July 11, 2007

In 1916, the United States mounted a military incursion into Mexico to capture the bandit Pancho Villa. While the regular army chased Villa, National Guard troops, including those from Arkansas, were called out to protect the border. By early August, the Arkansas Guard, including Company A, First Arkansas Infantry, shown here, was encamped at Deming, New Mexico. One soldier described the guard’s time there as “drill, drill, shoot, shoot and fatigue, fatigue and more fatigue.” By January 1917, the border crisis had ended, and by the end of February, the Arkansas troops had returned home.