División del Norte

When the Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, the call to arms from Francisco Madero led to the creation of various factions in Mexico. The famous División del Norte was led by none other than the illustrious Doroteo Arango, better known to history as Pancho Villa. Never an "arm chair general" (this often describes a general that is general staff's as compared to those that direct troops in the field of battle as for example Victoriano Huerta compared to his subordinates) Pancho Villa often led his División del Norte to battle.

The División del Norte was in effect a total army rather than a regular division. Villa's troops were assigned military ranks, outfitted with hospital trains and horse ambulances (called Servicio sanitario and said to be the first employed in Mexico), used the railroads built during the Díaz administration to move quickly fom one engagement to the other, and unlike some other revolutionary groups, had many machine guns and even an artillery unit (captured from the Mexican Federal Army and Rurales). Villa attempted to supply a horse to each infantryman, rather than only his cavalry detachments (Los dorados) in order to increase the speed of movement of his army, thus creating an early version of mobile infantry, or a late version of dragoons. Numerous foreign mercenaries served in the Falange extranjero (foreign legion) of the División, including such notables as Ivor Thord-Gray and the son of Giuseppe Garibaldi.

The División del Norte at its height numbered some 50,000 men. This was the largest revolutionary force ever amassed in the Americas. Pancho Villa's notoriety with no doubt played an important part to recruiting such large numbers of men. Despite having such numerical advantage, the División del Norte was defeated at the Battle of Celaya on April 1915.

Facing the División del Norte (25,000 Villistas at that time) on Celaya was General Álvaro Obregón with fewer men. The outcome of the battle came to the favor of Obregón who used defensive tactics from current European battle reports of World War I The División del Norte with its cavalry charges was no match for well placed barbed wire, trenches, artillery and machine gun nests.

Sources

• The Course of Mexican History: Seventh Edition Michahel Meyer