as its executive officer, asked and received permission from Slocum to pursue the withdrawing Mexicans. Disregarding the rules of engagement, he led two troops 15 miles into Mexico in pursuit of a force approximately six times the size of his, engaged Villa's rearguard four times, and inflicted some losses on them before withdrawing back across the border after running low on ammunition and water. Tompkins was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal and the Distinguished Service Cross in 1918 for this action. Captain A.W. Brock and his troops from Company 1 of the National Guard arrived as the sun came up. They were alerted by the 19 year old telephone switchboard operator, Susie Parks, who was trapped with her baby in the Courier Newspaper office during the battle. She was later awarded a tribute for her bravery by Mrs. L.B. Prince of Santa Fe, (wife of former territorial governor of New Mexico), and the Daughters of the American Revolution on August 27, 1916 at the Crystal Theater in Columbus. Aftermath On March 9, 1916, after the attack, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Newton Diehl Baker, Jr. to fill the vacant position of United States Secretary of War. In spite of Villa proclaiming that the raid was a success by evidence of captured arms and equipment from the camp, which included over 300 rifles and shotguns, 80 horses, and 30 mules, the raid was a tactical disaster for him with ill-afforded casualties of 90 to 170 dead from an original force that had numbered 484 men, including at least 63 killed in action and at least seven more who later died from wounds during the raid itself. Of those captured during the raid, seven were tried; of those, one sentence was commuted to life in prison; and six were convicted and executed by hanging. Two were hanged on June 9, 1916; four were hanged on June 30, 1916. The sixty-three dead Villa soldiers and all the dead Villa horses that were left behind in Columbus after the raid were dragged south of the stockyards, soaked with kerosene and burned. Various official reports state that the American dead included 8 or 10 or 11 soldiers and 7 or 8 civilians and the names on the lists are not consistent. The United States government wasted no time in responding. National Guard units from around the United States were called up and by the end