Soldiers of Conquest (12 page)

Sidney was moving among his gun crews and calling out encouragement to them. His shouted orders were swiftly obeyed. Lee thought his brother had become a fine, brave officer.

Sidney noted Lee standing behind the guns and gave him a wave and a white-toothed smile through his smoke begrimed face. He spoke to one of the gun sergeants, and then came and stood beside Lee. Neither brother said a word, simply glad to be near each other and uninjured.

*

In the middle of the night, Grant and the other quartermaster officers released their weary men from duty. All of the army's supplies had been ferried from the ships and transported to the central supply depot and stored under canvas. The men kicked sand over the fires that had been built to mark the landing place of the boats on the beach, ships' lanterns had shown the location of the vessels on the water, and went off into the darkness to find something to eat and their blankets.

Grant passed by his tent without stopping and went into the dunes in the direction of the American cannons growling angrily at the Mexicans. Siege and bombardment were the duties of engineers and artillerymen; still he wanted to see the fight. He came to a battery of large naval howitzers and stopped to watch the gun crews at work. Their actions were as smooth as a machine; firing, swabbing the barrels, powder boys running up with the measured powder charge, the powder tamped down, shot shoved into the mouth of the barrel and rammed home with long wooden staffs, and the gun touched off with the slowmatch.

He left the battery of howitzers and climbed upon a nearby sand hill for a better view of the cannonading. The ground shook incessantly beneath his feet as the battery steadily boomed out. The ear bursting roars and red fire spurting from muzzles constantly shattered the night. The sky was full of shells that seemed to pause at the peak of their arc, then turning and dropping ever more swiftly to their targets. Giant explosions erupted in Veracruz. Scores of fires burned in the city, the flames leaping high above the buildings.

In a short moment of quietness between gun bursts, the screams and wails of women and children in pain and horribly frightened in the city came across the dunes to Grant. His skin crawled at the pitiful cries. This wasn't the right way to fight a war. General Morales may have been correct in a military sense in not surrendering to Scott's demands, however he should have forced the women and children to leave the city. He was glad when the cannon resumed firing and masked the anguished cries.

Grant's weariness overrode his desire to observe the guns at work. He had labored eighteen hours straight and he could hear his blanket calling to him. He climbed down from the sand hill and into the sunken road and walked toward the sea.

*

Lee had a bursting headache. He had spent too many hours on the siege line with the earth jarring blasts of the cannons and the shrill whistling screams of the different calibers shells. On this fourth day of bombardment, as it had been for the previous three, the gun crews fired their cannons as rapidly as humanly possible and a storm of four or five explosive shells and solid shot was always speeding across the hot, blue sky. Gray-white banks of smoke were piled above every battery.

The Veracruz defenders were firing three times as many cannons as were the Americans and the walls and forts were alive with flashes of flame and jets of smoke. The preponderance of the enemy balls struck the front of the sand hills and did little damage, or passed overhead to land beyond. The American cannon balls had pounded large segments of the enemy's walls to rubble, and caused great destruction to the buildings within the city.

The number of Americans killed and wounded was but eleven and forty-seven, with the sailors suffering disproportionately large. The young seamen wouldn't obey warnings to keep down behind the parapets, they just had to rise up to see where their shots landed, and four of them had their heads blown off by Mexican cannon balls.

To Lee's surprise, part of the Mexican gun fell silent, and in but a few seconds all were quiet. He quickly raised his field glasses and looked at the city. Atop every fort a white flag rose on a tall staff.

In response to the flags, the American batteries ceased firing one by one. In half a minute, the only sound on the battlefield was the whisper of the slow wind blowing the mountains of gun smoke away.

Were the Mexicans surrendering? Lee struck out for headquarters at a fast pace.

As Lee approached the headquarter tents, he saw three horsemen leaving at a cantor under a white flag along the beach toward Veracruz. He recognized British Consul Giffard but not the other two Anglos both richly dressed and seemingly men of importance.

