While the European powers struggled for supremacy, another war raged much closer to home. Revolutionary factions struggled for the control of Mexico, and President Wilson’s administration watched events south of the Rio Grande with growing alarm. When the town of Columbus, New Mexico, was raided by revolutionaries under Mexican leader Pancho Villa, Wilson mobilized state militia troops to protect American citizens and property in the Southwest.

 For South Carolina troops, this security duty along the Mexican border provided a significant prologue to the Great War. South Carolina troops served there alongside the regular U.S. Army, safeguarding United States citizens and property against the depredations of Pancho Villa’s marauding revolutionaries.

During the Punitive Expedition the state volunteer system was employed for the last time, with each state’s troops serving in their state militia regiments. When the same troops were called up for World War I, they would be reorganized, their units redesignated and made part of the regular army.