[2] The leadership of the division was then assigned to General Victoriano Huerta, who reorganized González Salas's remaining forces that had been defeated by Oroquistas.

[3] After Madero's overthrow in the counter-revolutionary coup that culminated the la Decena trágica, Pancho Villa assumed the leadership of the revolutionary northern division.

Villa's troops were assigned military ranks, outfitted with hospital trains and horse ambulances (called Servicio sanitario and said to be the first employed in Mexico), used the railroads built during the Díaz administration to move quickly from one engagement to the other, and unlike some other revolutionary groups, were well equipped with machine guns and even an artillery unit (captured from the Mexican Federal Army and Rurales).

Despite having such numerical advantage, the División del Norte was defeated at the Battle of Celaya in April 1915 by forces of Álvaro Obregón.

The División del Norte with its cavalry charges was no match for well placed barbed wire, trenches, artillery and machine gun nests.