During the engagement the Villistas provoked an intervention by the United States Army protecting the neighboring city of El Paso, Texas.

Pancho Villa then attacked Durango but lost again, so he retired to his home at Parral, Chihuahua in 1920, with a full pardon from the Carrancista government.

[3][4][5] Following the Battle of Columbus and Gen. John J. Pershing's Mexican Expedition in 1916 and 1917, Pancho Villa's army was scattered across northern Mexico, but by 1918 he had assembled several hundred men and began attacking the Carrancistas again.

Katz says that Villa wanted to put one of his generals, Felipe Ángeles, up to it because in the past he had spoken of the "need for reconciliation with the Americans" and the hope that the US would then "change its attitude" toward the Villistas.

Katz also says that Villa may have chosen to attack Juarez because there was a smaller enemy garrison there than in Chihuahua, there was a large source of food and—possibly—to see if the Americans, just across the Rio Grande, were still as hostile as they had been during Pershing's campaign.

Gen. Gonzalez also had artillery and two other important advantages: he would be fighting a defensive battle and was protected on the northern flank by El Paso and the American army.

Gen. Angeles was put in command of this effort and had to move the artillery from their positions in Juarez to the fort outside the town before beginning the attack (Byron Jackson says that Ángeles did not participate in this battle, but instead remained at Villa’s headquarters eight miles south [9]) This took a while and by the time the task was finished Gen. Gonzalez had come up with a daring plan to use the majority of his cavalry and his infantry in a charge against Angeles' column as it approached the fort.

Meanwhile, on the Texas side of the border, American soldiers were being targeted by Villista snipers who directed their fire towards the 82nd Field Artillery Regiment's headquarters at the El Paso Union Stockyards.

The first, a man named Floyd Hinton, was killed while watching the fighting from his rooftop near the intersection of Ninth and El Paso streets.

At about 11:00 pm, after Gen. Erwin learned of the casualties, he sent 3,600 men across the Santa Fe Street bridge, over the Rio Grande, to stop the sniping and provide protection for American citizens there.

The 24th Infantry crossed the Santa Fe Bridge and advanced through the center of Ciudad Juarez, with the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery, supporting from downtown El Paso.

This encounter was over by 9:00 am but later that day, as the Americans continued their pursuit, Battery D, 2nd Battalion, bombarded an adobe shack and afterwards found the bodies of about 25 dead and wounded Villistas.

[6][8][10] When the pursuit was finally discontinued, Col. Tompkins headed back north to the Rio Grande, collecting 50 saddles, 300 horses and mules and over 100 rifles that were left behind by the Villistas.

When Villa besieged Durango just a few weeks later he only had about 350 "bady demoralized" men left, according to a representative of the Mexico North Western Railway.

He then led the remnants of his army into the Sierra Madre and used his newly formed Aerial Corps to fly surveillance missions and bomb enemy convoys and any soldiers who attempted to enter the mountains.

There is no evidence that Villa's men killed any Americans after the battle for Juarez, though there was a raid on the town of Ruby, Arizona, in February 1920, that may have been the work of Villistas.

Given a full pardon, Villa retired to a large hacienda in the town of Canutillo in the state of Durango near to the frontier with Chihuahua, with a bodyguard of 50 men.