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The Battle of Celaya was part of a series of military engagements in the Bajío during the civil war between the winners, who allied against the regime of Victoriano Huerta (February 1913 and July 1914) and then fought each other for the control of Mexico. The Constitutionalists under Venustiano Carranza faced off against the Army of the Convention of Aguascalientes. The Convention allied Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who in practice remained in his strong hold of Morelos. The first battle of Celaya was fought April 6-7, 1915, near Celaya in present-day Guanajuato, Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. The second battle of Celaya was fought April 15-16. These encounters between the Constitutionalist Army led by Álvaro Obregón, Venustiano Carranza's best general, and the army under the command of Francisco “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 to 1, but Obregón had lured Villa far from his supply and communication 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, barb 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 Trindad), 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 the revolution.〔Alan Knight, ''The Mexican Revolution, vol. 2: Counter-revolution and Reconstruction''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1986, p. 323.〕 "The two battles of Celaya did not bring the warring to an end, but they foretold Vila's ultimate defeat."〔Charles C. Cumberland, ''Mexican Revolution: The Constitutionalist Years''. Austin: University of Texas Press 1972, p. 202.〕 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.〔Cumberland, ''Constitutionalist Years'', p. 203.〕 ==Commanders and Armies== The commander of the Constitutionalist forces was Álvaro Obregón. Obregón, like Villa, had no formal military education, but had served in a professional army. His military career began when he belatedly joined pro-Madero forces in 1912 to put down the anti-Madero rebellion of Pascual Orozco, but to his regret, he had not joined Madero's original call for revolution in 1910.〔Enrique Krauze, ''Mexico: Biography of Power'', New York: HarperCollins 1997.〕〔Álvaro Obregón, ''Ocho Mil Kilómetros en campaña: Relación de las acciones de armas efectuadas en más de veinte Estados de la República durant un período de cuatro años'', Mexico City: Librería de la Vda. de Ch. Bouret, 1917 is his memoir of his military years.〕 His military service was extremely distinguished and he initially left the Army as a Colonel. Obregón deftly navigated the shifting political alliances that marked the early days of the Mexican Revolution. Eventually, he was appointed to be the senior General in the Carranza administration. Obregón often enlisted the help of military advisers and was a student of the latest military technological and tactical advancements, one of his most respected was Colonel Maximilian Kloss, a German immigrant turned Army Officer. Kloss’s military advice and remarkable insight into the nature of Villa’s style of war would prove decisive at Celaya. Obregón himself was known to be an urbane, intellectual person. General Villa in contrast, was nearly illiterate and had never served in a professional army. However, Villa complemented his staff with General Felipe Angeles, a capable career military officer. After defecting to Villa's División del Norte from Venustiano Carranza's Constitutionalist Army in March 1914, Angeles became one of Villa’s most trusted military advisers. In contrast to Villa, Angeles was more careful and calculating. Privately, Angeles thought that Villa was often too rash in his decision making. Angeles's initial absence due to an injury while riding his horse would prove critical at the beginning of the Battle of Celaya. The army of Pancho Villa, the División del Norte, which had fought with the Constitutionalist Army (1913-1914) to oust Victoriano Huertam was not an army in the modern, industrialized sense. In addition to their military component, Pancho Villa’s army also included a large component of camp followers or soldaderas, who followed behind the main military force. These camp followers were often refugees, soldiers’ wives and family, and support personnel. This often slowed down Villa’s military forces and he eventually banned them. Villa himself was an excellent horseman from his early days as a bandit, and he tended to favor his cavalry and rely upon its speed to quickly maneuver around an enemy force. Before the Battle of Celaya, Villa’s forces had never been defeated in a major battle against its opponents. Obregón was a skilled military commander and understood that if Villa could be lured into a decisive battle, his forces could be completely destroyed. Villa had consulted with his chief military adviser, Felipe Angeles, who attempted to convince Villa to avoid a major set piece battle. History would vindicate Angeles’s military expertise, as Villa’s forces and tactics were no match for Obregón’s use of modern weaponry and tactics. Reportedly, Villa’s rationale for insisting on engaging Obregón’s forces was that he did not want to appear weak or inhibit the fighting spirit of his men. However, his actual words to General Angeles cannot be completely verified as no actual record of their conversation exists. Obregón’s men had made excellent use of barbed wire and field expedient obstacles to slow, disrupt, and channelize Villa’s forces into their prepared fields of fire. As a fighting force, the cavalry and infantry elements of the Villistas were highly mobile in early twentieth-century terms. Villa used of the rail system to maneuver his troops quickly, just as the Rurales, the crack police force of Porfirio Díaz were deployed before the Revolution. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Celaya」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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