![](https://truewestmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/American-Legion-of-Honor-Mexican-Revolution-1911-magic_scaled-scaled.jpg)
Six decades after the California Gold Rush, adventurous young men from around the world were still flooding the West seeking fame, fortune and, for many, a good fight. With most of the West settled and fenced in 1910, the Mexican Revolution’s charismatic leader Pancho Villa offered hot-blooded, well-armed young men the ultimate adventure: a chance to prove their mettle in battle as paid mercenaries in Villa’s American Legion of Honor.