The General and the Jaguar: Pershing's Hunt for Pancho Villa: A True Story of Revolution & Revenge

This book reads like a novel. It explains well the confusion around the anarchic movements of Villa, the Carrancistas under General Obregon, and Pershing's "punitive expedition" into the state of Chihuahua. Contrary to myth, Villa did not outfox the Americans. They dogged him, after his traumatic attack on Columbus, New Mexico in 1916, and almost caught him. Pershing stopped his push because of over-extended supply lines and the growing resistance of the Carrancista government to the American presence. Without saying as much, the book shows a moment in history where the American military and its supporters were tempted to exercise the right of empire and invade the rest of Mexico. The battle of Carrizal suggests the Americans might have bitten off more than they could chew if they had done that. The Carranza government, as well as potential guerrilla fighters all through Mexico, might have risen and struck back as one at American columns. The book is a fine work of research and tells the story through the eyes of revolutionaries, bandits, mercenaries, forced Mexican conscripts, and generals and citizens of both countries.

The General and the Jaguar is an absorbing and instructive book. It reads like a novel and is hard to put down. The first part of this book provides an informative survey of the history of Mexican governance in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Here Welsome sets the foundation for next part of the story - the events prior to and following the raid on Columbus, New Mexico in 1916. She provides an interesting and compelling story of reprisal and politics that enlightened me regarding US-Mexico relations. She illuminates the mind-set of men caught up in their own egos while devastating the lives of innocents around them. The final section of her book ties up the loose ends. The General and the Jaguar is a very readable composite of a lot of research and data about this part of US history. It provides information but doesn't push you to conclusions. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in US history that may have only a cursory understanding of US-Mexico relations.

This is a terrific story about the first attack on U.S. soil in the 20th century. It occurred 90 years ago and I was impressed by how much and how little things have changed in that span. The historical time and place (1916 Mexico and New Mexico) seems to be on the cusp of two separate eras. On one hand, you have real gun-toting, horse-riding revolutionaries who seem to be from the 1860s. On the other, you have an American army with a present day feel- political considerations manipulated them and modernity inspired them. About 40 years ago I was in Columbus and chatted with a couple locals who recalled the raid. They didn't strike me as quaint oldsters- one was still pretty incensed about it. Yet even then, Pancho Villa had become a kind of folk hero on both sides of the border. Now, Columbus has even named a park after him. Actually, Villa was as vile a creature as ever pulled on boots. He maintained his army by lethal coercion and his plunder and murder did no service to Mexico. By his own estimate, he was responsible for 43,000 deaths. However, only 18 Americans died in his notorious raid on Columbus. Indeed, many more Villistas were killed by the roused U.S. Army which had a base in town. Villa's troops had no training, little ammo and poor command. In every encounter with the gringos, 4 or 5 times as many Mexicans died as did Nortes- just like in the movies. The "Puntitive Expedition" was launched largely as a face-saving measure. Did it make sense? Probably not. Greater defensive measures along the border would have been a wiser investment. Pershing's forces came close to Villa a number of times, but he evaded them and holed up in a sympathetic ranch house. (Sound like Osama?) Pershing's forces were too cumbersome to move rapidly, yet too meager to control the country. I'm sure the troops handed out gum and candy, but they also ticked off the locals by searching their homes and sometimes demanding provisions for soldiers and horses. By its very nature, an occupying army must swagger and bully to maintain control. When a few get shot at, the ante is raised. Likely, some civilians in the War Department wondered why our troops weren't thanked for attempting to impose order during the turbulence that is now called the Mexican Civil War. Finally, the Puntitive Expedition was skirmishing with other Mexican armies. Pershing wanted vast reinforcments so he could have his way with the country. Wiser heads eased us out. A few months later, Black Jack was in France. This book is exceptionally well written with many superb character sketches. Through the illumination of a minor incident, we can gain deep insight into the politics of war.

THE GENERAL AND THE JAGUAR is a heck of a good book. It is a serious, spendidly researched work of history, but it is written as smoothly and fast paced as a thriller. This is an action filled story dealing with some famous names: Patton, Pershing, Villa. The best thing about it is that the story is all true. If you now and then like to read a book with brave heroes, murder, revenge, and suspense, but are tired of "action" novels following the same old formula, try THE GENERAL AND THE JAGUAR. You get the excitement and action, and as a bonus, you learn what happened in America and Mexico almost a hundred years ago.

In these days of American soldiers fighting in foreign lands, the story of how the United States of America became embroiled in the Mexican Revolution almost one hundred years ago is timely. Fresh from victory in the Spanish American War, full of pride and new quasi-colonial possessions, America was now enjoying one of our isolationist periods when we would prefer to sit back and let the world solve its own problems. The world was gearing up for war in the first decade of the 1900s. The British had finally concluded their operations in South Africa; the Japanese had handed the Russians the most decisive naval defeat since Trafalgar; and our neighbor to the south was in open revolt against its latest cobbled-together government. With foreign companies and foreign entrepreneurs owning more of Mexico than the Mexicans, the stage was set for one of those personalities of the people to take advantage of the situation and use it to his benefit. Enter Francisco "Pancho" Villa. Villa could be described as the Osama Bin Laden of his day. He raided, murdered and brutalized northern Mexico, and on a fateful day in March of 1916, crossed the border and attacked Columbus, New Mexico. His raid murdered innocent men and women and sent the borders states into panic. President Woodrow Wilson sent General John J. Pershing on a punitive expedition that quickly became so hamstrung with rules of engagement that it resembled our expedition fifty years later in Southeast Asia. The General & The Jaguar is an extensively researched and well-developed biography of not only Pershing and Villa but the supporting cast of characters on both sides that played at a game of chess in the Mexican state of Chihuahua for ten months. Eileen Welsome has taken great unbiased pains to portray each characters, both known and unknown, in a light that will let the reader arrive at their own verdict as to how the incidents of 1916-7 should be remembered. Armchair Interviews says: This is a work that should be required reading in every high school American history class.