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-war Daring, 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 the Daring (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 the Mississippi, 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 the New York Sun and 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 the Sun ‘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 above all 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 the Mississippi from 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 the Mississippi. Norther.
March 21. (a) Daylight—Rescue of the Hunter. (b) 8 a. 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’s first 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 the Potomac, one of the same calibre from the Raritan, and one sixty-eight chambered Paixhans or Columbiad from the Mississippi, the Albany, and the St. 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 was done 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.