Lee hurried on and halted near Colonel Totten standing in front of headquarters and watching after the departing riders.

“Colonel, is it a proposal for surrender?” Lee asked.

“No. The consuls wanted a truce to allow the women and children to leave the city. They said they have taken hundreds into their buildings and there is no room for more. Many are hiding in the vaults of the mercantile establishments, in basements, and some are living on the stone breakwater to stay out of range of you guns. Even the priests are frightened and won't leave their churches to perform the last rites for the dead.”

“May I ask what the general said to the request?”

“He told them no. And he reminded them that he had given them the opportunity to take all noncombatants from the city and they refused. Further he told them that any person who tried to leave the city would be fired upon. The consuls didn't like that worth a damn. We can't halt our bombardment for we have information that Santa-Anna has already passed through Mexico City with a large army and plans to break our siege of Veracruz.”

Scott came out of the headquarters tent, and seeing Lee called out to him. “Captain Lee, go quickly back along the line and tell the artillerymen to begin firing.” Scott smiled grimly. “And, captain, aim a few balls somewhat closer to the foreign consulates. Shake those fine gentlemen up even more so that they'll go crying to the Mexican general to surrender the city to stop the bombardment.”

Lee returned the general's smile. “Yes, sir, a little closer.”

When General Scott and the aid to British Consul Giffard, a blond headed young man in civilian clothing, came out of the headquarters tent, the score of assembled generals and staff officers ceased talking among themselves and waited expectantly. Giffard's aid had come out from behind the walls of Veracruz just before sunrise the day following the visit by the foreign consuls and made his way through the cannon fire to the American lines. He had been brought under guard to Scott. After a brief look at the message carried by the man, Scott had sent orders for all his generals and staff to report immediately to headquarters.

Scott raised the consuls' message above his head. “I have news to share with you,” he said.

Lee, standing with the officers, saw the general's pleasure in his flashing eyes and the stance of his tall body as he looked down upon his subordinates. “Mr. Campion here has braved our cannon balls to bring us a message signed by all the foreign consuls in Vearcruz. They state they are speaking for the Mexican military and desire a truce to discuss surrender. We are requested to cease firing and appoint delegates to negotiate terms. I am agreeable.”

Scott gave a broad smile to his officers. “We won't be dealing with General Morales for it seems he has been taken suddenly ill and has turned over the command of Veracruz and Ulua to General Jose Leandro.”

The officers broke into laughter. It was a time worn stratagem for a general to protect his name from dishonor by releasing command to a junior officer to surrender a military fortification and thus have that man's name forever tied to the capitulation.

When the laughter died away, Scott spoke to Beauregard. “Lieutenant, ride and order all our guns to cease firing.”

Beauregard saluted. “Yes, sir.” He hurried toward his horse.

Scott spoke to Campion. “You may return to the city at any time. Those troopers who brought you here will escort you back through our lines.”

He turned to his generals and aids. “Come inside and we shall discuss the terms of the surrender and choose our representatives.”

*

“A magnificent day to accept the surrender of an enemy,” General Scott said to his staff officers gathered about him. With Veracruz and Ulua soon to be in his hands, he was in a buoyant mood and a broad smile of satisfaction wreathed his face.

Lee agreed with Scott. It was an enchantingly summer-like day. The drenching rain that had begun during the night had ended at daylight after washing the sky and land to a sparkling newness. A delightfully cool breeze came off the nearby sea. The domes of Veracruz a mile away were gilded with golden sunlight. Directly overhead a sailing hawk held station in a thermal updraft and eyed the goings on of the earth bound men below.

The time was mid-morning on March 29 and twenty days after the landing upon the Mexican shore. The American army was drawn up on the Plain Of Cocos, a green meadow shaded with scores of coconut palms. The general and his officers mounted on horseback had ridden to a position from where they could view the formal surrender. Directly in front of them Worth's two brigades of regulars with their officers were in formation, with Patterson's volunteers opposite and facing them some seventy yards distant. At the end of the space separating the two brigades, the Dragoons and a battery of cannon loaded with exploding canisters, faced the city. All the troops carried loaded weapons and full cartridge boxes. Worth, on horseback, waited near a large white flag waving from a tall pole in the center of the assembled Americans.

