page_title: Battle of Celaya
section_title: Commanders and Armies
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Celaya / Commanders and Armies
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped picture of Álvaro Obregón, former president of Mexico. Español: Fotografía recortada de Álvaro Obregón, ex presidente mexicano.
context_page_description: The Battle of Celaya, 6–15 April 1915, was part of a series of military engagements in the Bajío during the Mexican Revolution between the winners, who had allied against the regime of Gen. Victoriano Huerta and then fought each other for control of Mexico. The Constitutionalists under Gen. Venustiano Carranza faced off against the Army of the División del Norte of Pancho Villa. The first battle of Celaya was fought April 6–7, 1915, near Celaya in present-day Guanajuato, Mexico. The second battle of Celaya was fought April 15–16. These encounters between the Constitutionalist Army led by Gen. Álvaro Obregón, Venustiano Carranza's best general, and the army under the command of Pancho Villa were crucial in determining the outcome of the Mexican Revolution.
  Obregón chose the site of battle, arrived in advance to prepare it and kept to his defensive strategy, knowing Villa's propensity for blind cavalry charges over an open field. Villa's defeat was the result of his multiple tactical miscalculations and overconfidence in his much larger, undefeated army's ability to best Obregón's army under any circumstances.
context_section_description: The commander of the Constitutionalist forces was Álvaro Obregón. Obregón, like Villa, had no formal military education but had served in a professional army. His military career began when he belatedly joined pro-Madero forces in 1912 to put down the anti-Madero rebellion of Pascual Orozco, but to his regret he had not joined Madero's original call for revolution in 1910.
  His military service was quite distinguished and he initially left the army as a colonel. He deftly navigated the shifting political alliances that marked the early days of the Mexican Revolution. Eventually he was appointed to be the senior general in the Carranza administration. Obregón often enlisted the help of military advisers and was an avid student of the latest military technological and tactical advancements. One of his most respected advisers was Col. Maximilian Kloss, a German immigrant turned army officer. Kloss’ military advice and remarkable insight into the nature of Villa's style of war would prove decisive at Celaya. Obregón himself was known to be an urbane, intellectual person.
  Villa, by contrast, was nearly illiterate and had never served in a professional army. However, he complemented his staff with Gen. Felipe Angeles, a capable career military officer. After defecting to Villa's División del Norte from Venustiano Carranza's Constitutionalist Army in March 1914, Angeles became one of Villa's most trusted military advisers. Unlike Villa, Angeles was more careful and calculating. Privately, he thought that Villa was often too rash in his decision making. Angeles' initial absence due to an injury while riding his horse would prove critical at the beginning of the Battle of Celaya.
  The army of Pancho Villa, the División del Norte, which had fought alongside the Constitutionalist Army (1913–14) to oust Victoriano Huerta, was not an army in the modern, industrialized sense. In addition to their military component, Villa's army also included a large component of camp followers or soldaderas, who followed behind the main military force. These camp followers were often refugees, soldiers’ wives and family, and support personnel. This often slowed down Villa's military forces and he eventually banned them. Villa himself was an excellent horseman from his early days as a bandit, and tended to favor his cavalry and rely upon its speed to quickly maneuver around an enemy force. Before the Battle of Celaya, Villa's forces had never been defeated in a major battle against its opponents.
  Obregón was a skilled military commander and understood that if Villa could be lured into a decisive battle, his forces could be completely destroyed. Villa had consulted with his chief military adviser, Felipe Angeles, who attempted to convince him to avoid a major set-piece battle. History would vindicate Angeles’ military expertise, as Villa's forces and tactics were no match for Obregón's use of modern weaponry and tactics. Reportedly, Villa's rationale for insisting on engaging Obregón's forces was that he did not want to appear weak or inhibit the fighting spirit of his men. However, his actual words to Gen. Angeles cannot be completely verified, as no actual record of their conversation exists. Obregón's men made excellent use of barbed wire and field-expedient obstacles to slow, disrupt and maneuver Villa's forces into the fields of fire prepared for them. As a fighting force, the cavalry and infantry elements of the Villistas were highly mobile in early 20th-century terms. Villa used the rail system to maneuver his troops quickly, just as the Rurales, the crack rural police force of Porfirio Díaz, were deployed before the Revolution.
caption: Constitutionalist Army Gen. Álvaro Obregón, whose victory over Pancho Villa propelled him to national prominence. He became president of Mexico in 1920.
exif: {}