CHAPTER XXI.THE MEXICAN WAR.
Thelong agitation, in behalf of the establishment of a Naval Academy, by leading American naval officers, prominent among whom was Captain Perry, bore fruit in the year 1845. Mr. George Bancroft, another of the eminent literary men who have acted as Secretaries of the Navy, convened a board of officers at Philadelphia, June 24, and directed them to make suggestions in regard to a naval school. In this board were Commodores George C. Read, T. ap. Catesby Jones, M. C. Perry, Captains E. A. F. Lavallette and Isaac Mayo. Full of enthusiasm for the proposed enterprise, they wrote a report outlining its leading features. Secretary Bancroft’s energy secured the execution of the plan, and the United States Naval Academy was begun on the grounds of Fort Severn, near Annapolis. Many friends warmly urged Perry’s name as principal, but he was not an applicant for the post. Captain Franklin Buchanan was most worthily chosen, and the sessions began October 10, 1845. Under successive superintendents, the Naval Academy has become one of the first professional schools in the world, having thus far graduated over twelve hundred naval officers, equipped either for seamanship or engineering.
Service afloat, in the Gulf of Mexico, was preparing. His first application for service, in case of war, was made on the 16th of August. Meanwhile, he called the attention of Secretary Bancroft to the defective state of our signals, and forwarded the code of Admiral Rohde, of the Danish navy, as the basis of a new compilation; and, according to orders, engaged in the examination of merchant steamers, with a view to harbor and coast defence, and for use in war. On the 4th of February, 1846, he received information from Mexico which satisfied him that war was inevitable, and that he would soon be in the land of the cactus, the eagle, and the serpent. Further, the frigateCumberland, when in the act of starting for the Mediterranean, was ordered to Vera Cruz.
In answer to repeated offers of service, Perry received orders dated August 20, 1846, to command the two new steamers,VixenandSpitfire, which were fitting out at New York. When these were ready, he was to go out to relieve Captain Fitzhugh of theMississippi. The younger officers, graduates of the Sandy Hook School of Gunnery, were eager to serve under their former instructor, especially when they saw that he, himself, gladly accepted an inferior command in order to serve his country well. He arrived at Vera Cruz on the 24th of September. He was subordinate to Commodore Conner, whose date of commission preceded his own; but practically, though not officially, the Gulf or Home squadron was divided. Conner had charge of the sail, andPerry of the steam vessels. Owing to lack of ships of light draught, Conner had been able to accomplish little. The splendid opportunities of the first year were lost, and naval expeditions, even when attempted, proved failures. The most notorious of these was the second unsuccessful demonstration at Alvarado, October 16, which shook the faith of the strongest believers in the abilities and resolution of Commodore Conner.[15]Because of the grounding of the schoonerMcLane, on the bar, the enterprise was given up for the day. On the morrow, when all was ready for a second attempt, and the men eager for the fray—their last will and testament having been left numerously with the chaplain—the flag-ship’s signals were read with amazement and wrath: “Return to the anchorage off Vera Cruz.” Whether the pilots feared a “norther,” or Conner doubted the military qualities of his seamen on land, or believed his craft unsuited to the task, is not certainly known.
The main squadron lay off Sacrificios Island, safely out of range of the forts. Many glasses were pointed anxiously night and day toward the flag-ship for signals, which were not made. There were some French vessels in the harbor. With characteristic diligence, the officers, impatient to see hostilities begin, yet athirst for archæological honors, beganexcavations for Aztec ruins, and found a number of relics. The Americans chafed. Even the sight of the snow-capped mountains in the distance, once burning and still beautiful, and the Southern Cross at night, palled on the eye. The sailors wearied of polishing their small arms and furbishing their weapons, and longed to use them. The big guns were made lustrous with the fragrant sea-pitch, or “black amber,” from off the sea-bottom, until their coats shone like Japanese lacquer. This substance had a perfume like guava jelly, but the sailors longed rather to sniff the air of battle. Like Job’s war-horse, they had thus far been able to do so only from afar. Out of the north came news of successes continually, while the sailors still scraped and scrubbed.[16]
The senior commodore acted generously to Perry, who, being allowed to do something on his own account, and happy enough to do it, planned the capture of Tabasco. It was in Tabasco that Cortez fought his first battle on Mexican soil. This town, on the river of the same name, had about five hundred inhabitants garrisoned by state troops. These were commanded by General Bravo, who had sent several challenges inviting attack. The Mexicans reckoned that the natural sandbar at the river’s mouth was a better defence than guns or forts, and the grounding of theMcLaneat Alvarado, doubtless lulled them into this delusion. The object of theexpedition was to capture the fleet of small craft moored in fancied security in the river. This consisted of two steamers, a brig, a sloop, five schooners and numerous boats and lighters—just what was needed for the uses of our squadron, then so deficient in light draft vessels.
The attacking force consisted of theMississippi, theVixen,Bonita,Reefer,Nonita,McLaneandForward, with an extra force of two hundred marines from theRaritanandCumberland. Leaving Anton Lizardo, October 16, they arrived at Frontera on the 23d. Without losing a moment of time, Perry made a dash across the bar almost before the Mexicans knew of his arrival, and captured the town. Two river steamers, which plied between the city and port, Tabasco and Frontera, were lying at the wharf under the guns of the battery. One had steam up and the supper-table spread. After these had been captured by cutting out parties, the captors enjoyed the hot supper.
The next two days, the 24th and 25th, were consumed in accomplishing the seventy-two miles of river navigation, in the face of a heavy, strong current. ThePetritaandVixendid most of the towing. Reaching the famous “Devil’s Turn,” at 2p. m., and finding a battery in view, Perry ordered a landing party ashore, which speedily entered the deserted fort and spiked the four twenty-four pound cannon found there. The city was reached at 3p. m.Anchoring the vessels in line ahead, at a distance ofone hundred and fifty yards, so as to command the principal streets, Perry summoned the city to surrender, threatening to open fire in case of refusal. The governor declining with defiance, returned answer, “Fire as soon as you please.”
