For Villa and Zapata, once their alliance had fallen apart, the revolution had turned into a civil war. This meant that they were fighting Carranza and Obregon, the federal alliance. Unlike in the US Civil War, the side's were hard to tell. It was not uncommon for an intellectual and wealthy person to side with Villa and a poor person with no land to side with Carranza. After many battles ensued, Villa came out a loser at almost every battle. The idea of trench warfare was practiced by Obregon and threw Villa and his men off. Villa's main tactic was to send lines of cavalry towards Obregon's men, but this proved useless after day one. Villa, however, continued to send his men directly towards the lines of bullets. Villa's support had dwindled down to only 2,0o0 men, with all of his generals and leaders fleeing to the US in fear of Villa.
Zapata, at this time, was occupying Mexico City once Villa left. He managed to stay out of major battles, and occasionally attacked the flanks of Carranza's troops. He did this to make sure that Villa won, however, did not want to help Villa to much, due to the death threat rumors.
In the end, Villa fled to the hills, becoming a revolutionary in revolt once again.
