Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-07-21
jly14,

terly when he received word that
Angeles had been shot. He threat
ened reprisals and later aided in the
overthrow of the Carranza regime.
Villas real name was Doreteo
Orange. He was born in 1868 of
peon parentage in the little mining
town of Las Nievas. AS youth he
followed the trade of butcher until
the death of his father and then he
and his mother and sister went to
Western Chihuahua. There he be-
been told as to how he became an
outlaw but the one most generally
accepted Is that it was because he
killed a captain in one Of President
Diaz' regiments. DiaZ then placed a
price on his head. IT was at this
time that he changed his name to
Villa. He organized a band of out
laws and became a terror to the rich
land owners and mining men OF
Northern Chihuahua. robbing them
and sharing the spoils with his fol-
lowers and the impoverished poems.
When the Madero revolution
against Diaz occurred in 1910, Villa
became a military leader in that
movement. At one time he was ar
rested and sent to Mexico City by
1ChCL Oh NiStOlioLO 11uSl lac was
condemned to death by a military
court for characterization. Madero
saved his life. Villa later escaped
and fled across the Texas border.
Huerta became dictator after Ma
deros assassination in 1913 and when
Carranza revolted against Huerta in
Coahuila, Villa re-entered Mexico to
fight for Carranza and organize a
campaign against the man who had
imprisoned him. Poems flocked to
his standard and he is said to have
gathered an army Of $4,000 men.
Villas first great victory against
Huerta troops was at Ojinaga. After
the battle, 1000 men and eight gen.
erals Of the Federal army took refuge
in the United States and were in
termed. In other fights, including
San Pedro, de las Colonias, Paredon
and Torreon, Villa was also triumph
ant. Then came an estrangement be-
tween Villa and CarranZa and when
the latter made his triumphal entry
into Mexico City, following the re-
tirement of Huerta, the bandit lead
err declared war upon the new presi-
dent. Villa had been one Of the in
dependent chiefs who had made and
formulated the plan of Guadalupe
which made Carranza first chief of
the Constitutionalist forces.
With Emilio Zapata, another BAN
dit chieftain opposed to Huerta, Villa
made common cause. The two occu-
pied Mexico City with their troops,
forcing Carranza's retirement to Vera
Cruz. General Alvaro Obregon. later
successor to de, la Huerta to the pres
idency, and loyal to Carranza, led an
army out to meet them. At Celaya,
Irapuato and Cilao he defeated the
Villa -Zapata forces. In these battles.
Obregon lost an arm and Villa lost
his prestige as a commander. The
Villa and Zapata followers were dis
persed. One disaster followed anoth-
er and Villa retreated across the
mountains to Sonora where he joined
forces with the Yaqui chieftain
Urbalejo.
In the years that followed, and up
to the time Of the Columbus, N. NJ,
raid, Villas influence as a military
leader steadily waned. OBJECTIONS
from Villas ranks continued. many
of his generals leaving him and ac-
cepting the amnesty Of the Carranza
government. Villa sent his wife
across the border and with only a
few hundred men resumed the bandit