Includes bibliographical references (p. [387]-393) and index.

"On the cold, dark night of March 9, 1916, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa - el jaguar - and his band of marauders crossed the border and raided the tine town of Columbus, New Mexico. It was a vicious surprise attack, ending with corpses piled in the streets and psychological wounds to last a lifetime. Suspects were rounded up, trials were held, and a virulent backlash against persons of Mexican origin erupted. General John "Black Jack" Pershing, once a genuine fan of Villa's and now a burned-out case mourning the recent death of his wife and children, was told to assemble a small army, head into Mexico, and get Villa - dead or alive. The caravan of men and machinery Pershing assembled was unlike anything the world had ever seen. The last hurrah for the U.S. Cavalry, the "Punitive Expedition" marked America's first use of armored tanks, airplanes, and trucks against an enemy. As one of his deputies, Pershing would choose a recent West Point graduate named George Patton." "For eleven months, the Americans sank deeper and deeper into Mexico. As they descended south, Pershing, Patton, and the American troops were followed by spies and picked off by snipers, scorched in the deserts, frozen in the mountains, and confounded by conflicting rumors about their wily prey. Some would be tested as never before. Some would see things they had never dreamed of. Some would never return home alive." "The expedition would bring the United States and Mexico to the brink of war, but it would also restore greatness to prey and predator. The General and the Jaguar is more than a classic account of the war for control of the West: it is a chronicle of obsession and revenge, and a dual portrait of Pershing and Pancho Villa, two of the greatest military minds of all time."--BOOK JACKET