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Villa had been the Governor of the Mexican province ogf Chihuahua and had some support from the United States. He was invited to Fort Bliss to meet Brigadier General John J. Pershing. In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson had a change of heart. Wilson believed that supporting Villa's opponent, Venustiano Carranza was the best way to establish a stable Mexican government, less sucsceptible from the influence of foreign powers like Germany. Wilson refused to allow more arms to be supplied to Villa's army, and allowed Carranza's troops to be relocated using U.S. railroads. Villa felt betrayed by the Americans.
In January 1916, a group of Villa's men attacked a train on the Mexico North Western Railway, near Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, and killed several American employees of the ASARCO company. The passengers also included eighteen Americans, fifteen of whom worked for American Smelting and Refining Company. There was only one survivor, who gave the details to the press. Villa admitted to ordering the attack, but denied that he had authorized the killing of the Americans.
Villa began planning an attack on US soil. On March 9, 1916, Villa ordered about 100 members of his revolutionary group to make a cross-border attack against Columbus, New Mexico. The raid was partly in retaliation for the U.S. government's official recognition of the Carranza regime and for the loss of lives in battles due to defective bullets purchased from the United States. The raid was also conducted to acquire more military equipment and supplies in order to continue the fight against Carranza. They attacked a detachment of the 13th Cavalry Regiment, burned the town and seized 100 horses and mules and other military supplies. 18 Americans were killed.
In response to Villa's raid on Columbus, President Wilson sent 5,000 men of the U.S. Army under General John Pershing into Mexico to capture Villa. Employing aircraft and trucks for the first time in US Army history, Pershing's force chased Villa until February 1917. The search for Villa was unsuccessful, although some of Villa's senior commanders and a total of 190 of his men were killed during the expedition.
Most of the American forces were withdrawn from Mexico in January 1917. Pershing publicly claimed the expedition was a success, though he complained privately to his family that President Wilson had imposed too many restrictions, which made it impossible for him to fulfill his mission. He wrote "when the true history is written, it will not be a very inspiring chapter for school children, or even grownups to contemplate. Having dashed into Mexico with the intention of eating the Mexicans raw, we turned back at the first repulse and are now sneaking home under cover, like a whipped curr with its tail between its legs."