The Columbus courier. [volume] (Columbus, Luna County, N.M.) 1911-1920, 1916-03-24
BRIEF ACCOUNT OF
THE VILLA ATTACK
Lieutenant CGStIemdn The
Real Hero

Early Thursday morning March
9. a few minutes after four o'clock,
about 1000 Mexican bandits, UNI
der the command of Pancho Villa,
attacked Columbus, killing nine
teen Americans, and wounding a
large number of others. 1t is inn
possible for us to publish anything
like a complete report of the mas
sacre and we shall only try to give
a brief outline of what happened.
Every citizen of Columbus has
an exciting story Of their expert
ence. but it will make u narrative
too long to undertake to include
them Those who are alive had a
miraculous escape and many saved
their lives only by pretending that
they were dead, the bandits leav-
ing them, thinking that they had
been murdered.
The Mexicans entered the town
from the southwest. The arroyo
running north and south, between
Columbus proper, and the Rice ad-
dition, and running south parallel
to the camp which was occupied
by four troops of the Thirteenth
Cavalry, was occupied by a large
portion of the bandits. They used
this as protection against the re-
turn fire of the cavalry and them
selves opened fire upon the camp.
This held the attention of almost
all the soldiers, and at the same
time a large force entered town
and began to murder the citizens,
loot and burn.E Another band of
the bandits went to the cavalry
stables to try to take the horses
succeeding in getting away with
twenty or more of the horses.
Villa had planned the attack in
this way, thinking that it would
rive his men plenty of time to
loot and burn the town and then
his force i'm the arroyo could make
their way back to the line after
the forces from the stables and
town had made their getaway. In
this they We're only partly success
full
Lieut.. Castleman was the officer
of the day and was the only officer
On ogmp. He had a machine gun
put in the arroyo and as quick as
they were driven from this position
he took as much of his force as
possible and came into town. He
probably had fifty men, most OF
whom were members of Troop F.,
18th cavalry. He came in from
camp TO the Hoover hotel and inn
mediately opened fire upon the
MeNicanS, arriving just in time to
save the guests and those who
had gathered at the hotel. Lieu
tenant CastlemaR has received
very little mention for his part in
the battle but he was the man who
saved the town. The windows and
doors OF practically every bust
ness house in Columbus had been
broken in and were being looted
and aCstleman's men picked many
OF the bandits off as they came
from the doors loaded with plum
der. a better fighting force of
men than he had would have been
nard to find. They seemed cool,
ard made every shot count. They
were probably outrunlbered ten TO
one, tut that Only made the men
more eager to wipe them out. Cas-
tleman was the real hero of the
day and he certainly won the gra-
tltude of our citizens. So far
DIS is known only one Of his men
was killed. This wa a private in
Troop f.. He fell in the street
with a hole through his body. He
held on to his gun and tried to get
under cover. While trying to
crawl behind a building, another
bullet struck him, inflicting a
wound that meant death, but he
still held his gun and fired several
shots at the fleeing bandits. 1t
took the third shot to quiet his
effective rifle.
Lennon q Romney's store was
the first place looted. After ev-
erything Of value that they could