To give a mild taste of what bombardment might mean, Perry ordered Commander Sands to let theVixen’sguns be trained on the flag-staff of the fort. So accurate was the fire, that, of the three shots, one cut the pole and the flag fell. This was taken by the fleet as the sign of surrender. A Mexican officer soon after came off, begging that the hospitals might be spared. Perry at once granted the prayer. By this time, it was nearly five o’clock and possibly time to take the fort. As Perry believed in using the men while their war-blood was hot, he ordered Captain Forrest, a brave but deliberate man, to land his two hundred marines and take the fort, the main body of the military having left the town. While the men were forming, impatiently awaiting the order to advance, they had to stand under an irregular fire of musketry from the chapparal. Seeing that it was late, and the risk too great for the prize, Perry, ordering the men on board again, saved his marines for the morrow.
At daylight of the 26th, some Mexicans, who had sneaked as near the flotilla as possible, opened a sharp fire on our men. The cannon were at once trained and kept busy in brushing away these “ground-spiders,” as the Japanese would call suchambuscaders. “Pomegranate shot,” to use a term from the same language, for shrapnel, were freely used.
The display of a white flag from the city shore stopped the firing, and the Commodore received a petition from the foreign consuls and inhabitants that the town should be spared. He granted the petition, adding that his only desire was to fight soldiers and not non-combatants.
Out of pure feelings of humanity, Perry spared the city though there was much to irritate him. The Mexican regulars and armed peasants were still in or near the city, posted in military works or strong buildings of brick or stone, and reached only by the artillery of the flotilla. Yet the governor, while allowing war on our vessels, would not permit the people to leave the municipal limits; and so the women and children, crouched in the cellars, while the sneaking soldiers kept up their fusillade. Probably most of those who had been killed or wounded were peaceable inhabitants.
The Commodore now made preparations to return, and ordered the prizes to be got together. While this was going on, even though the white flag was conspicuously waving above the town, a party of eighty Mexicans attacked Lieutenant W. A. Parker and his party of eighteen men. Seeing this, Perry sent forward Lieutenant C. W. Morris, son of Commodore C. G. Morris, with orders and re-inforcement.
The young officer passed the gauntlet of the heavyfire which now opened along the banks. A musket ball struck him in the neck inflicting a mortal wound, but he stood up in the boat and cheered his men most gallantly as they bent to their oars, until he fell back in the arms of midshipman Cheever who was with him. The loss of this accomplished young officer and the treachery of the Mexicans made forbearance no longer a virtue. Perry at once ordered the guns of the fleet to open on the city and sweep the streets as a punishment to treachery. He spared as far as possible the houses of the consuls and those of peaceful citizens.
TheVixen,Bonita,NonitaandForwardkept up the cannonade for half an hour, by which some of the houses were demolished.
Having no force to hold the place, no field artillery, and a limited supply of muskets and equipments, Perry, after reducing the town, and neighborhood to silence, ordered the flotilla and prizes to move down the river. Having the current with them, they reached Frontera at midnight. One of the prizes, theAlvarado, having grounded on a shoal at the Devil’s Turn, was blown up and left. Lieutenant Walsh and his command had kept all quiet at Frontera. TheMcLane, with her usual luck, having struck on the bar, could not get up to take part in front of the city.
The Tabasco affair, notwithstanding that the city was not occupied, infused new spirit into the navy and was the stimulus to fresh exploits. The nameof Perry again became the rallying cry. The moral influence on the whole squadron of the capture of Tabasco was good, and all were inspirited for fresh enterprises. Even if no other effect had been produced, the expedition broke the monotony of blockade duty and made life more endurable. Still the men thirsted for more glory, and yearned to satisfy the home press and people who were so eager for a “big butcher’s bill.”
The squadron returned to Anton Lizardo, where, on the 1st, Lieutenant Morris died on board theCumberland. With the honors of war he was buried on Salmadina Island, where already a cemetery had begun. The prizePetritadistinguished herself by capturing an American vessel violating the blockade at Alvarado.
One of the steamers captured at Tabasco was formerly a fast river boat plying between Richmond and Norfolk, well named theChampion. Under Lieutenant Lockwood, she became a most valuable dispatch boat and of great use to the squadron.
The town of Tampico, 210 miles north of Vera Cruz, offered so tempting an opportunity of easy capture that Commodore Conner resolved to make the attempt.
The city was five miles from the mouth of the river Panuco, and had already sent a crack battalion to Santa Anna’s army. This perfidious leader was using all his craft to raise an army, hoping to recruit largely from American deserters. He supposed thatall of General Taylor’s Irish Roman Catholic soldiers would desert, because seventy or eighty of them had done so. A battalion had been formed, and named Santa Patricio.
In this, the Mexican was keenly mistaken, the Irishmen holding loyally to their colors, and giving not the first, nor the last, illustration of their valor under the American flag. They here foreshadowed their later career during the civil war which produced a new character—the Irish-American soldier.
As Conner had been formally and repeatedly urged by General Bravo to visit and attack Tabasco, so also was he invited to come to Tampico. This time, however, it was by a lady, the wife of the American consul. She sent him the invitation stating that the city would yield without resistance. This proved to be true, as Santa Anna’s policy was to weaken the American forces by their necessity of a garrison to hold the place if taken, while the Tampico troops could be employed against General Taylor. In accordance with his orders, the place was evacuated by the military, who took along with them their stores and artillery. Prudence prevailing over valor, the Mexicans fell back to San Luis Potosi.
The squadron with the two Commodores, Conner and Perry arrived on Saturday, the 14th of November off the dangerous bar, the play-ground of numerous sharks. The eight vessels were easily got into the river Panuco. While this was going on, and the forward vessels were ascending the river, the starsand stripes were seen to rise over the city. This pretty act was that of the wife of the American consul who bravely remained after her husband had been banished.
A force of one-hundred and fifty marines and sailors was landed to occupy the town. This was done silently, and not a hostile shot was fired. Thus the second really successful operation of our navy in the Gulf was achieved by a woman’s help. Captain Tatnall was sent up the river eight miles, and captured the town of Panuco.
Tampico was seen to be a place of military importance, and troops were necessary to hold it, yet there was not then, an American soldier in this part of Mexico. All were in the north with General Taylor. So important did Conner feel this to be that, within a half hour after entering the town, he dispatched Perry to Matamoros for troops. The ever ready Commodore in his ever ready steamer,Mississippi, left at once for the north. At the mouth of the Brazos on the Texan coast, Perry informed General Patterson of the fall of Tampico, and notified him that a re-inforcement would be needed from the troops at Point Isabel. He then proceeded, of his own accord and most judiciously, as Conner wrote, to New Orleans, anchoring theMississippioff the southwest pass of the river from which the steamer took her name, and in which, sixteen years later, she was to end her life.
