CHAPTER I OCCUPATION OF VERA CRUZ For the second time in history the Mexican port of Vera Cruz was occupied by the United States on the morning of Tuesday, April 21, 1914, when a force of marines and bluejackets from the warships Utah, Florida and Prairie landed at 11:10 o'clock and seized the Custom-house without opposition. The marines were under the command of Major Smedley Darlington Butler, son of Representative Thomas S. Butler of Pennsylvania, senior Republican member of the United States House of Representatives. Leaving a guard at the entrances to the Custom-house, the American forces took up positions commanding the streets leading toward the central square of the town, the Plaza de la Constitucion. Machine guns and field guns were placed in position to cover all the streets converging on the square. The commanding officer of the American fleet was Rear Admiral Fletcher, and his orders were that the landing forces should occupy these positions and make no attack on the Mexican troops unless they were attacked themselves. [N. B.-The United States having been on the verge of war with Mexico, although the South American Republics had inaugurated their efforts at mediation and an armistice prevailed at the time this edition of "Mexico in Peace and War" went to press, the most recent incidents of the difficulty with Gen. Huerta and his government have been treated thus prominently, out of their chronological order, on account of the widespread interest in the present situation and the demand for a permanent record of recent events.] The scene in the harbor of Vera Cruz as the men of the navy proceeded amid cheers to the landing at the customhouse wharf was an unparalleled and inspiriting one. Nearest the shore of all the warships lay the transport Prairie, from which came the majority of the landing force. Farther out lay the great gray masses of the battleships Florida and Utah, their crews crowding to their sides watching developments and envying their comrades ordered to duty ashore. In the outer harbor, too, were the British cruiser Essex, the French cruiser Condé -named after the historic admiral of France, and the Spanish gunboat Carlos V., all intensely interested and sympathetic witnesses of the American operations. Before twenty hours had elapsed the scene before the ancient city was destined to become even more interesting from both the naval and the international standpoint. Rear Admiral Badger, commanding the North Atlantic fleet of the United States navy, was rapidly approaching Vera Cruz, leading a fleet composed of the first-class battleships Arkansas, flagship, New Hampshire, Louisiana, Vermont, New Jersey and North Dakota; also the South Carolina, Michigan, Tacoma and Nashville, with a total force of 7,700 sailors and 500 marines. On the arrival of these war vessels, with their accompanying supply ships, there were in all twenty-one ships of the United States navy lying in their gray war paint in and outside the port to insure the capture and safekeeping of the city. The actual landing of the naval force ordered ashore by Admiral Fletcher in pursuance of his orders was unopposed. Sweeping in to the wharf under the guns of the Prairie, the ships' boats and power launches, crowded to the gunwales with sailors and marines, made fast and debarked their loads of fighting men without the firing of a hostile shot. But the white-clad Americans had no sooner gained the center of the city and secured the approaches to the Plaza, than opposition developed and active hostilities began. |