S. serviceman, Pvt. Stephen B. Little, was killed by a stray bullet as U.S. troops guarded the border in Nogales from the violence in Mexico. The carrancistas won the battle over Villa's forces despite three-way firing across the border. Carrancista forces had received diplomatic recognition from the U.S. government as the legitimate ruling force in Mexico. Villa, who had previously courted U.S. recognition, then attacked the American border community of Columbus, New Mexico. This led directly to further border tensions as U.S. President Woodrow Wilson unilaterally dispatched the Punitive Expedition, under Gen. John Pershing, into the state of Chihuahua to apprehend or kill Villa. Although the manhunt for Villa was unsuccessful, small-scale confrontations in the communities of Parral and Carrizal nearly brought about a war between Mexico and the U.S. in the summer of 1916. Additionally, National Guard units of various states were deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border—including Nogales, Arizona—to bolster border security as the Punitive Expedition continued its operations in Chihuahua. The militarization of the border region during this time has led to this period—which includes the Mexican Revolution, the Punitive Expedition and the U.S. entry into World War I—being termed the so-called Border War.
Despite its initial policy of neutrality, various factors such as unrestricted submarine warfare and the publication of the Zimmermann telegram caused the U.S. to declare war on Germany in April 1917, entering World War I on the side of the Allied powers.
After the U.S. entered World War I, the 10th Cavalry was based at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, with elements of that regiment also being stationed in Camp Stephen Little, the army post just north of Nogales. The training and operations Pershing and his forces experienced during the Punitive Expedition prepared them for combat in the Western Front as the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF); consequently, many of the National Guard units deployed to guard the border during the Punitive Expedition were sent to other areas, including the European theater. To fill in the gap, different U.S. military units were deployed to the border, including the celebrated "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 10th Cavalry. Note: Library of Congress Number: 93-206790 The presence of the 10th Cavalry in Nogales is significant, as this unit was a key participant in the Battle of Carrizal, which could have served as the spark for a U.S.-Mexico War during the Punitive Expedition. Additionally, the presence of the battle-tested 10th Cavalry in the border community of Ambos Nogales—as opposed to joining the AEF at the Western Front—is also suggestive of the racial/social priorities of the U.S. at the time."African Americans in World War I," Oxford African American Studies Center (Oxford University Press U.S.A), accessed 8 January 2013, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/public/features/archive/0508/index.jsp
Besides the obvious concern with spill-over violence along the border, U.S. military leaders along the border carried out surveillance of German espionage activities. With the British interception of the Zimmermann telegram in 1917, the U.S. knew well of the German Empire's attempt to bring Mexico into the war on the side of the Central Powers. U.S. anxiety over Germany's overtures to Mexico notwithstanding, the war-weary Mexican nation was in a markedly disadvantaged position from which to engage in the sort of military reconquest of the U.S. Southwest (an area that had been Mexican national territory prior to the 1846–48 U.S.–Mexico War and its peace, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo) that was envisioned in the Zimmermann telegram. The seemingly interminable Mexican Revolution led to the devastation of the overall Mexican economy, causing food shortages throughout the nation (including northern Sonora) and a mass migration of Mexicans into the United States through ports of entry such as Nogales. Additionally, the 1916-17 Punitive Expedition vividly exposed the differences between the U.S. and Mexico in terms of logistics. Though recognized as the legitimate leader of the Mexican Republic, President Carranza did not control large swaths of territory—such as the regions held by Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Moreover, the U.S. use of motor vehicles and two airplanes during the Punitive Expedition stood in stark contrast to the conditions existing within the Mexican Federal Army and the various disparate militias, where weapons, bullets, uniforms and even food could often be in very short supply.
World War I and national security anxiety in the borderlands The U.S. entry into World War I led to a mass mobilization of national resources that was soon felt along the border. U.S. restrictions on foodstuffs limited what Nogales border crossers could take back into Mexico. Even as the violence and upheaval of the Mexican Revolution produced scarcity throughout Sonora, U.S. border authorities strictly enforced the restrictions and routinely arrested nogalenses (citizens of Nogales, Sonora) who attempted to smuggle contraband out of the U.S. In the summer of 1918 the U.S. government threatened to close the border if Mexican authorities refused to help stop the "food running"."May Close Border, Halt Food Runners", Nogales Herald, 22 June 1918. E.M. Lawton, U.S. consul in Nogales, Sonora, noted that wealthier Mexicans did not suffer the sort of deprivations that "the lower class of the people" felt during this difficult period of sacrifices for the U.S. war effort. Food shortages were common in Mexico during the Revolution. DeRosey C. Cabell, "Report on Recent Trouble at Nogales, 1 September 1918", Battle of Nogales 1918, Pimería Alta Historical Society (PAHS), Nogales; Parra, Carlos F., "Valientes Nogalenses: The 1918 Battle Between the U.S. and Mexico That Transformed Ambos Nogales", Journal of Arizona History, Vol. 51 (Spring 2010), 8-9.
U.S. involvement in the European war also led to formalization of security measures along the border. In an effort to exercise greater control over the border zone, the State Department called on American citizens to register for passports as soon as possible. These new regulations had a profound impact, as they halted the free transit across the open and unobstructed international line that had defined the relationship between Ambos Nogales. Moreover, entry into Nogales, Arizona, was now restricted to designated inspection stations along International Street, with soldiers posted at intervals along the international line to control human traffic into the U.S. For nogalenses who were accustomed to free passage between the two cities, these rules demanded a difficult adjustment that led to growing hostility between citizens of the two countries.
By August 1918 the U.S. State Department had tightened wartime control at the border by limiting passport-carrying Mexican laborers to two entries per day and restricting non-workers to one crossing per week. A Nogales newspaper reported that the new rules had "greatly curtailed traffic from the Mexican side of the international border, and there is universal weeping among retail merchants of Nogales, Arizona, who see 'panicky' times ahead, for those who depend on citizens of the other side of the international line, to swell their daily receipts". Although businesses in Nogales, Arizona, protested, the persons most affected were working-class nogalenses who depended on wages from their jobs in the U.S.