Qualla: Battle of Ambos Nogales

Battle of Ambos Nogales: Introduction

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elnogalense, CC BY-SA 3.0. At 4:10 in the afternoon on August 27, 1918, Zeferino Gil Lamadrid tried to walk home to Mexico. The carpenter carried a bulky parcel that an American customs inspector wanted to search. Mexican officers shouted at him to stay put. American soldiers raised their rifles. Someone fired a shot, and within minutes the twin cities of Nogales erupted into a battle that would claim lives on both sides and erect the first permanent fence between the United States and Mexico. The carpenter sprinted away from the chaos he had inadvertently ignited. He would die seventeen years later in a bar fight, just blocks from where an international incident began over a package that was never inspected.

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Image: Elnogalense | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Ambos Nogales: The Boulevard Between Nations

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elnogalense, CC BY-SA 3.0. Before the late 1910s, International Street was exactly what its name suggested: a wide-open boulevard connecting two cities that happened to occupy different countries. Nogalenses moved freely between Arizona and Sonora, shopping, working, and visiting family without documentati...

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Image: Elnogalense | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Ambos Nogales: Blood Before the Battle

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author (Wikipedia uploader was Lyricmac at en.wikipedia), Public domain. Two deaths in the months preceding August poisoned relations between the border guards. On New Year's Eve 1917, Francisco Mercado, an off-duty Mexican customs agent, tried to cross into Arizona. An American sentry called for him to stop, in English. Mercado kept walking. The sold...

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Image: Unknown authorUnknown author (Wikipedia uploader was Lyricmac at en.wikipedia) | Public domain

Battle of Ambos Nogales: Three Hours of Fire

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Western Newspaper Union, Photographer (NARA record: 556413), Public domain. The shot that started everything may have been a warning fired into the air. Private William Klint of the 35th Infantry raised his Springfield rifle to force Gil Lamadrid back for inspection. Mexican customs officer Francisco Gallegos saw his countryman drop to the ground and gra...

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Image: Western Newspaper Union, Photographer (NARA record: 556413) | Public domain

Battle of Ambos Nogales: The White Flag Over the Customs House

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elnogalense, CC BY-SA 3.0. By 7:45 that evening, with their mayor dead and U.S. troops holding the high ground, Mexican officials raised a white flag over their customs building. Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Herman, himself wounded in the thigh during the fighting, ordered an immediate ceasefire. Snipers o...

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Image: Elnogalense | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Ambos Nogales: The First Wall

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tjpalmer, CC BY-SA 4.0. General DeRosey Cabell's investigation recommended a two-mile fence down the middle of International Street. He wrote that it would do more to prevent friction than any other measure. Governor Calles agreed. The Nogales Herald reported that both officials believed the August clas...

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Image: Tjpalmer | CC BY-SA 4.0