8 - WWI Fort Wingate and the Mexican Revolution

For most of 1914, over 3,700 Mexican men, women, and children found refuge at Fort Wingate, New Mexico.. Their ordeal began after fleeing a ten-day battle in the Mexican border town of O

Fort Wingate and the Mexican Revolution

Of Refugees and Counterrevolutions: Fort Wingate and the Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) mocked America’s

proclaimed neutrality Plotted in Texas as much as in Mexico, the

Revolution depended on a porous U.S border for arms and funds—and especially as a safe haven if events should turn sour

For most of 1914, over 3,700 Mexican men, women, and children found refuge at Fort Wingate, New Mexico They were the largest

number of detained refugees held in the United States during the Mexican Revolution Their ordeal began after fleeing a ten-day battle in the Mexican border town of Ojinaga, Chihuahua, (across from Presidio, Texas) on January 10, 1914 Ojinaga’s defenders, forces under General Pascual Orozco, loyal to President Victoriano Huerta, faced certain death if captured by insurgent leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa and his army

General Orozco’s escape allowed him to return to Mexico City and command of more troops loyal to President Huerta; however, the bulk of officers and soldiers at Ojinaga as well as noncombatants

(including hundreds of women and children along with disabled and ill persons) descended on Fort Bliss, Texas, in mid-January 1914

The internees were in sad shape The base sanitation officer struggled to convince the arrivals to submit to vaccinations to prevent

the spread of infections and to inoculate against typhoid While the officer suggested “military force may be necessary” to ensure

compliance, the mission directive issued by Brigadier General Hugh Scott said the Mexicans were to “be treated kindly and courteously” and cared for “as well as possible by the means provided by the War Department.” At Fort Bliss, the daily bill for food and housing came to between $1,600 and $2,000

After spending a month at Fort Bliss, the detainees were

relocated farther from the border to Fort Wingate, twelve miles east of Gallup, New Mexico The census of the interned listed 3,755 Mexicans, and for the next seven months they resided at what was officially

called “The Mexican Detention Camp.” During their stay several federal agencies, and even the White House, had a voice in decisions affecting their status, but the Army directed their day-to-day lives

To the officers and soldiers assigned to Fort Wingate, logistics and administration mattered most The immediate problem was re-activating and making habitable a base that had been closed since

1911 Army cooks and an array of support staff had to be hastily

assembled, and clothing and bedding secured for the detainees

Perhaps the most vexing problem of all: establishing rules for how Huerta’s army-in-captivity aired grievances The six interned Mexican generals sought privileges in accommodations and authority that

exceeded what the fort’s commander, a major, and his executive

officer, a captain, could permit Following some testy exchanges, the generals settled into a routine at Fort Wingate Some of the Mexican soldiers remained disgruntled, though, and escape attempts rose

throughout the summer

At headquarters of the Army’s Southern Department at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, caring for the internees proved an unwanted

assignment and a drain on their purse Shuttering the Mexican

Detention Camp became a priority A dispatch from the Southern

Department told the commander of Fort Wingate, Major Elliott, on July

8, “I want to reduce the number of Mexican prisoners in your hands as much as possible and as promptly as possible.”

The Army sought a quick end to the responsibility of holding detainees But the internees’ status resided with two other federal departments: Labor (immigration office) and State (foreign relations)

As plans for resolving the detainees’ status moved forward, the

Adjutant General of the Army sent a letter on July 28, 1914 to remind the newly appointed commander of the Southern Department,

Brigadier General Trasker Bliss, about interagency cooperation Prior to any release, the Immigration Service in El Paso was to be informed

“sufficiently in advance to insure them the inspection required by law

is conducted.”

An Immigration Service officer, a Mr Gurley, eventually headed

“a board of special inquiry to investigate their status under the

Immigration laws.” Among detainees seeking to remain in the United States, the majority could be admitted “contingent upon their ability to promptly secure employment.” In late August the El Paso office of the Immigration Service noted that “the Santa Fe Railway Company (main lines) requires a large number of track laborers, and it is probable this class can in the main secure immediate employment.” Significantly, Pancho Villa also recognized the internees as a potential labor pool and sought their return to northern Mexico

For all internees, several events complicated negotiations In mid-July President Huerta resigned and went into exile Some of his supporters fled as well, but most aligned with other factions in the civil war In this period of shifting alliances, the Mexican officers detained at Fort Wingate sent letters to the presidential palace and to secretary of Mexico’s army and navy pledging their loyalty to the regime and

disassociating themselves from Huerta The reply brought mixed news

On August 31, 1914, Mexico’s Consul in El Paso responded for the new government of President Venustiano Carranza The non-commissioned soldiers could return “to any part of the country,” but “the officers will not be desirable in Mexico.”