Perry resolved to go up to New Orleans to stir upthe authorities to greater energy and dispatch. He succeeded in obtaining fifty soldiers, some provisions, and from the governor of Louisiana, a fully equipped field train of six six-pounders and two howitzers, with two hundred rounds of shot and shell to each gun. This battery belonged to the State. He also received a large supply of entrenching tools and wheel-barrows.
All these were secured in one day, and, arriving back at Tampico after a week’s absence, November 21, he delighted and surprised the naval officers by what was considered, for the times, a great feat of transportation. Other steamers and military, arrived November 30, so that Tampico soon had a garrison of eight hundred men. Conner remained until December 13, organizing a government for the city, while Perry returned at once to Anton Lizardo.
Though life on shipboard was made more tolerable by these little excitements, it was dull enough. Fresh food supplies were low. The coming event of scurvy was beginning to cast shadows before in symptoms that betokened a near visitation. Perry, with his rooted anti-scorbutic principles, selected as the next point of attack a place that could supply the necessary luxuries of fresh beef and vegetables. Such a place was Laguna del Carmen, near Yucatan, at the extreme southeast of Mexico. It was in a healthy and well watered country rich in forests of logwood. Receiving permission of Commodore Conner, he made his preparations.
The ever trustyMississippi, towing theVixenand two schooners theBonitaandPetrel, moved out from the anchorage, like a hen with a brood of chickens, December 17, arriving off the bar on the 20th. Perry dashed in at once, and the place was easily taken.
Under a liberal policy, Laguna flourished and commerce increased. The American officers, worthy representatives of our institutions, were very popular not only with the dark-eyed senoritas, but also with the solid male citizens and men of business. Social life throve, and balls were frequent. The fleet was well and cheaply supplied with wholesome food. The Lagunas were delighted with an object lesson in American civilization, and during eighteen months so prosperous was their city, that, even after the treaty of peace, the people petitioned Commodore Perry not to withdraw his forces until Mexico was fully able to protect them.
General Taylor’s battles were bloody, but not decisive. His campaigns had little or no influence upon Paredes, and the government at the capital, because fought in the sparsely populated northern provinces. The war thus far had been magnificent, but not scientific. The country at large, scarcely knew of the existence of a victorious enemy on the soil. At the distance of five hundred miles from the capital, there was no pressure upon the leaders or people. The political nerves of Mexico, like China, were not as sensitive then, as in our days, when wires and batteries give the dullest nation a new nervous system.
Perry made a study of the whole field of war. He saw that the vitals of the country were vulnerable at Vera Cruz, that the city and castle once occupied, the navy, by sealing the ports, could enable the army to reach the capital where alone peace could be dictated.
The administration at last understood the situation and ordered a change of base. Recalling General Scott, who had been set aside on account of a difference of opinion with the War Department, and the ultra-economical administration, preparations were made for the advance, by sea and land, to the city of Mexico, where peace was to be dictated. The full and minute data which had been forwarded by Commodore Conner enabled the general to map out fully his brilliant campaign.
While Scott was perfecting details in the United States, the early winter in the Gulf passed away in steady blockade duty. TheMississippiwhich was the constant admiration of the squadron for her size, power, sea-worthiness, and incessant activity, now needing serious repairs and overhauling, was ordered back to the United States. Perry, in command of her, leaving Vera Cruz early in January, made the run safely to Norfolk, Va., and went up to Washington to hasten operations.
An examination was duly made by the board of survey. Their report declared that it would require six weeks to get theMississippiready for service.
This, to Perry, was disheartening news. It cast afearful damper upon his spirits, but, as usual, he never knew when he was beaten. To remain away from the seat of war when affairs were ready to culminate at Vera Cruz, by the army and navy acting in generous rivalry, was not to be thought of. In this strait, he turned to his old and tried friend, Charles Haswell, his first engineer, and had him sent for and brought to Norfolk.
His confidence was well founded. Haswell declared that, by working night and day, the ship could be made ready in two weeks. So thorough was his knowledge and ability, and so akin to Perry’s was his energy, that in a fortnight the Commodore’s broad pennant was apeak, and the cornet, the American equivalent for “Blue Peter,” was flying on the mizzen truck. It was the signal for all officers to be aboard and admitted of no delay.
Mr. Haswell adds, in a note to the writer, “When I took leave of the Commodore on the morning of sailing, he thanked me in a manner indicative of a generous heart.”
We may safely add that, by his energies, and abilities in getting theMississippiready at this time, Mr. Haswell saved the government many thousands of dollars and contributed largely to the triumphs of a quick war which brought early peace.
While in Washington, Perry was in frequent consultation with the authorities, furnishing valuable information and suggestions. While theMississippiwas refitting, Perry was ordered to take the generaloversight of the light draft vessels fitting out at New York and Boston for service in the gulf. This order read,—“You can communicate to heads of Bureaux, to hasten them and give to their commanders any necessary order.” The squadron in preparation consisted of theScourge, Lieutenant C. G. Hunter;Scorpion, Commander, A. Bigelow;Vesuvius, Commander G. A. Magruder;Hecla, Lieutenant A. B. Fairfax;Electra, Lieutenant T. A. Hunt;Aetna, Commander W. S. Walker;Stromboli, Commander J. G. Van Brunt;Decatur, Commander R. S. Pinckney.
On the 25th of February, 1847, Perry received the following order, “You will proceed to the United States Steam ShipMississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico, and, on your arrival, you will report to Commodore Conner, who will be instructed to transfer to you the command of the United States naval forces upon that station.”
In a letter dated March the 27th, 1847, the Secretary wrote, “The naval forces under your command . . . form the largest squadron it is believed, which has ever been assembled under the American flag . . . steamers, bomb ketches and sailing vessels of different classes.” Much was expected of this fleet, and much was to be accomplished.
Yet despite Perry’s command and mighty responsibilities—equal to those of an admiral—he was but a captain with a pennant. So economical was our mighty government.
