The Battle of Columbus (Burning of Columbus or the Columbus Raid), March 9, 1916, began as a raid conducted by remnants of Pancho Villa's Division of the North on the small United States border town of Columbus, New Mexico, located north of the border with Mexico. The raid escalated into a full-scale battle between Villistas and the United States Army. Villa himself led the assault, only to be driven back into Mexico by elements of the 13th Cavalry Regiment stationed at the town. The attack angered Americans, and President Woodrow Wilson ordered the Punitive Expedition in which the US Army invaded Mexico and defeated Villa's army, but ultimately failed to capture him. Battle After the 1915 Battle of Celaya during the Mexican Revolution, where Villa sustained his greatest defeat, the Division of the North was in a disorganised condition, wandering around northern Mexico foraging for supplies. Lacking the military supplies, money, and munitions he needed in order to pursue his war against Mexican President Venustiano Carranza, Villa planned the raid and camped his army of an estimated 1,500 horsemen outside of Palomas on the border three miles south of Columbus, which was populated by about 300 Americans and about as many Mexicans that had fled north from the advancing Villistas. The reasons for the raid have never been established with any certainty. An American kidnap victim travelling with the raiding party, Maude Hauke Wright, said that Villa came with 1,500 men but only attacked with about 600 because there was not enough ammunition for more raiders. At their camp, Villa sent spies into the town to assess the presence of U.S. military personnel. When the returning spies told him that only about thirty soldiers garrisoned Columbus (a significant error), Villa moved north and crossed the border about midnight. The garrison came from the 13th Cavalry Regiment usually stationed at Cavalry Camp Columbus, which was located immediately south of downtown and consisted of the headquarters troop, machine gun troop, and four of the seven rifle troops deployed to patrol the border, totaling in all 12 officers and 341 men, of which approximately 270 were combat troops. On this night, half were out of camp on patrol or other assignments Villa divided his force into two columns, most of which approached the town on foot, and launched a two-pronged attack on the town in the dark at 4:15 am on March 9.