The Battle of Casas Grandes was fought in March 1911 between the federal Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 Army

Mexican Army

The Mexican Army is the combined land and air branch and largest of the Mexican Military services; it also is known as the National Defense Army. It is famous for having been the first army to adopt and use an automatic rifle, , in 1899, and the first to issue automatic weapons as standard issue...

 loyal to President

President of Mexico

The President of the United Mexican States is the head of state and government of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces...

 Porfirio Diaz

Porfirio Díaz

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...

 and rebels under General

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 Francisco Madero. Rebel forces attacked the Mexican town of Casas Grandes, Chihuahua

Casas Grandes, Chihuahua

Casas Grandes is a town located in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. It serves as the municipal seat of government for the surrounding Casas Grandes Municipality of the same name....

 and defeated the federal garrison

Garrison

Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....

.

Battle

Francisco I. Madero was leading a rebel army of about 800 infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 and cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 men when he attacked Casas Grandes. Several of Madero's men were in fact American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 citizens from the border states. The garrison included just over 500 infantry who were commanded by Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 Agustín A. Valdez of Mexico's 18th battalion. General Madero and his men attacked the federal positions in Casas Grandes at 5:00 am. Fighting lasted for just over two hours until 7:15 am when another Mexican government column of 562 men reinforced the already engaged 500 troops. With the reinforcing federals were two mortar

Mortar (weapon)

A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

s, they were quickly put into use.
The battle continued for several hours more as the federals and rebels repulsed each others' counter-attacks. By 5:00 pm the battle was over when General Madero ordered the retreat of his forces. The Mexican garrison lost thirteen men killed in the battle and another twenty-three were wounded. The reinforcing column lost twenty-four men and thirty-seven injured, including their commander Colonel Samuel G. Cuellar. Both General Madero and Colonel Cuellar were wounded. the rebels lost fifty-eight killed and an unknown number of wounded, forty-one men were captured. Of the rebel casualties, fifteen of the killed were Americans along with seventeen of the captured.

Aftermath

In addition to casualties, the rebels lost about 150 horses mules, 153 mules, and 101 firearm

Firearm

A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...

s. Madero blamed his scout

Scout

A scout is a soldier performing reconnaissance and other support duties.Scout may also refer to:-Aircraft:* Scout , pre-1920s terminology for a single-seat fighter...

s for his defeat at Casas Grandes. He later issued a statement saying that it was his scouts inability to detect the reinforcing federal column that led to the defeat. All of the scouts were subsequently hung under General Madero's orders.