Qualla: Raid on Glenn Springs

Raid on Glenn Springs: Introduction

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The celebrations had ended and Glenn Springs slept. It was just after eleven on the night of May 5, 1916, when the knock came at C.G. Compton's door. A man asked if there were soldiers in town. Compton said no. Minutes later, gunfire erupted and voices cried out 'Viva Villa!' and 'Viva Carranza!' through the darkness. The raid on Glenn Springs had begun, and before dawn, four Americans would be dead, two would be taken hostage into Mexico, and the small settlement in the Big Bend country would become a ghost town waiting to happen.

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Raid on Glenn Springs: A Town Built on Wax and Hope

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Glenn Springs was never much of a town. Located just south of Chilicotal Mountain, it centered around a small spring named for the first Anglo settler in the area, who had been killed by Comanches at the very site that now bore his name. About eighty people called Glenn Springs h...

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Raid on Glenn Springs: The Revolution Comes Calling

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Lieutenant Colonel Natividad Alvarez led somewhere between sixty and eighty men toward Glenn Springs that night. Though Alvarez followed Pancho Villa, he had recruited both Villistas and Carrancistas on his march from Torreon to Texas. The timing was deliberate. Cinco de Mayo bro...

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Raid on Glenn Springs: Three Hours of Fire

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The nine-man cavalry squad under Sergeant Charles E. Smyth abandoned their tents and took up positions in an old adobe building when the shooting started. For nearly three hours they held off the attackers until the raiders set fire to the roof, which was thatched with candelilla...

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Raid on Glenn Springs: Into Mexico

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Captain Wood was at his ranch three miles away when he heard gunfire. Thinking it was celebration, he waited. When the shooting continued, he rode toward town with his friend Oscar de Montel, arriving just as the soldiers retreated. They dismounted and walked toward the burning g...

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Raid on Glenn Springs: The Ghost That Remains

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The raid prompted President Woodrow Wilson to mobilize the Texas National Guard to reinforce federal forces along the border. The Army established a permanent cavalry camp at Glenn Springs in 1916, maintaining it until 1920 when border tensions finally eased. But the settlement n...

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