Luis Rodríguez, who grew up in Tecate, led twenty PLM rebels to liberate his hometown, a small border town founded in 1892, on March 12, 1911. They initially succeeded, driving the local police across the border. However, PLM reinforcements did not arrive in time to hold the town. A large Federal force surrounded Tecate a few days later, and, on March 17th, broke through rebel defenses. Rodriguez and most of the Liberals perished. The Federals took no survivors. Only four rebels escaped, crossing to the USA.
The PLMistas launched a second attack on March 19, led this time by Leyva. Most of the Federal forces had left the area, heading far south to bypass the rebel positions at Picacho Pass and Mexicali on the way to protect the riverworks of the US company, the Colorado River Land Company, to the east. 80 soldiers remained to defend Tecate.
Set up: Tecate is a small village along the border, in a fertile valley rising above the desert. Around the town are green hills and mountains, the tallest being Kuuchama mountain, or Tecate peak, west/northwest from the town just across the border. The land around the town is also green and fertile, with olive and grape groves and fields of grain. A main road runs through Tecate from Tijuana to the west, to Mexicali to the east. A small stream runs through the town. The plaça sits at the center of Tecate.
Conditions:
Clear day - normal visibility
Supply: 10 rounds of ammo for defenders, 5 rounds for rebels.
PLM Forces: 150 fighters from the Baja Division of the Liberal Army
-Leyva and Headquarters - 10 rebels
-Group 1: 35 rebels
-Group 2: 35 rebels
-Group 3: 35 rebels
-Group 4: 35 rebels
Government forces: 80 soldiers of the 8th Battalion of the Federal Army
-Captain Justino Mendieta and Headquarters - 4 officers.
-MG crew 1: 3 soldiers
-MG crew 2: 3 soldiers
-Outpost: 10 soldiers
-1st platoon: 20 soldiers
-2nd platoon: 20 soldiers
-3rd platoon: 20 soldiers
Gameplay:
Defenders - set up the Federal HQ in a building on the plaça.
-Choose any location outside the town as a strategic “outpost.” Place the outpost garrison there
-Place the machine guns and crews anywhere on the table.
Attackers - Full force may enter the table on round 1 on the eastern edge.
Objective:
Possession of the town is the only objective. Federals possess the town until all soldiers are driven from the town, killed or arrested.
Victory Conditions:
Every 10 turns represent a day. The game ends after turn 30 (after 3 days), when the revolutionaries have taken the town, or when the PLM forces have no ammo left.
Aftermath:
On March 12th, as the sun rose, 20 insurgents launched an attack on Tecate. Led by IWW member Luis Rodríguez, the rebels ran the police out of town, with most fleeing to the US. Leyva had ordered the raid to open the road west, to Tijuana and Ensenada, and gather horses and supplies for the campaign on the capitol. Salinas led a raiding party on the ranches in the area (Bartra and Barrera 173-174). Leyva and Berthold’s main force of 250 remained behind in Mexicali until midnight on March 14th. They left Stanley and his men to garrison Mexicali and points east. The main force, however, advanced only as far as the PLM camp at Laguna Salada, where they stayed until the 16th. While camped in the desert, on March 15, a letter from Magón came for the commanders. Magón let them know that on March 7th, the 800-strong 8th Battalion of the Federal Army arrived in Ensenada. The Battalion headed for Tecate the day after the Liberals captured the town. With their campaign on Ensenada in motion, Leyva continued the march regardless of the size of the enemy. On the 16th, 250 rebels left Laguna Salada headed west. The following day, however, Berthold split off with a detachment of 60 or 70 to capture the mining town of El Álamo, southeast of Ensenada. Many workers there could join the cause. Leyva and the remaining 150 continued on to Tecate.
Leyva didn’t arrive at Tecate until sunrise on March 19th. He found the town in the hands of eighty Federal soldiers from the Eight Battalion, led by Captain Justino Mendieta. The 8th Battalion had surrounded Tecate days before, then succeeded in entering the town, killing Rodriguez and many other rebels on the 17th. The four survivors fled across the border. Leyva, showing up too late, commenced a siege that lasted for three days. Mendieta had prepared strong defenses, and held the border crossing firmly, being their route of resupply and, if needed, escape. The rebels could not break through. According to Blaisdell, “Leyva lifted the siege...due to a shortage of ammunition and the need to cover Picacho Pass to prevent Mayol from slipping through while the Liberals were at Tecate. Upon discovering that Mayol had not advanced by way of the Pass, Leyva dropped back to Mexicali. He had suffered a fairly heavy number of casualties and desertions. According to his men, he had ‘retreated at full speed on horseback, leaving his foot soldiers to their fate’” (Blaisdell 78). While Blaisdell writes of “a fairly heavy number of casualties,” Bartra and Barrera write that “(t)he low intensity of the combat could be measured by the fact that no deaths are recorded (Bartra and Barrera 177). These two, more-current authors also write that Leyva retreated not alone, but with the mounted group, (but “leaving those on foot in place”), executing this maneuver based on “the need to obtain more ammunition and on the urgency of meeting Mayol and his 8th battalion, which is possibly already marching on Mexicali.”
Mayol, however, had skipped Picacho pass by going around to the south. En route, the Federals apprehended some Magónista messengers to Berthold’s detachment. Then, they set up camp at Little’s Ranch, asking on April 8th for Government permission to attack Mexicali, mostly to resupply, though the order to attack apparently never came.
One major outcome of this battle was the end of Leyva’s time as commander of the Baja Division of the Liberal Army. The PLM Junta appointed as his replacement Fransisco Vásquez Salinas, who had been in Los Angeles and missed the fighting in Tecate, more than a week later, on March 28. Salinas did not want the job, stalled a bit, but ultimately became General of the PLM forces in Baja.
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