The Pancho Villa incident led to bad feelings between the U. S. and

N the early morning of March 9, 1916, several hundred Mexican guerrillas under the command of Francisco "Pancho" Villa cross the U. S.-Mexican border and attack the small border town of Columbus, New Mexico. Seventeen Americans were killed in the raid, and the center of town was burned. It was unclear whether Villa personally participated in the attack, but President Woodrow Wilson ordered the U. S. Army into Mexico to capture the rebel leader dead or alive