In the matter of the war with Mexico—the war ofa slave-holding against a free republic—Matthew Perry acted as a servant of the government. He was a naval officer whose business it was to carry out the orders of his superiors. With the moral question of invading Mexico, he had nothing to do. The responsibility lay upon the government of the United States, and especially upon the President, his cabinet and supporters.[17]Perry did not like the idea of invasion, and believed that redress could be obtained with little bloodshed, and hostilities be made the means of education to a sister republic. He therefore submitted to the government, a detailed plan for prosecuting the war:
1st. To occupy and colonize California, and annex it to the territory of the United States.
2nd. To withdraw all United States troops from the interior of Mexico proper.
3rd. To establish a military cordon along its northern frontiers.
4th. To occupy by naval detachments and military garrisons, all its principal ports in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
5th. To establish these ports temporarily, and during the continuance of the war, as American ports of entry with a tariff of specific duties.
6th. To throw these ports open for the admissionunder any friendly flag of all articles, foreign or domestic not contraband of war.
7th. To encourage the admission and sale of American manufactured goods and the staples of the country, “particularly that of tobacco, which is a present monopoly of Mexico, and yields to the government a large revenue.”
We should thus get a revenue to pay for the expenses of the war.
The advantages of Perry’s plan, stated in his own words, were that, “Instead of our waging a war of invasion, it would become one of occupation and necessary expediency, and consequently a contest more congenial to the institutions and professions of the American people.”
“The cost of the war would be reduced three-fourths, the results would be positive, and there would be an immense saving of human life. Commerce and kindness would remove false ideas of Mexicans concerning North American people, ideas so actively fomented by the Mexican clergy. As an argument in favor of humanity, the Mexican people would be led to pursue agriculture and mining, so that it would be hard to rouse sufficient military spirit in them to dislodge forces holding their ports.” The “baleful influence of the clergy would be lessened,” and the despotic power of the military be almost annihilated, so that the people would sue for peace. In short, this plan, if carried out, would be a great educational measure.
TheMississippiin those days was among ordinarywar vessels, what the racers of the Atlantic to-day are among common steamers,—“an ocean greyhound.” Fleetly the gallant vessel moved south, passing exultingly the Bahamas, where many of our transports were waiting for a change of wind. Many of these were “ocean tramps”—hulks of such age and rottenness, that a norther would surely strand them. TheMississippistopping at Havana, March 15, 1847, was after two days then pointed for Vera Cruz, arriving on the evening of the 20th.
[15]See Parker’s Recollections of a Naval Officer, with reply of P. S. P. Conner,Army and Navy Journal, February 2, and April 19, 1884, andMagazine of American History, July, 1885.
[15]
See Parker’s Recollections of a Naval Officer, with reply of P. S. P. Conner,Army and Navy Journal, February 2, and April 19, 1884, andMagazine of American History, July, 1885.
[16]Chaplain Fitch W. Taylor,The Broad Pennant.
[16]
Chaplain Fitch W. Taylor,The Broad Pennant.
[17]See, for perhaps the best brief statement of the causes leading to the Mexican war and the part played by Polk, the article “Wars;” by Prof. Alexander Johnston, Lalor’sEncyclopaedia. Vol. III, p. 1091.
[17]
See, for perhaps the best brief statement of the causes leading to the Mexican war and the part played by Polk, the article “Wars;” by Prof. Alexander Johnston, Lalor’sEncyclopaedia. Vol. III, p. 1091.
CHAPTER XXII.“COMMODORE PERRY COMMANDS THE SQUADRON.”
Theprecise methods and almost immutable laws of military science required that the American invasion of Mexico in 1847 should be at the exact spot on which Cortez landed two centuries before, and where the French disembarked in 1830, and in 1865. This was at the only port on the Gulf coast of Mexico, in which large vessels could anchor. Ships entered by the North channel or fastened to rings in the castle walls. Our war vessels lay a little south of the Vera Cruz founded by the Spanish buccaneer.
With but a few skirmishes and little loss, the line of circumvallation was completed by the 18th, and named Camp Washington. Ground was broken for intrenchments, and platforms were built for the mortars which were placed in sunken trenches out of sight from the city. Waiting for a pause in the raving norther, and then seizing opportunity by the foremost hair of the forelock, the sailors landed ten mortars and four twenty-four pounder guns. By the 22d, seven of the mortars were in position on their platforms. Most of these latter were of the small bronze pattern called coehorns, after their inventor the Dutch engineer, Baron Mennon de Coehorn.These pieces could be handled by two men. A few mortars were of the ten-inch pattern.
This was a pitiful array of ordnance to batter down a walled city, and a nearly impregnable castle. With these in activity, both city and castle, if well provisioned, could hold out for months. Shells falling perpendicularly would destroy women and children, but do little harm to soldiers. The forty other mortars and the heavy guns were somewhere at sea on the transports and as yet unheard of, while every day the shadow of the dreadedvomitostalked nearer. Vera Cruz must be taken before “King Death in his Yellow Robe” arrived. The Mexicans for the nonce, prayed for his coming.
Thevomito, or yellow fever, is a gastro-nervous disorder which prostrates the nervous system, often killing its victims in five or six hours, though its usual course is from two to six days. Men are more susceptible to it than women. It was the Mexican’s hope, for Vera Cruz was its nursery, and the month of March its time of beginning. Northerners taken in the hot season might recover. In the cold season, an attack meant sure death. The disease is carried and propagated by mosquitoes and flies, and no system of inoculation was then known. An outbreak among our unacclimated men would mean an epidemic.
Scott, despite his well known excessive vanity, was a humane man and a scientific soldier. His ambition was to win success and glory at a minimum of loss of life, not only in his own army but among the enemy.His aim was to make a sensation by methods the reverse of Gen. Taylor’s, whose popularity had won him the soldier’s title of “Rough and Ready,” while Buena Vista had built the political platform on which he was to mount to the presidency. “Taylor the Louisianian’s” battles were sanguinary, but indecisive. He had driven in the Mexican left wing. Scott hoped to pierce the centre, to shed little blood and to make every shot tell. The people at home knew nothing of war as a science. They expected blood and “a big butcher’s bill,” and the newspapers at least would be disappointed unless gore was abundant. His soldiers and especially those who had been under Taylor and whose chief idea of fighting was a rush and a scuffle, failed at first to appreciate him, and dubbed this splendid soldier “Fuss and Feathers.”
