Great Events in the History of North and South America

by Charles A. Goodrich

Some two hundred miles south-easterly of the capital, on the Gulf of Mexico, is situated the city of Vera Cruz—a place of considerable mercantile importance, and nearly opposite to which is a small island, on which stands the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, a fortress long celebrated for its impregnable strength.

The reduction of this fortress, and the capture of this most important maritime town belonging to Mexico, had for some time engaged the attention of the American government. For a time, the well-known strength of the fortress, and the danger arising from the vomito, of garrisoning that and the city, in case of their reduction, strongly operated against the enterprise. But their importance to the final and more speedy termination of the war, at length decided the president and his advisers to hazard the expedition. It being impracticable to withdraw General Taylor from the theatre of his signal victories, the enterprise was intrusted to the long-tried and accomplished General Scott.

In obedience to his orders, General Scott left Washington on the 24th of November, on this great and doubtful enterprise. On the 1st of January, he reached the Rio Grande. The troops destined for this expedition, among whom was a considerable portion of the army under General Taylor, were directed to rendezvous at Lesbos, an island about one hundred and twenty-five miles north-west of Vera Cruz. From this point, the army was transported to the west of the island of Sacrificios. The landing of the troops having been effected without direct opposition, although the guns and castles, of the city kept up a constant firing with round shot and thirteen-inch shells, the several divisions of the army took their respective positions for the purpose of investment and siege.

Soon after the commencement of the siege, a "norther" prevailed, which rendered it impossible to land heavy ordnance. On the 17th, a pause occurred in the storm, and ten mortars, four twenty-four-pound guns, and some howitzers were landed. On the night of the 18th, the trenches were opened, and—engineers, with sappers and miners, leading the way—the army gradually closed in nearer the city.

On the 22d of March—seven of the ten-inch mortars being in battery, and other works in progress—General Scott summoned the governor of Vera Cruz to surrender the city. This he refused. On the return of the flag, the mortar-battery, at a distance of eight hundred yards from the city, opened its fire, and continued to fire during the day and night.

On the 24th, the batteries were rëinforced with twenty-four pounders and Paixhan guns. On the 25th, all the batteries were in "awful activity." Terrible was the scene! The darkness of the night was illuminated with blazing shells circling through the air. The roar of artillery, and the heavy fall of descending shot, were heard throughout the streets of the besieged city. The roofs of buildings were on fire. The domes of churches reverberated with fearful explosions. The sea was reddened with the broadsides of ships. The castle of San Juan returned from its heavy batteries the fire, the light, the smoke, the noise of battle. Such was the sublime and awfully-terrible scene, as beheld from the trenches of the army, from the 22d to the 25th of March.

Early on the morning of the 26th, General Landers, on whom the command had been devolved by General Morales, made overtures of surrender. Late on the night of the 27th, the articles of capitulation were signed and exchanged.

On the 29th, the official dispatch of General Scott announced that the flag of the United States floated over the walls of Vera Cruz and the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa. The regular siege of the city had continued from the day of investment, the 12th of March, to the day the articles of capitulation were signed, the 27th; making a period of fifteen days, in which active, continuous, vigorous operations were carried on. During this time, our army had thrown three thousand ten-inch shells, two hundred howitzer shells, one thousand Paixhan shot, and two thousand five hundred round shot, weighing, in the whole, about half a million pounds! Most effective and most terrible was the disaster and destruction they caused within the walls of the city, whose ruins and whose mourning attested both the energy and the sadness of war.