CHAPTER VIII
VERA CRUZ.—CERRO GORDO
Vera Cruz, an old Spanish walled town on the Gulf of Mexico, with a population of 12,000, was situated on a sandy plain, which, extending back from the town, was broken by many sand-hills and ridges, and covered in great part with dense chapparal. On the land side a strong line of masonry works encircled the city from Fort Conception on the beach above, or north of, to Fort Santiago below it; while on the sea side the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, seated on an island a thousand yards in advance of the town, commanded all approaches with 128 heavy guns, and made the sea front doubly secure.
The American army landed unopposed on March 9, 1847, on the beach a few miles south of the town; during the next four days extended lines of investment completely around the doomed city on the land side, and, having with great labor and some interruption from northers landed the heavy siege-guns, mortars, and material for the bombardment, commenced the batteries on the 18th, the second day after the young engineer officers reached the scene of action. They were at once set to work reconnoitring the ground and the enemy’s works by day, and laying out the batteries and superintending the working parties by night.
Lieutenant Stevens threw himself into this work with even more than his accustomed zeal. On one of his daring reconnoissances the horse he rode—a powerful and headstrong animal loaned him by his friend, Lieutenant Tower—took the bit in his teeth and bolted directly for the enemy’s lines. Finding it impossible to stop or control the frantic steed, Lieutenant Stevens, throwing his whole strength on one rein, managed to make him swerve towards the base of a sand-hill, where he threw himself from the saddle, escaping injury on the soft ground, while the runaway continued his course to the very walls of the city.
The batteries were placed midway between the lines of investment and the city, and about 900 yards from the walls. Lieutenant Stevens was indefatigable in searching out the best routes for the boyaux, or covered ways, to enable the troops to pass to and from the batteries without loss from the enemy’s fire. The broken sand-hills and dense chapparal rendered this a difficult and laborious task; and in forcing his way through these thorny and almost impenetrable thickets his hands were so badly torn, and perhaps poisoned, that for several days he was obliged to have them bandaged with poultices of prickly pear. The route which he thus looked out was adopted, and the construction of the covered way was placed under his charge, with large working parties, for several nights, until completed. His experiences are best told in his own words. The independence, almost insubordination, of the new volunteers is simply the common experience with citizen soldiery fresh from home, but which they soon outgrow under good officers in a few months’ campaigning.
Friday, March 18. At two A.M. Lieutenants Mason, Stevens, and Tower entered the trenches and relieved Captain Lee and Lieutenants Beauregard and McClellan. No workers or guards present, save twelve sappers, till four o’clock. Lieutenant Mason at Battery 2. Lieutenant Stevens at Battery 1. Lieutenant Tower in communication leading to cemetery. Colonel Scott in command of the working party. A company of the 8th infantry, under command of Lieutenants Jordan and Pitcher, in Battery 1. About seven o’clock Lieutenant Foster relieved Lieutenant Tower, who returned to camp to supervise construction of powder magazines. At half past twelve Lieutenant Stevens ordered to examine the infantry communication, reconnoitred on the previous day, in order to commence the trenches at night with a working party.
At two P.M. Captain Sanders on the naval battery. Lieutenants Stevens and Smith on the right were on duty. The naval battery laid out during the day by Captain Lee. Lieutenant Smith took particular charge of Batteries 3 and 4, and the remainder of the communication to Battery 1, with a fatigue party under Major Graham; Lieutenant Stevens, of the boyau of communication from camp to batteries with a fatigue party of 400 volunteers, New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians. Did not report at beach till nine P.M. Arrived on the ground at ten P.M. Two hours occupied in laying out the boyau with a cord and getting the whole force at work. Whilst Lieutenant Stevens was absent in discharge of his duties of supervision at the batteries and trenches under the particular charge of Lieutenant Smith, the volunteers abandoned their work and returned to camp, excepting a small force of fifty men on the left of the large sand-hill, in rear of which the communication passed.
Saturday, March 19. About dark a large force of 400 men reported at the old cemetery as a fatigue party in the boyau under the charge of Lieutenant Stevens,—four companies of regulars, Brooks and Shackleford, 2d artillery; Lieutenant Ernst, 6th infantry; Lieutenant Rodgers, 2d dragoons,—the whole under the command of Captain De Hart,—and four companies of volunteers, Pennsylvanians.
The regulars employed on communication from Battery 1 to Battery 2, on parapet to the right of Battery 2, and on the trench from the upper end of the valley to the first hollow of the natural trench leading through the long ridge in rear of the batteries, the volunteers on the remaining part of the boyaux. The regulars made their trench practicable. The volunteers could not be made to work with the most strenuous exertions on the part of the officers. Some were drunk and all sleepy. They complained of being tired and hungry. Some delay occurred throughout the works in consequence of a musketry fire from the trenches. Lieutenant Mason in charge of a working party at the batteries.
Monday, March 22. The boyaux of communication made practicable and safe to-day, although not sufficiently commodious; a fatigue party of 200 men reporting to Lieutenant Stevens, and commencing work at five A.M.; two companies regulars of 2d artillery, Captain McKensie and Lieutenant Hardcastle, Captain Kendrick; and two of marines, Lieutenant Adams.