Scott determined at once to show, as the key to his campaign, a city captured with trivial loss. Yet all his plans seemed about to be dashed, because his siege train had failed to come. The pitiful array of coehorns and ten-inch mortars, with four light twenty-four pounder guns and two Columbiads, would but splash Vera Cruz with the gore of non-combatants, while still the enemy’s flag was flaunted in defiance, and precious time was being lost. The general’s vanity—an immense part of him—was sorely wounded. “The accumulated science of the ages applied to the military art,” which he hoped to illustrate “on the plains of Vera Cruz,” was as yet ofno avail. Further, as a military man, he was unwilling to open his batteries with a feeble fire which might even encourage the enemy to a prolonged resistance. Conner is said to have offered to lend him navy guns, but he declined.
Perry arrived at Vera Cruz in theMississippi, March 20, 1847, after a passage of thirteen days from Norfolk. He was back just in time. Steam had enabled him to be on hand to accomplish one of the greatest triumphs of his life. His orders required him to attack the sea fort fronting Vera Cruz, “if the army had gone into the interior.” The United States fleet had lain before it for a whole year without aggression. He found our army landed and Vera Cruz invested on every side. The Mexicans were actively firing, but as yet there was no response from our side. That night it blew a gale from the North. The vessels hidden in spray, and the camps in sand, waited till daylight.
Early next morning, March 21, Perry was informed that the steamerHuntertogether with her prize a French barque, theJeune Nelly, which had been caught March 20th running the blockade out of Vera Cruz, and an American schooner, were all ashore on the northeast breakers of Green Island. Their crews, to the number of sixty souls, were in imminent danger of perishing. Among them was a mother and her infant child. Perry was quick to respond to the promptings of humanity. In such a gale, not a sailing vessel dared leave her moorings. TheMississippihad parted her cables, owing to the violence of the wind. A British war steamer lay much nearer the scene of disaster, without apparently thinking of the possibility of moving in such a gale; but Perry knew his noble ship and what to do with her. He dashed out in the teeth of the tempest and forced her through the terrific waves. In admiration of the act, Lieutenant Walke made a graphic picture of the rollingMississippi, which now hangs in the hall of the Brooklyn Lyceum. Reaching Green Island, Perry cast anchor. Captain Mayo and four officers volunteered to go to the rescue of the wrecked people. In spite of the great peril, they saved the entire party. The scene was one of thrilling interest when the young mother embraced husband and child in safety on the deck of the noble steamer. Had not theMississippiand Perry been at hand, the whole party must have perished.
It was on his return from this errand of humanity that Commodore Matthew Perry was given and assumed the command of the American fleet—the first of such magnitude, and the greatest yet assembled under the American flag. The time was 8a. m.March 21st. As Captain Parker recollects: “On the twenty-first of March shortly after the hoisting of the colors, we were electrified by the signal from the flag-ship ‘Commodore Perry commands the squadron.’ ” At once, Perry called with Conner upon General Scott concerning the navy’s part in the siege.
The order of relief to Commodore Conner dated Washington March 3, 1847, was worded: “The uncertain duration of the war with Mexico has induced the President to direct me no longer to suspend the rule which limits the term of command in our squadrons in its application to your command of the Home Squadron.”
PERRY AT THE AGE OF FIFTY-FOUR.
PERRY AT THE AGE OF FIFTY-FOUR.
Scott had opened fire March 18th, but seeing his inability to breach the walls, he was obliged to apply for help from the navy. When the new and the old naval commanders visited him in his tent on the morning of the 21st, the General requested of Perrythe loan of six of the heavy shell-guns of the navy for use by the army in battery. Perry’s reply was instant, hearty, characteristic, naval: “Certainly, General, but I must fight them.”
Scott said his soldiers would take charge of the guns, if the Commodore would land them on the beach. To this Perry said “no!” That “wherever the guns went, their officers and men must go with them.” Scott objected, declined the conditions, and renewed the bombardment with his small guns and mortars; but finding that he was only wasting time, he finally consented and asked Perry to send the guns with their naval crews. The marines were already in the trenches doing duty as part of the 3d U. S. artillery. Hitherto the sailors had acted as the laborers for the army, now they were to take part in the honors of the siege. This was on account of Perry’s demand.
How the successor of Conner announced to his sailors the glory awaiting them is told in the words of Rear-Admiral John H. Upshur. “I shall never forget the thrill which pervaded the squadron, when, on the day, within the very hour of his succeeding to the command, he announced from his barge, as he pulled under the sterns of all the vessels of the fleet, in succession, that we were to land guns and crews to participate in the investment of the city of Vera Cruz. Cheer after cheer was sent up in evidence of the enthusiasm this promise of a release from a life of inaction we had been leading under Perry’s predecessorinspired in every breast. In a moment everything was stir and bustle, and in an incredibly short space of time, each vessel had landed her big gun, with double crews of officers and men. . . Perry announced that those who did not behave themselves should not be allowed another chance to fight the enemy—which proved a guarantee of good conduct in all. . . . Under the energetic chief who succeeded to the command of a squadron dying of supineness, until his magic word revived it, the navy of the United States sustained its old prestige.”
Not only were men and officers on the ships thrilled at the sight of Perry’s pennant, but joy was carried to many hearts on shore. A writer in theNew York Star, of August 7th, 1852, who was on board the flag-ship during two days of the siege details the incidents here narrated.
At the investment of the city there were still left in it a few American women with their children mostly of the working class, their husbands having been driven from the city by the authorities. Governor Landero was not the man to make war on women and children, and they remained in peace until the bombardment commenced. Then they thronged to the house of Mr. Gifford the British consul for protection, and he transferred them to the sloop-of-warDaring, Captain George Marsden, who found them what place he could on his decks, already crowded with British subjects flying from the doomed city.
We had then seventy vessels, chartered transports and vessels of war in front of the city, but from negligence on the part of General Scott and Commodore Conner no provision was made to succor and relieve our homeless citizens, though “I,” says the correspondent, “who write this from what I saw, caused application to be made to both to have them taken from the deck of theDaring(where they were in the way and only kept for charity) to some of our unoccupied transport cabins. Commodore Conner flatly refused, as Captain Forrest of the navy knows, for he heard it, to have anything to do with them, and General Scott had no time. Just about then, Commodore Perry came down, to the Gulf. At noon his pennon of command floated from theMississippi, and before the sun went down, he had gathered into a place of safety every person, whether common working people or not, who had the right to claim the protection of the American flag.”
