often you would think the ship would capsize,” he told Julia. Grant discovered to his relief that he wasn’t prone to seasickness. Meanwhile, though, several soldiers displayed the unmistakable symptoms of smallpox, putting the rest of the army on edge and reminding everyone of the other diseases endemic to the coast. “We will have to get out of this part of Mexico soon or we will be caught by the yellow fever, which I am ten to one more afraid of than the Mexicans,” Grant wrote Julia.
The American fleet consisted of sailing ships primarily, but one vessel was a steam-powered dispatch boat driven by a propeller. Most of the men had seen river steamers pushed by paddle wheels, and a smaller number had seen ocean steamers, similarly driven by paddle wheels, which made a great commotion with their noise and splashing. The propeller boat overtook the sailing ships with little noise, no splashing andbarely a wake. “Why, the thing looks as if it was propelled by the force of circumstances,” one of Grant’s fellow officers remarked.
The landing at Vera Cruz, via surfboats ordered built by Scott for the purpose, went smoothly. The Mexicans might easily have disrupted the operation, but they contented themselves with desultory artillery fire from a fort above the beach. One shot decapitated an American major, but the others fell short.
Vera Cruz frowned formidably upon the invaders. “The city is a solid, compact place, the houses generally built of stone and two or three stories high,” Grant recorded. “The whole place is enclosed by a stone wall of about fifteen feet in height and four or five feet thick.”
Scott decided not to waste American lives assaulting the town. Instead he besieged it, constructing a cordon from the shore north of the town through sand hills on the west and back to the shore at the south. Scott had his engineers build artillery emplacements and then issued an ultimatum to the Mexican commander,Juan Morales, to surrender the city. When Morales refused, Scott ordered the American gunners to open fire.
For three days the Americans rained solid shot and explosive shells upon the city. On the afternoon of the third day foreign consuls in the city asked Scott to suspend the bombardment long enough for foreigners, women and children to be evacuated. Scott refused, saying they could have left upon his ultimatum to Morales. The consuls thereupon appealed to Morales to surrender the town. He agreed, on the condition that his men be paroled and the rights of civilians in the city be respected by the conquerors. Scott granted the condition and took the city.
T he victory came none too soon, from the American perspective. Some of Scott’s lieutenants, fearing a long siege, had urged him to order an assault. Against the larger losses an assault would entail they balanced the likelihood of an epidemic among the troops should they remain on the coast when the fever season arrived. The Americans all knew of the vomito— yellow fever—and they not unreasonably dreaded it. Scott guessed that the siege wouldn’t last long, and he was gratified when events proved him correct.
The road inland from the coast was one of the oldest and most storied routes in the history of the Americas. It was the pathCortez had followed in the early sixteenth century on his way to defeating theAztecsand seizing Mexico for Spain, and it had been an artery for commerce ever since. Grant was impressed. “From Vera Cruz to this place the road is one of the best, and one that probably cost more labor than any other in the world,” he wrote Julia from a point a hundred miles inland. The road climbed steadily, carrying the Americans from the torrid coast to a perennially temperate region where elevation offset the strength of the tropic sun. “The climate is said to be the best in the world,” Grant noted, and in April he was willing to credit the claim. “It is never so warm as to be uncomfortable nor so cold as to make a
The American fleet consisted of sailing ships primarily, but one vessel was a steam-powered dispatch boat driven by a propeller. Most of the men had seen river steamers pushed by paddle wheels, and a smaller number had seen ocean steamers, similarly driven by paddle wheels, which made a great commotion with their noise and splashing. The propeller boat overtook the sailing ships with little noise, no splashing andbarely a wake. “Why, the thing looks as if it was propelled by the force of circumstances,” one of Grant’s fellow officers remarked.
The landing at Vera Cruz, via surfboats ordered built by Scott for the purpose, went smoothly. The Mexicans might easily have disrupted the operation, but they contented themselves with desultory artillery fire from a fort above the beach. One shot decapitated an American major, but the others fell short.
Vera Cruz frowned formidably upon the invaders. “The city is a solid, compact place, the houses generally built of stone and two or three stories high,” Grant recorded. “The whole place is enclosed by a stone wall of about fifteen feet in height and four or five feet thick.”
Scott decided not to waste American lives assaulting the town. Instead he besieged it, constructing a cordon from the shore north of the town through sand hills on the west and back to the shore at the south. Scott had his engineers build artillery emplacements and then issued an ultimatum to the Mexican commander,Juan Morales, to surrender the city. When Morales refused, Scott ordered the American gunners to open fire.
For three days the Americans rained solid shot and explosive shells upon the city. On the afternoon of the third day foreign consuls in the city asked Scott to suspend the bombardment long enough for foreigners, women and children to be evacuated. Scott refused, saying they could have left upon his ultimatum to Morales. The consuls thereupon appealed to Morales to surrender the town. He agreed, on the condition that his men be paroled and the rights of civilians in the city be respected by the conquerors. Scott granted the condition and took the city.
T he victory came none too soon, from the American perspective. Some of Scott’s lieutenants, fearing a long siege, had urged him to order an assault. Against the larger losses an assault would entail they balanced the likelihood of an epidemic among the troops should they remain on the coast when the fever season arrived. The Americans all knew of the vomito— yellow fever—and they not unreasonably dreaded it. Scott guessed that the siege wouldn’t last long, and he was gratified when events proved him correct.
The road inland from the coast was one of the oldest and most storied routes in the history of the Americas. It was the pathCortez had followed in the early sixteenth century on his way to defeating theAztecsand seizing Mexico for Spain, and it had been an artery for commerce ever since. Grant was impressed. “From Vera Cruz to this place the road is one of the best, and one that probably cost more labor than any other in the world,” he wrote Julia from a point a hundred miles inland. The road climbed steadily, carrying the Americans from the torrid coast to a perennially temperate region where elevation offset the strength of the tropic sun. “The climate is said to be the best in the world,” Grant noted, and in April he was willing to credit the claim. “It is never so warm as to be uncomfortable nor so cold as to make a
Similar Books
