How General Felipe Ángeles Checkmated Saltillo in 1915
In 1915, the brilliant General Ángeles, a chess master on the battlefield, outwitted Carrancistas at Saltillo with a cunning feint, capturing the key city and leaving them demoralized. His victory, a blend of audacity and intellect, stands as a testament to his revolutionary spirit.
Imagine, if you will, a Mexican Revolution not as a whirlwind of machetes and sombreros, but as a grand game of chess, played on a board of sun-baked cobbles and blood-soaked fields. In this peculiar panorama, General Felipe Ángeles, a warrior-scholar with a mind as sharp as his cavalry saber, emerges as a master strategist, his capture of Saltillo on January 7, 1915, a decisive move that sent the Carrancistas reeling like rooks knocked off the board.
The year is 1914, Mexico's revolution is tangled of shifting alliances and warring factions. Ángeles, a Villista general with a penchant for poetry and Prussian tactics, sets his sights on Saltillo, a key northern city held by the Carrancistas. But Saltillo is no pawn to be easily snatched; it's a fortified queen, bristling with Antonio I. Villarreal's Bravo Division, a seasoned force loyal to Venustiano Carranza.
