In the predawn darkness of March 9, 1916, the Mexican bandit general Pancho Villa swept across the United States border to strike Columbus, New Mexico, and butcher the town.

To extract revenge, and to bring a halt to repeated border violation, Wilson named John J. Pershing to invade the inhospitable mountains of Chihuahua—much against Mexico's wishes. It was a campaign of frustration, political bungling, heroism, stupidity and daring: George S. Patton's controversial reputation began during a two-gun duel with Villista officers; Villa was almost assassinated by one of his own men; the 1st Aero Squadron was completely destroyed, but not by enemy guns, and one pilot accidentally started one of the largest forest fires in Mexican history; an American officer led his men on the chase in an eight-cylinder Cadillac; and national diplomacy was often expedited by means of clandestine trips by laundry wagon, or the use of a service elevator.

The Great Pursuit is the story of a rugged running battle which struck five hundred miles into a "friendly" nation, and it reveals the often baffling workings of the White House and State Department (one of Wilson's detractors once remarked: "Woodrow Wilson has ideals, but no principles"). To Pershing the campaign was "my lost cause." But in a larger way it was the making of Black Jack as a commander and it revealed the awful weakness of the U.S. Army, its communications, supply and aviation.

Fascinating in its incidents, revealing in its picture of an imperialist America, The Great Pursuit tells a dramatic story of an invasion into a hostile land against a wily and illusive enemy.