27 AUG--This Day in US Military History

1918 – The Battle of Ambos Nogales (lit. “The Battle of Both Nogales”), or as it is known in Mexico La batalla del 27 de agosto (lit. “The Battle of 27 August”), was an engagement fought between Mexican forces and elements of United States Army soldiers of the 35th Infantry Regiment, who were reinforced by the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, and commanded by Lt. Col. Frederick J. Herman.
The American soldiers and militia forces were stationed in Nogales, Arizona and the Mexican soldiers and armed Mexican militia were in Nogales, Sonora. This battle was notable for being a significant confrontation between U.S. and Mexican forces during the Border War which took place in the context of the Mexican Revolution and the First World War.
This occurred after the Zimmermann Telegram during World War I when the international border between the two Nogales was a wide open boulevard named International Street. There had been several previous fatal incidents in this area which helped increase international tensions and leading to armed conflict. This included the claim of German military advisors as agitators with Mexican Villa rebels, claims of racism and border politics. As a result of this battle, the U.S. and Mexico agreed to divide the two border communities with a chain-link border fence, the first of many permanent incarnations of the U.S.–Mexico border wall between the two countries.
On 27 August, at about 4:10 pm, a gun battle erupted unintentionally when a civilian Mexican carpenter named Zerefino Gil Lamadrid attempted to pass through the border back to Mexico, without having the bulky parcel he was carrying with him inspected at the United States Customs house. As Gil Lamadrid passed the customs office, Customs Inspector Arthur G. Barber ordered him to halt, suspecting that Gil Lamadrid was smuggling weapons. Only a few feet away, Mexican customs officers led by Francisco Gallegos directed him to ignore the summons and stay put in Mexico. Gil Lamadrid became confused and hesitated as the two groups of customs agents shouted instructions to him. At this point, Pvt. William Klint of the U.S. 35th Infantry raised his Springfield rifle in an effort to force Gil Lamadrid to return to the United States. In the midst of the ensuing commotion, a shot was fired, although by whom remains unclear, and the battle of Ambos Nogales commenced.
Mistakenly believing that he was being shot at, Gil Lamadrid dropped to the ground. Thinking that Gil Lamadrid had been shot, Customs Officer Gallegos grabbed his pistol and opened fire on the U.S. guards, wounding Private Klint in the face (Klint survived). Inspector Barber drew his revolver and returned fire, killing Gallegos and fellow Customs Officer Andrés Ceceña. In the confusion, Gil Lamadrid jumped up and sprinted down a nearby street, exiting the narrative of the battle that he had inadvertently started. Gil Lamadrid died in an altercation in a Nogales, Sonora, bar in 1935 near where the Battle of Ambos Nogales initially took place.
Many citizens on the Mexican side of the border, hearing the gunfire, ran to their homes and picked up their rifles to join the Mexican troops fighting. Although it was later speculated that most of the combatants were all soldiers of the Mexican Federal Army, in fact part of the Nogales garrison was away fighting rebels opposed to Gen. Plutarco Elías Calles's governorship of Sonora. Several Mexican soldiers, acting without orders, were certainly among the combatants, but the majority of the combatants were civilians — a fact confirmed by a U.S. military investigation of the incident.
The 35th Infantry, stationed at Nogales, requested reinforcements. Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry, commanded by Frederick Herman, came to their aid from Camp Stephen Little, located just north of Nogales. Colonel Herman ordered an attack south of the border to secure the Mexican hilltops overlooking the Sonoran border town. Defensive trenches and machine gun emplacements had been seen being dug on those hilltops during the previous weeks. Herman wanted his forces to occupy the position before Mexican reinforcements got there. In the frenzy of the unexpected battle, armed Mexican civilians stormed the home of General Álvaro Obregón on International Street and used its sturdy stone walls as a strong point from which to fire at U.S. targets. Although the important Mexican revolutionary general (and future President) was not home, his terrified family was, and as a sign of the links between the two cities of Nogales, were personally escorted to the home of relatives on the U.S. side by the U.S. Consul in Nogales, Sonora, E.M. Lawton.
Under heavy fire, the U.S. infantry and dismounted cavalry crossed the border through the buildings and streets of Nogales, Sonora. Members of the 10th Cavalry advanced through a building in red-light district of the Mexican border town where many of the "fightened señoritas" recognized them, according to First Sergeant Thomas Jordan of the 10th Cavalry. Jordan remarked "I got a laugh when one them spoke to a trooper, saying 'Sergeant Jackson! Are we all glad to see you!' But we did not have time to tarry for the soldier to alibi his acquaintanceship." As the troops advanced into the city, many of these women ventured out with bedsheets marked with impromptu red crosses in an effort to rescue persons wounded in the fighting. Two of the brave women ignored their own wounds to help rescue their fellow citizens. American civilians and women helped in rescuing the wounded on the American side. One American soldier received an award from the American citizens for his actions in saving noncombatants who had been wounded despite being wounded himself.
U.S. and Mexican sources differ on the success of U.S. troops taking the imposing hills immediately to the east of the two cities of Nogales. U.S. sources indicate that the heights were taken (and held until that evening's ceasefire) by a combined assault of the 10th Cavalry and 35th Infantry. For their part, Mexican sources, such as the contemporary "Corrido de Nogales" (a Mexican ballad about the battle's main events), highlight the participation of the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry during the assault on these hills. In the "Corrido de Nogales", it is also claimed that the Mexican townspeople of Nogales stopped the assault on that hill at the eastern end of the Nogales communities. Nevertheless, during the assault Capt. Joseph D. Hungerford was killed by a bullet to the heart while leading the 10th Cavalry charge on the hill. Meanwhile, a few US civilians used their vehicles to shuttle troops toward the border, but only one US military vehicle crossed the border delivering supplies and retrieving the wounded. That American soldier received a medal for his actions. American militia that became involved, stayed on the American side, firing their weapons from the windows of their houses. Allyn Watkins, an eye witness of the shooting from the rooftops of homes along a tall hill on the US side, claimed that the disordered involvement of US civilians in the border fight “didn’t help the progress of the ‘war’ any.” Late in the fighting, members of the 35th Infantry placed a machine gun on top of a stone building and fired into the Mexican positions. The capture of the heights and this machine gun fire encouraged the end of the fighting.

https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2005/08/28/august-27/