The revolution's first phase had ended with apparent success: President Porfirio Diaz resigned in 1911 and was replaced by Francisco Madero. But in early 1913, General Victoriano Huerta betrayed and murdered Madero, seizing the presidency. A nationwide coalition of former revolutionaries rose against him. In Chihuahua, the most prominent anti-Huerta commander was Villa, who had returned to Mexico from the United States with only eight companions that spring. His ranks swelled rapidly. Military victories combined with populist confiscations from the hated Terrazas-Creel landowning clan made him enormously popular. He carefully avoided targeting American-owned property, which earned him tolerance from US officials who began loosening the arms embargo for his benefit. By September, Villa was ready for his first major test -- a conventional assault on a fortified city.

Villa's forces converged on the Torreon area from multiple directions. On September 27, his troops occupied the hacienda of La Loma, where leaders from across the revolutionary movement gathered and formally elected him commander. On September 28, Maclovio Herrera's forces routed federal irregulars on the Lerdo side of the Nazas River in a four-hour battle. The next morning, Villa's cavalry stormed the village of Aviles, where General Alvirez had been sent with 550 men to scout the revolutionary positions. The engagement lasted half an hour. Alvirez and his staff were killed; of his force, 467 or 487 died, 25 were captured, and the remnants fled back to Torreon. The revolutionaries seized two cannons, 532 Mauser rifles, 150,000 rounds of ammunition, and 360 grenades -- precisely the kind of material Villa desperately needed.

The assault on Torreon itself began September 30. Villa split his army into two columns that advanced through the canyons toward the city, applying pressure rather than attempting a frontal charge. The fighting produced moments of desperate improvisation. A fighter named Gutierrez Galindo attacked the defenders at Casa Colorada, had his horse shot from under him, and found himself wounded and isolated. He cut open the horse's belly, climbed inside the carcass, and hid there until the next day when his comrades took the position. That night, Villa ordered his men to remove their hats and roll up their right sleeves to their elbows -- the only way to distinguish friend from foe in the darkness of hand-to-hand fighting. They occupied several peaks overnight, lost some to a dawn counterattack, then repelled a cavalry charge by Orozquista irregulars under Benjamin Argumedo with concentrated machine-gun fire. By evening on October 1, the defense had collapsed. The city fell.

At 2:00 AM on October 2, Villa entered Torreon to music. The spoils were enormous: 5 machine guns, 11 cannons including two giants nicknamed Rorro and El Nino, half a million rounds of ammunition, 39 locomotives, and several train wagons. The city's capture transformed Villa from a regional guerrilla into a national military figure. But the aftermath also revealed the revolution's darker currents. Roughly 500 prisoners were gathered at Aviles and sorted: common soldiers were offered the chance to join the revolutionaries, while officers and Orozquista fighters faced execution. Villa's enforcer Rodolfo Fierro began shooting prisoners one by one before orders came to halt the killings. About 100 were ultimately executed. Villa tried to prevent looting by threatening to shoot looters, though only two streets were plundered. He then extracted forced loans from wealthy landowners, spending the money on his army and distributing some to hospitals. The defeated commander, General Munguia, fled to Matamoros and was later court-martialed. Villa, meanwhile, left only a small garrison behind -- a decision that would allow Huerta's forces to retake Torreon within months, setting the stage for an even bloodier second battle.