Beginning in late May the State Department had agreed “to take the matter [of Mexican detainees] under further consideration.” It took until October to close the Mexican Detention Camp, which is quite prompt considering neither government trusted the other Moreover,

the White House continued to hold up formal recognition of Mexico’s new president Since the fall of 1913 the White House had aided

Carranza through selective application of neutrality and permitted arms and monies to reach him in their plan to topple Huerta; however, there was no formal recognition of Carranza’s government until

October 1915 For the Army, though, the absence of diplomatic

relations did not keep them from accepting Mexican Consul R E

Muzquiz’s offer to receive most detainees wanting to return to Mexico

The last detainee released from Fort Wingate, General José Inés Salazar, left the camp for the Bernalillo County jail on November 20,

1914 and the custody of U.S Marshal A H Hudspeth Salazar faced perjury charges related to court statements made in a May 1914 trial and an August affidavit about his military role at Ojinaga A new trial awaited him in El Paso on November 30 But on the evening of

November 16, two masked men overpowered a guard and freed him from the Albuquerque jail He surfaced publicly on December 5 in El Paso when he joined with other exiles backing a return by President Huerta and his military chief Pascual Orozco For six months in 1915 he sought to mobilize support and field troops in Chihuahua, but the arrest

of Huerta and Orozco in late June 1915 extinguished his dimming

hopes of any part in their counterrevolution

General Salazar returned to New Mexico in July 1915,

surrendered to law enforcement, and spent nearly five months

incommunicado at the penitentiary in Santa Fe A federal jury acquitted him of perjury charges on December 9, 1915 Just nine days later, a jury acquitted six defendants named as conspirators in Salazar’s

jailbreak

A seventh alleged conspirator, Celestino Otero, and the only one lacking an alibi, never made it to trail He was shot and killed by

another alleged accomplice on January 31, 1915 Just a year later, on January 25, 1916, after deliberating all of twelve minutes, a jury

announced that accused murderer, Socorro lawyer Elfego Baca, had acted in self-defense in shooting and killing Otero The link between Elfego Baca and these events is straightforward Baca served as

President Huerta’s well-paid legal representative in the Southwest in the first half of 1914, earning a reported $25,000 for acting as General Salazar’s attorney But Baca’s rumored role as organizer of the

jailbreak and Otero’s executioner is only speculation The incidents added to Baca’s folklore

Freed in December 1915, Salazar returned to northern Mexico and switched allegiances He now backed his former arch-enemy, Pancho Villa In September 1916 he became Villa’s chief of staff,

largely responsible for holding his army together during General

Pershing’s Punitive Expedition In April 1917 he commanded over a thousand troops, but that month he suffered the first of a series of

defeats By August 9, 1917, only three soldiers remained with General José Inés Salazar, and all perished in a shoot out that day

The Albuquerque Morning Journal followed Salazar’s

ups-and-downs for more than a year after his jailbreak, but his death went unnoticed By August 1917 New Mexicans were focused on war

mobilization and its impact on their lives While tensions along the border occasionally flared over the next several years, most New

Mexicans shifted their attention toward America’s needs and separated themselves from the ebb-and-flow of the Mexican Revolution

© 2008 by David V Holtby

Vaccinating refugees on arrival at the border, photograph, Pershing’s Punitive Expedition,

1916 Collection (PICT 986-015-0002), Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, The University of New Mexico

A partial list of the refugees from the Battle of Ojinaga (January 1914) Note how few are from Chihuahua National Archives and Records Administration [NARA] I, Record Group 393, Fort Wingate, Box 11

Efforts by the Mexican consulate to ease the financial burden of caring for the refugees represented a cooperative approach that likely helped resolve their status in the absence

of formal recognition of the new government in Mexico NARA I, Record Group 393, Fort Wingate, Box 11

Senior officers who backed the wrong side now seek to pledge their support to the new regime of President Venustiano Carranza The collapse of the Huerta government in mid- July 1914 left the refuges on a loosing side in the revolution They quickly contacted the interim president to express their support and await further instructions The new

government wanted no officers returned to Mexico, but the soldiers and their families were permitted re-entry NARA I, Record Group 393, Fort Wingate, Box 11