At approximately 4:00am on March 9th, 1916, about 485 Mexican revolutionaries attacked the sleeping town of Columbus, NM.  Led by Mexican General Francisco "Pancho" Villa, the fighters crossed the border into the United States and took the small town and its adjacent military encampment, Camp Furlong, completely by surprise.   Ten American civilians and eight US soldiers lost their lives before Villa's troops retreated to Mexico.

This marked the last only ground invasion of the continental United States after the War of 1812.  The battlefield park sits on the site of the Camp Furlong.  The flagpole is located on Cootes Hill.  US solders guarding the border, used this hill as a lookout point.

In the below photo, the small dark line on the horizon is the US-Mexican border wall.