The same writer adds: “The other time I saw him, he had just been told that Mr. Beach of theNew York Sunand his daughter were in great danger in the city of Mexico, as Mr. Beach was accused of being a secret agent of the United States. The informant at the same time volunteered the information that theSun‘went against the Navy and Commodore Perry.’ ‘The Navy must show him that he is mistaken in his bad opinion of it,’ said the bluff Commodore, ‘and the question is not who likes me but how to get an American citizen, and aboveall an unprotected female out of the hands of the Mexicans.’ The son of Gomez Farias, the then President of Mexico, and one or two other Mexican gentlemen had come on board theMississippifrom the British steamer, to solicit the kind offices of Commodore Perry for permits to pass the American lines. The Commodore seized the occasion to make exchange of honor, and courtesy with young Farias. He stated the case of a father and daughter being detained in dangerous uncertainty in the city of Mexico, and obtained the pledges of the Mexicans to promote their safe deliverance. It was effected before they arrived in Mexico, but the quick and generous action of Perry was none the less to be esteemed.”
We may thus summarize the events of a day ever memorable to Matthew Perry.
March 20th. Arrival from the United States in theMississippi. Norther.
March 21. (a) Daylight—Rescue of theHunter. (b) 8a. m.Receives command of squadron. (c) Call with Conner on Gen. Scott. (d) Proposal for naval battery. (e) Perry returns to the fleet and assumes command. (f) Under stern of each vessel, announces naval battery. (g) Arranges for American women and children from Vera Cruz. (h) Preparations for landing the heavy navy guns.
CHAPTER XXIII.THE NAVAL BATTERY BREACHES THE WALLS OF VERA CRUZ.
Perry’sfirst order being that the navy should give the army the most efficient coöperation, by transferring part of its heavy battery from deck to land, the six guns of the size and pattern most desired by Scott were selected. With a view to distribute honors impartially among the ships, and to cheer the men, a double crew of sailors and officers was assigned to each gun; one of the crews being the regular complement for the gun. As everyone wanted to accompany the guns, lots were drawn among the junior officers for the honor. The crews having been picked, the landing of the ordnance began on the 22d. The pieces chosen were two thirty-twos from thePotomac, one of the same calibre from theRaritan, and one sixty-eight chambered Paixhans or Columbiad from theMississippi, theAlbany, and theSt. Mary’s. The three thirty-twos weighed sixty-one, and the three sixty-eights, sixty-eight hundred-weight each.
These were landed in the surf-boats, and by hundreds of sailors and soldiers were hauled up on the beach. The transportation on heavy trucks wasdone by night, as it was necessary to conceal from the Mexicans the existence of such a formidable battery until it was ready to open. The site chosen was three miles off. The road, as invisible for the most part as an underground railway, was of sand, in which the two trucks—all that were available—sunk sometimes to the axles, and the men to the knees, so that the toilsome work resembled plowing.
The naval battery, which, in the circumvallation was “Number Four,” was constructed entirely of the material at hand, very plentiful and sewn up in bags. It had two traverses six or more feet thick, the purpose of which was to resist a flanking, or in naval parlance a “raking” fire, which might have swept the inner space clean. The guns were mounted in their own ship’s carriages on platforms, being run out with side tackle and hand-spikes, and their recoil checked with sandbags. The ridge on which the battery was planted was opposite the fort of Santa Barbara, parallel with the city walls and fifteen feet above their level. It was directly in front of General Patterson’s command. In the trenches beyond, lay his brigade of volunteers ready to support the work in case of a sortie and storming by the Mexicans. The balls were stacked within the sandy walls, but the magazine was stationed some distance behind. The cartridges were served by the powder boys as on shipboard, a small trench being dug for their protection while not in transit.
Here then was “the accumulated science of ages”on the plains of Vera Cruz applied to the naval art, and directed against the doomed city, erected by one of the greatest engineers of the age, Robert E. Lee, with ordnance served by the ablest naval artillerists of the world, the pupils of the leading officer of the American navy, Matthew C. Perry. Most of them had been trained under his eye at the Sandy Hook School of Gun Practice. They were now to turn their knowledge into account. Not a single random shot was fired.
The exact range of each of the familiar guns was known, and the precise distance to the nearest and more distant forts. The points to be aimed at had been mathematically determined by triangulation before a piece was fired. Shortly before 10a. m.on the 24th of March, while the last gun mounted was being sponged and cleared of sand, the cannon of Santa Barbara opened with a fire so well aimed that it was clear that the battery was discovered. A few daring volunteers sprang out of the embrasures to clear away the brush and unmask the work. The chapparal was well chopped away to give free range to the officers who sighted the pieces, the aim being for the walls below the flag-pole. The direct and cross fire of seven forts soon converged on the sandbags, and the castle sent ten- and thirteen-inch shells flying over and around. When one of these fell inside, all dropped down to the ground. For the first five minutes the air seemed to be full of missiles, but our men after a little practice at houses andflag-staffs soon settled down to their work to do their best with navy guns. One lucky shot by Lieutenant Baldwin severed the flag-staff of Santa Barbara; at which, all hands mounted the parapet and gave three cheers. In order to allow free sweep to the big guns, the embrasures had been made large, thus offering a tempting target to the enemy.
The Mexicans were good heavy artillerists, but their shot was lighter than ours. Some of them were killed by their own balls which had been picked out of the sandbags by the Americans and fired back. Their strongest and best served battery was that fronting on the one worked by our sailors. The navy was here pitted against the navy, for the commander on the city side was Lieutenant of Marines D. Sebastian Holzinger, a German and an officer of several year’s service in the Mexican navy. He was as brave as he was capable; and when his flag-staff had been cut away, he and a young assistant leaped into the space outside, seized the flag and in sight of the Americans, nailed it to the staff again. A ball from the naval battery at the same moment striking the parapet, Holzinger and his companion were nearly buried in rubbish.
Within the city the Mexican soldiers, who had before found shelter in their bomb-proof places of retreat from the mortar bombs falling vertically into the streets, did not relish and could not hold out against missiles sent directly through the walls into their barracks and places of refuge. The Paixhansshells hit exactly among soldiers, and not into churches among women. It is said that when the Mexican engineers in the city picked up the solid thirty-two pounder shot and one of the unexploded eight-inch shells, they decided at once that the city must fall.
