Qualla: Village of Columbus and Camp Furlong

Village of Columbus and Camp Furlong: Introduction

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. In the pre-dawn darkness of March 9, 1916, Lieutenant John Lucas heard the gunfire and ran from his quarters without stopping for his boots. What followed would change the course of American military history. While Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa's forces swept through the sleeping border town of Columbus, New Mexico, Lucas set up his machine guns barefoot in the town's main street and poured devastating fire into the raiders. By sunrise, the attack was over, but its consequences were just beginning. Columbus became the first and only community in the continental United States to be attacked by a foreign military force in the twentieth century, and the American response would transform a sleepy cavalry outpost into the birthplace of modern military aviation and the training ground for the general who would lead American forces in World War I.

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Village of Columbus and Camp Furlong: A Revolution Spills North

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. To understand the attack on Columbus, you must understand the chaos consuming Mexico in 1916. The Mexican Revolution had been raging for six years, a brutal civil war that saw governments rise and fall, revolutionary factions turn on each other, and violence surge along the 1,900...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Village of Columbus and Camp Furlong: Three Hours Before Dawn

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Camp Furlong, headquarters of the 13th U.S. Cavalry, sat at the edge of Columbus, a dusty town of perhaps 400 residents. Colonel H.J. Slocum commanded the post, but his forces were stretched thin along the border. At 4:11 a.m., Villa's raiders struck. They hit the town and the mi...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Village of Columbus and Camp Furlong: Pershing's Expedition

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. The American response was swift and massive. Within days, President Wilson ordered a Punitive Expedition into Mexico to capture Villa. Command went to Brigadier General John J. Pershing, a career officer who would soon become the most important American military commander of his ...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Village of Columbus and Camp Furlong: America's First Air War

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Columbus holds a distinction that often surprises visitors: it was home to the first tactical military airfield in United States history. The 1st Aero Squadron arrived with eight Curtiss JN-3 aircraft, primitive biplanes that were pressed into service for reconnaissance over the ...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Village of Columbus and Camp Furlong: What Remains

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Today, the Village of Columbus and Camp Furlong exist as a National Historic Landmark District, designated in 1975. Pancho Villa State Park preserves several structures that survived the 1916 raid: the 1902 U.S. Customs House, adobe buildings from the Camp Furlong era, and the Ca...

Image: Jonathunder | Public domain