Battle of Celaya

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Battle of Celaya
Battle of Celaya in Guanajuato
Date 6–15 April 1915 Location Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico Result Constitutionalist victory
Belligerents
Constitutionalists Constitutional Army	Conventionists División del Norte[1]
Commanders and leaders
Álvaro Obregón	Pancho Villa
Strength
15,000 13 big field guns[2]	22,000[3]
Casualties and losses
695 killed 641 wounded[4]	6,000 killed 6,500 captured 5,000 wounded[5]

The Battle of Celaya, 6–15 April 1915, was part of a series of military engagements in the Bajío during the Mexican Revolution between the winners, who had allied against the regime of Gen. Victoriano Huerta (February 1913-July 1914) and then fought each other for control of Mexico. The Constitutionalists under Gen. Venustiano Carranza faced off against the Army of the División del Norte of Pancho Villa. The first battle of Celaya was fought April 6–7, 1915, near Celaya in present-day Guanajuato, Mexico. The second battle of Celaya was fought April 15–16. These encounters between the Constitutionalist Army led by Gen. Álvaro Obregón, Venustiano Carranza's best general, and the army under the command of Pancho Villa were crucial in determining the outcome of the Mexican Revolution.

Obregón chose the site of battle, arrived in advance to prepare it and kept to his defensive strategy, knowing Villa's propensity for blind cavalry charges over an open field. Villa's defeat was the result of his multiple tactical miscalculations and overconfidence in his much larger, undefeated army's ability to best Obregón's army under any circumstances. Villa's División del Norte outnumbered Obregón's Constitutionalists 2:1, but Obregón had lured Villa far from his communication and supply lines to a field with existing canals and trenches. Obregón was able to utilize many tactical innovations from the Western Front in the First World War—namely trenches, barbed wire and machine guns—in the defense. Villa continued his use of massed cavalry charges. New logistical and troop movement techniques such as the use of trains were seen.

Obregón and Villa met twice more in the Bajío at León (also called the battle of Trinidad), in a protracted battle lasting 38 days, and at Aguascalientes in July, sealing the Constitutionalists' victory over Villa. Taken together these battles in the Bajío are considered a watershed event in the Mexican Revolution and helped determine the military course of it.^[6] "The two battles of Celaya did not bring the warring to an end, but they foretold Villa's ultimate defeat."^[7] Villa lost as many as 50,000 men in these Bajío battles, and he ceased to be a force to contend with on a national scale.^[8]