In spite of the hammering which the sand battery received, no material injury to its walls was done, and what there was was easily repaired at night. Captains Lee and Williams were willing to show faith in their own work, and remained in the redoubt during the fire. At 2.30p. m.the ammunition was exhausted, and the heated ordnance was allowed to cool. The last gun fired was a double-shotted one of thePotomac. Captain Aulick wishing to send a despatch to Commodore Perry, Midshipman Fauntleroy volunteered to take it, and though the Mexicans were playing with all their artillery, he arrived safely on the beach and Perry received tidings of progress.
The embrasures were filled up with sandbags, and the garrison sat under the parapet, awaiting the relief party which approached about 4 o’clock. The Mexicans, who had been driven away from their guns, now finding the Americans silent, opened with redoubled vigor which made the approaching reinforcements watch the air keenly for the black spots which were round shots.
The result of the first day’s use of the navy guns was, that fifty feet of the city walls built of coquinaor shell-rock, the curtains of the redoubt to right and left, were cut away. A great breach was made, about thirty-six feet wide, sufficient for a storming party to enter; while the thicker masonry of the forts was drilled like a colander. These breaches were partly filled at night by sandbags.
The relief party led by Captain Mayo reached the battery at sunset, and after a good supper, fell to sound sleep, during which time, the engineers repaired the parapet. It was a beautiful starlight night. The time for the chirping of the tropical insects had come, and they were awakening vigorously to their summer concerts. All night long the mortars, like geyser springs of fire, kept up their rhythmic flow of iron and flame. The great star-map of the heavens seemed scratched over with parabolas of red fire, the streaks of which were watched with delight by the soldiers, and with tremor by the beleagured people in the city.
At daylight the boatswain’s silver whistle called the men to rise, and the day’s work soon after breakfast began in earnest. The sailors manned their guns, firing so steadily that between seven and eight o’clock it was necessary to let the iron tubes cool. At 7a. m.another army battery, of four twenty-fours and two eight-inch Paixhans being finished, joined in the roar. Their fire was rapid, but the dense growth of chapparal hid their objective points from view making good aim impossible, so that the damage done was not strikingly evident.
The castle garrison had now gained the exact range of the naval battery, and thirteen-inch shell from the castle began to fall all around and close to the sandbags throwing up loose showers of soil. One dropped within the battery but upon exploding, hurt no one. The round shot from the city forts were continually grazing the parapets, and it was while Midshipman T. D. Shubrick was levelling his gun and pointing it at a tower in one of the forts, that a round shot entered the embrasure instantly killing him. During the two days, four sailors were killed, mostly by solid shot in the head or chest; while five officers and five men were wounded, mostly by chapparal splinters of yucca, or cactus thorns and spurs, and fragments of sandbags.
Meanwhile, on deck, the Commodore co-operated in the “awful activity” of the American batteries. At daylight, Perry, seeing that the castle was paying particular attention to the naval battery, ordered Tatnall in theSpitfireto approach and open upon it, in order to divert the fire from the land forces. Tatnall asked the Commodore at what point he should engage. Perry replied, “Where you can do the most execution, sir.” The brave Tatnall took Perry at his word. With theSpitfireand theVixen, commanded by Joshua R. Sands, each having two gun-boats in tow, he steamed up to within eighty yards distance, and began a furious cannonade upon the fortress holding his position for a half hour. The fight resembled a certain one, pictured on aNetherlands historical medal, of a swarm of bees trying to sting a tortoise to death despite his armor. Here was a division of “mosquito boats” blazing away at the stone castle within a distance which had enabled the Mexicans to blow them out of the water had they handled their guns aright. The affair became not only exciting but ludicrous, when Tatnall and Sands took still closer quarters within the Punto de Hornos, where the little vessels were at first almost hidden from view in the clouds of spray raised by the rain of balls that vexed only the water. Tatnall’s idea seemed to be to give the surgeons plenty to do. Perry, however, did not believe in that sort of warfare. When he saw that the castle guns which had been trained away from the land to the ships were rapidly improving their range, he recalled the audacious fighters.
Tatnall at first was not inclined to see the signals. The Commodore then sent a boat’s crew with preemptory orders to return. Amid the cheers of the men who brought them, Tatnall obeyed, though raging and storming with chagrin. Most of the men on board his ships were wet, but none had been hurt. To retreat without bloody decks was not to his taste.
General Scott, a thorough American, had long rid himself of the old British tradition, that in all wars there must be “a big butcher’s bill.” This idea was not much modified until after the Crimean war, which was mostly butchery, and little science,—magnificent,but not war. The Soudan campaign of 1884 threatened a revival of it. We have seen how this idea dominated on the British side, in the wished-for “yard arm engagements” of the navy in 1812, and how, in place of it, the Americans bent their energies to skill in seamanship and gunnery; or, in other words, to victory by science and skill.
Perry and Scott were alike in their ideas and tastes, they regarded war more as the application of military science to secure national ends with rapidity and economy, than as a scrimmage in which results were measured by the length of the lists of killed and wounded. Tatnall, a veteran of the old school, however, seemed still to adhere to the old British ideal, and was keenly disappointed to find so few hurt on the American side.
From daybreak to onep. m., over six hundred Paixhans shells and solid shot were fired into the city by the naval battery. Fort St. Iago, which had concentrated its fire on the army batteries, now opened on the naval redoubt, the guns of which were at once trained in the direction of the new foe. A few applications of the science of artillery proved the unerring accuracy of Perry’s pupils, and St. Iago was silenced.
Captain Mayo and his officers through their glasses saw the Mexicans evacuate the fort. Chagrined at having no foemen worthy of their fire, he ordered both officers and sailors to mount the parapet and give three cheers. “If the enemy intends to fireanother shot, our cheers will draw it,” said the gallant little Captain; but echo and then silence were the only answers. The naval guns having opened the breach so desired by General Scott and silenced all opposition, had now nothing further to do, were again left to cool. The naval battery had fired in all thirteen hundred rounds.
At 2p. m., Captain Mayo turned over the command to Lieutenant Bissell and mounted his horse, the only one on the ground, to give Commodore Perry the earliest information of the enemy’s being silenced. As he rode through the camp, General Scott was walking in front of his tent. Captain Mayo rode up to him and said “General, they are done, they will never fire another shot.”
