Battle of Ciudad Juárez (1919)
| Third Battle of Ciudad Juarez | ||||||||
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| Part of the Mexican Revolution, Border War | ||||||||
 The Juarez Racetrack on June 16, 1919. Note the cannonball hole in the north cupola of the grandstand, caused by American artillery in El, Paso Texas |
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
 Villistas
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Carrancistas
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 United States
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
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Pancho Villa Felipe Ángeles
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Pablo González Garza
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James B. Erwin Selah H. R. Tompkins
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| Strength | ||||||||
| 9,500 revolutionary Pancho Villa | 7,300 mexican soldiers | 8,600 american soldiers | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| ~150 killed or wounded | 67 mexican soldiers and 27 civilians killed | 2 killed 10 wounded |
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The Third Battle of Ciudad Juarez, or simply the Battle of Juarez, was the final major battle involving the rebels of Francisco "Pancho" Villa. It began on June 15, 1919, when Villa attempted to capture the border city of Ciudad Juarez from the Mexican Army. During the engagement the Villistas provoked an intervention by the United States Army protecting the neighboring city of El Paso, Texas. The Americans routed the Villistas in what became the second largest battle of the Mexican Revolution involving the US, and the last battle of the Border War. With the American army closing in, the Villistas had no choice but to retreat. Pancho Villa then attacked Durango but lost again, so he retired to his home at Parral, Chihuahua in 1920, with a full pardon from the Carrancista government.
Following the Battle of Columbus and Gen. John J. Pershing's Mexican Expedition in 1916 and 1917, Pancho Villa's army was scattered across northern Mexico, but by 1918 he had assembled several hundred men and began attacking the Carrancistas again. The Villistas were mostly unsuccessful in their final campaign. Though they captured Parral and took several smaller towns, they chose not to attack the city of Chihuahua because of its large garrison. Instead, Villa turned his attention to Ciudad Juarez in the summer of 1919. According to Friedrich Katz, author of The Life and Times of Pancho Villa, his motivations for attacking Ciudad Juarez are unclear. Katz says that Villa wanted to put one of his generals, Felipe Ángeles, up to it because in the past he had spoken of the "need for reconciliation with the Americans" and the hope that the US would then "change its attitude" toward the Villistas. Katz also says that Villa may have chosen to attack Juarez because there was a smaller enemy garrison there than in Chihuahua, there was a large source of food and--possibly--to see if the Americans, just across the Rio Grande, were still as hostile as they had been during Pershing's campaign. The new Carrancista commander in northeastern Mexico, Gen. Juan Agustin Castro, was also factored in. According to Katz, Castro was not as aggressive as his predecessor and was "content to fortify himself in a few towns without ever taking offensive action." Therefore, Villa felt "relatively confident" that he could win the battle for Juarez without having to worry about Castro attacking him from the rear. Villa's army consisted of over 4,000 infantry and cavalry but he had no artillery support. The Carrancista forces, under Gen. Pablo González Garza, numbered nearly 3,000 and had fortified Juarez and occupied the citadel, Fort Hidalgo. Gen. Gonzalez also had artillery and two other important advantages: he would be fighting a defensive battle and was protected on the northern flank by El Paso and the American army.
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