Scott had met with his commanders and chose Generals Worth and Pillow and Colonel Totten as the negotiators to meet with the three Mexican representatives for arranging the conditions for surrender. Lee understood the reason why Scott had included Pillow. He wanted Polk's man involved so that he couldn't complain to the president about the terms. The six negotiators had met at Scott's headquarters and haggled for hours. Worth had become exasperated by the interminable argument and had ended the meeting, sending the Mexicans back to the city. He reported to Scott the Mexicans weren't going to surrender, but were trying to gain time for Santa-Anna to arrive and force the Americans to lift the siege. Scott, who had been grimly pacing and waiting, asked Worth whether or not the Mexicans had left a written proposal behind. Worth produced a document and gave it to Scott.

Once Worth had departed, Scott quickly had the Mexican writing translated to English. He saw immediately that the Mexicans wanted a means to save face in the surrender. He therefore stipulated that the Mexican soldiers would not be made prisoner of war, but would be paroled upon their promise not to fight the Americans again. He gave nothing away for he didn't have the means to imprison thousands of men. General Leandro seized upon the promised leniency and signed the document handing over both Veracruz and San Juan de Ulua.

Lee felt proud of his contribution to the victory. He knew he had done well in placing the cannons, selecting targets, and aiming the guns upon the enemy. Danger had been braved, glory won, and his reputation was being built. Perhaps a major's rank wasn't too far off. One thing he regretted, that there was no purpose for the war other than that of taking territory from a sovereign nation.

The Americans came to attention as the Mexican soldiers; some thirty-five hundred from the garrison of Veracruz and fifteen hundred from Ulua, in immaculate blue and red uniforms came marching out of the city's gates. They formed up by company with a band at the head of each regiment. Lee judged the officers with their many decorations and pistols and swords a fine sight. As the last of the columns left the gate, the cannons of Veracruz and Ulua gave a final salute and all the Mexican flags came down. The regiments advanced onto the Plain Of Cocos to the beat of their drums and squeal of fifes, and onward in between the ranks of Americans to the white flag.

There the bands fell silent. The soldiers stacked their arms. A few men, shamed by the surrender, broke their muskets by slamming them down on the ground.

Worth ignored the anger of the soldiers. When the last Mexican had fallen back into rank, Worth saluted the officers and read General Scott's proclamation excusing the forty highest ranking of them from their parole and allowing them to keep their side arms and horses. At this surprise generosity the forty officers came to ramrod attention and saluted Worth. Scott was gambling that his released of the officers from their parole would cause them to tell how powerful were the Americans and yet generous in victory, and this would weaken other Mexican officers' will to fight.

General Leandro released his troops and they hastened to join with several hundred civilians, men, women and children leaving Veracruz and moving along the highway leading inland. The people were loaded with all manner of objects from guitars to baskets of food to household items to pets. Many women cried as they trudged along with their smallest child strapped upon their backs and older ones toddling along beside them.

The American regimental bands struck up “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, and Worth, whom Scott had assigned to be military governor of the city, mounted his horse and proudly led the victorious American soldiers in through the open gates of Veracruz.

Lee watching from the Plain Of Cocos with Scott and the other staff officers could see out onto the Gulf where Commodore Perry's fleet had sailed in close to San Juan de Ulua and ships' boats were transporting a garrison of seamen and Marines to occupy the mighty fort. Lee thought it a strikingly unselfish gesture by Scott to allow Worth and Perry to have the honor of being first into the two strongholds.

Upon the signal of a cannon shot, the “Stars And Stripes” rose gleaming over the city, and the forts and hundreds of cannons saluted the flag with a thunderous roar on the beach and from the warships of the fleet.