The General, in great agitation, asked “Who? Your battery, the naval battery?”
Mayo answered, “No, General, the enemy is silenced. They will not fire another shot.” He then related what had occurred.
General Scott in his joy almost pulled Captain Mayo off his horse, saying (to use his own expression) “Commodore, I thank you and our brothers of the navy in the name of the army for this day’s work.”[18]
The General then went on and complimented in most extravagant terms the rapid and heavy fire of the naval battery upon the enemy; saying, when he was informed that Captain Mayo had sent to Perryfor an additional supply of ammunition, that the post of honor and of danger had been assigned by him to the navy. The General’s remarks then became more personal. He said “I had my eye upon you, Captain Mayo, as Midshipman,[19]as a Lieutenant, as a Captain, now let me thank you personally asCommodoreMayo for this day’s work.”
The loss of the second day in the navy was one officer, Shubrick, and one sailor killed and three wounded. Lieutenant Shubrick’s monument stands in the Annapolis Naval Academy’s grounds.
On Captain Mayo’s notification to Perry of the results of the cannonade by navy guns, preparations for assault were continued. It had been agreed by General Scott and Commodore Perry that the storming party should consist of three columns, one of sailors and marines, one of the regulars, and one of volunteers. Perry had resolved to head his column in person, and had already ordered ladders made. The part assigned to the navy was to carry the sea front. Perry had also planned the storming, by boat parties, of the water battery of the castle so that its guns might be spiked. For this a dark night was necessary, and the waning of the moon had to be awaited. Perry was unable to get into the position which the French had occupied in 1839, because they had treacherously moved there in time of peace; as Courbet, in 1882, got into the Min river at Foo Chow,China. For the attack on the city, ladders were already finished. Having no other material at hand, the studding-sail booms of theMississippihad been sawed up, and the navy was ready. The volunteers were to enter through the breach made by the navy guns.
The relief party from the ships under Captain, now Rear-Admiral Breese, took their places in the naval battery on the afternoon of the 25th, ready for another day’s work if necessary. But this was not to be. The Mexican governor ordered a parley to be sounded from the city walls at evening. The signal was not understood by our forces, and the mortars kept belching their fire all night long. The next morning, the 26th, a white flag was displayed; and at 8a. m., all the batteries ceased their fire, and quietness reigned along our lines.
A conference for capitulation was held at the lime kilns at Point Hornos. The commissioners from the army were General W. T. Worth, and Colonel Totten of the engineers,—Scott’s comrades-in-arms at Fort George in 1813—and General Pillow, who commanded a brigade of volunteers, from Tennessee. By this time, another frightful norther had burst upon land and sea. Communication with the ships could not be held, and so Perry could not be invited to sit with the commissioners, for which General Scott handsomely apologized. The navy, however, was represented by the senior captain, J. H. Aulick; while Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, afluent scholar in Spanish, officiated as interpreter. These officers acted in the convention entirely independent of the authority of the General, as naval officers. The Mexican commandant’s propositions were rejected, and unconditional surrender was dictated and accepted.
In the great norther of the 26th of March, twenty-six transports went ashore, and cargoes to the amount of half a million of dollars were lost. On the night of the frightful storm there was bright moonlight, and the vessels driving shoreward to their doom or dashing on the rocks were seen from the city.
Unexpectedly to General Scott, Landero, the successor of Morales who was commandant both of the city and castle, made unconditional surrender both at once. Scott had expected to take the city first, and then with the navy to reduce the castle, it being unknown to him that Morales held command at both places. It may safely be affirmed that the moral effect caused by the tremendous execution of the naval battery caused this unexpected surrender of the castle. Nevertheless the credit of the fall of Vera Cruz belongs equally to three men, Conner, Scott and Perry.
For his advance into the interior, General Scott needed animals for transportation, and with Perry the capture of Alvarado was planned. Horses were abundant at this place, and good water was plentiful. On two previous occasions, under Conner, attempts to capture this town had proved miserable failures, sothat Perry and his men were exceedingly anxious to succeed in securing it themselves. It was hoped too, that an imposing demonstration by sea and land would, since Vera Cruz had fallen, intimidate and conciliate the people and prevent them joining Santa Anna. As usual, Perry distributed the honors impartially among the crews of many vessels. Quitman’s cavalry and infantry and a section of Steptoe’s artillery went by land. A party of the sailors bridged the rivers for the soldiers.
On the day of the fall of Vera Cruz, Lieutenant Charles G. Hunter of theScourgehad arrived. He was ordered to blockade Alvarado, and report to Captain Breese of theAlbany. Hunter seeing signs of retreat, without waiting for orders moved his vessel in. He found the guns dismounted, and leaving two or three men in the deserted place, went up the river to Tlacahalpa, firing right and left at whatever seemed an enemy. As not an ounce of Mexican powder was burned in opposition the whole act seemed one of theatrical bravado. He left no word to his superior officers, only directing a midshipman to write to General Quitman. The cavalry on arriving found the town had surrendered.
Perry ordered the arrest of Hunter, preferred charges against him, and after court martial he was dismissed from the squadron. The people at home feasted and toasted him, and “Alvarado Hunter” was the hero of the hour, while Perry was made the target of the newspapers. Hunter’s subsequentcareer is the best commentary upon the act of Commodore Perry, and a full justification of it.[20]Between gallantry, and bravado coupled with a selfish breach of discipline, Perry made a clear distinction and acted upon his convictions.
Of the sixty guns found at Alvarado thirty-five were shipped as trophies and twenty-five were destroyed.
Midshipman Robert C. Rodgers had been captured by the Mexicans near the wall of Vera Cruz and was imprisoned in the castle of Perote as a spy. Though Scott wanted to be the sole channel of communication with the Mexican government, Perry claimed equal power in all that relates to the navy. He sent Lieutenant Raphael Semmes (afterwards of Confederate andAlabamafame) with the army for the purpose. Scott refused to allow him to communicate, but permitted him to remain one of the general’s aids. Semmes was thus enabled to see the battles of the campaign, the story of which he has told in his interesting book.
One of Perry’s favorite young officers at this time was Lieutenant James S. Thornton afterwards the efficient executive officer on theKearsargein her conflict with theAlabama.