A bright orange glow spread across the eastern New Mexico horizon on the morning of March 9th, 1916.  The sleepy border town of Columbus was slowly coming to life.  In the pre-dawn, the first group of Mexican soldiers cut through the barbed wire and crossed quietly into the United States. They began moving towards the little town of Columbus, three miles to the north. About a mile from the slumbering town, General Francisco "Pancho" Villa divided his five hundred raiders into two columns.


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