Image taken on mountains of Cerro de La
Bufa in Zacatecas, Mexico.
As word of the utter annihilation
of one of the largest federal armies
in the field spread, common sol-
diers deserted and officers began
to switch sides, hoping to stay alive"
Cerro de La Bufa
Article By: Christopher Minster
T he Battle of Zacatecas was one of the key engagements of
the Mexican Revolution. After he had removed Francisco
Maderofrom power and ordered his execution, General Victori-
ano Huerta had seized the presidency. His grasp on power was
weak, however, because the rest of the major players Pancho
Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Alvaro Obregn and Venustiano Carran-
za were allied against him. Huerta commanded the relatively
well-trained and equipped federal army, however, and if he could
isolate his enemies he could crush them one by one.
In June of 1914 he sent a massive force to hold the town of
Zacatecas from the relentless advance of Pancho Villa and his
legendary Division of the North, which was probably the most
formidable army of those arrayed against him. Villa's decisive
victory at Zacatecas devastated the federal army and marked the
beginning of the end for Huerta.
President Huerta was fighting rebels on several fronts, the most
serious of which was the north, where Pancho Villa's Division of
the North was routing federal forces wherever they found them.
Huerta ordered General Lus Medina Barrn, one of his better
tacticians, to reinforce the federal forces at the strategically
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located city of Zacatecas. The old mining town was home to a
railway junction which, if captured, could allow the rebels to use
the railway to bring their forces to Mexico City.
Meanwhile, the rebels were quarreling amongst themselves.
Venustiano Carranza, self-proclaimed First Chief of the Revo-
lution, was resentful of Villa's success and popularity. When the
route to Zacatecas was open, Carranza ordered Villa instead to
Coahuila, which he quickly subdued. Meanwhile, Carranza sent
General Panfilo Natera to take Zacatecas. Natera failed misera-
bly, and Carranza was caught in a bind.
The only force capable of taking Zacatecas was Villa's famed Di-
vision of the North, but Carranza was reluctant to give Villa an-
other victory as well as control over the route into Mexico City.
Carranza stalled, and eventually Villa decided to take the city
anyway: he was sick of taking orders from Carranza at any rate.
The Federal Army was dug in at Zacatecas. Estimates of the size
of the federal force range from 7,000 to 15,000, but most place it
at around 12,000. There are two hills overlooking Zacatecas: El
Bufo and El Grillo and Medina Barrn had placed many of his
best men on them. The withering fire from these two hills had
doomed Natera's attack, and Medina Barrn was confident that
the same strategy would work against Villa. There was also a line
of defense between the two hills. The federal forces awaiting Villa
were veterans of previous campaigns as well as some northerners
loyal to Pascual Orozco, who had fought alongside Villa against
the forces of Porfirio Daz in the early days of the Revolution.
Smaller hills, including Loreto and el Sierpe, were also fortified.
Villa moved the Division of the North, which had more than
20,000 soldiers, up to the outskirts of Zacatecas.
Villa had Felipe Angeles, his best general and one of the superior
tacticians in Mexican history, with him for the battle. They
conferred and decided to set up Villa's artillery to shell the
hills as a prelude to the attack. The Division of the North had
acquired formidable artillery from dealers in the United States.
For this battle, Villa decided, he would leave his famous cavalry
in reserve. After two days of skirmishing, Villa's artillerymen
began bombarding the El Bufo Sierpe, Loreto and El Grillo
hills at about 10 a.m. on June 23, 1914. Villa and Angeles sent
elite infantry to capture La Bufa and El Grillo. On El Grillo, the
artillery was battering the hill so badly that the defenders could
not see the approaching shock forces, and it fell around 1 p.m. La
Bufa did not fall so easily: the fact that General Medina Barrn
himself led the soldiers there no doubt stiffened their resistance.
Still, once El Grillo had fallen, the morale of the federal troops
plummeted. They had thought their position in Zacatecas to be
unassailable and their easy victory against Natera had reinforced
that impression.
Late in the afternoon, La Bufa also fell and Medina Barrn
retreated his surviving troops into the city. When La Bufa was
taken, the federal forces cracked. Knowing that Villa would
definitely execute all officers, and probably most enlisted men
as well, the federals panicked. Officers ripped off their uniforms
even as they tried to fight off Villa's infantry, who had entered
the city.
Combat in the streets was fierce and brutal, and the blistering
heat made it all the worse. A federal colonel detonated the
arsenal, killing himself along with dozens of rebel soldiers and
destroying a city block. This infuriated the Villista forces on the
two hills, who began raining gunfire down into the town. Survi-
vors reported hills flowing with blood and piles of corpses.
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