The Nevill Ranch raid occurred on the night of March 25, 1918, and was the last serious attack on a Texas ranch by Mexican rebels during the Bandit War. It is not certain, but there was reason to believe that Villistas were responsible for the raid in which two people were murdered. Afterwards, the rebels withdrew to the village of Pilares, Chihuahua, in Mexican territory, under pursuit by a group of United States cavalry. A small battle was fought at Pilares on the following day, several more people were killed, and the Americans burned the village before they returned to Texas. Background From the beginning of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, raids into Texas by Mexican bandits became very common. After the Brite Ranch Raid, on December 25, 1917, the Big Bend region was on high alert. Three people had been murdered on Christmas day--Villistas from the small border town of Porvenir were thought to be responsible so, on January 27, 1918, Texas Rangers and US Cavalry went to the settlement, surrounded the village, and began searching it. Later accounts by some of the women of the village, alleged that while the soldiers were checking the houses, the Texas Rangers, under Captain Monroe Fox, gathered up fifteen Mexican men and took them to a nearby hill where they were executed without evidence of their involvement in banditry. (Archaeological digs in 2015 would suggest the US Cavalry discharged their firearms on the site.) News of the Porvenir Massacre quickly spread on the Mexican side of the border, leading to some speculation that the attack on Nevill Ranch may have been in retaliation, being that many of the raiders had lived in Porvenir or had family there. Nevill Ranch was owned by Edwin W. Nevill and located about six miles northwest of Porvenir, along the Rio Grande river. Being isolated, there were no neighbors nearby and the lower ranch complex, where the attack occurred, had no telephone. Nevill lived there with his wife and 5 children. The day of the raid he was on the ranch with his eldest son, Glenn, as well as his Mexican servant, Rosa Castillo, and her husband and three children. Following the raid at Brite Ranch, Edwin moved his wife, Anna, his son, Thomas and three daughters, Edith, Grace, and Lois to a home in Van Horn. The Raid On March 25, 1918, while on garrison duty