Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-08-17
LETTER FROM MEXICO.
TAMPIco, MEXICO, July Goth, 1877

LETTER FROM MEXICO.
TAMPIco, MEXICO, July Goth, 1871.
THE INSTRUCTION.
Your readers may have seen the brief tele
grams few weeks since, announcing the
suppression of the insurrection in this place
which, for time, assumed formidable pro-
portions; the following are the substantial de-
tails gathered from both spectators and par
tcipators of the fight.
The insurgents under Lopez and Coranado
pronounced" at Tampico May LIST. About
the II th of the same month the Government
troops under Generals Corella, Rocha and
Alcantra commenced the siege. The town is
surrounded on three sides by water, and the
approach on the land side is defended by
strong fort called Casa Matin; the only ap-
proach by water is defended by another fort
named Iturbide. Casa Matin is surrounded
by ditch twelve feet wide and eight feet deep,
which, during the siege was filled with water.
The insurgents threw up breastwork on a
prominent hill just outside the town, but the
Government troops easily captured it and
placed omit some fourteen inch, and sixty-four
and thirty-twe Founders, and commenced a
vigorous bombardment of the fort and town.
The former suffered severely and the latter
received most unpleasant attention from the
unwelcome missiles which were scattered over
the half of the town nearest the troops. In
this portion of the town about every tenth
house was hit and have holes of all sizes
made by shot and shell. Some houses were
completely demolished.
AssAULTING THE WORKS.
On the 18th of June the Government troops
made an assault on the insurgents, which was
commenced by cavalry charge on the breast
works to the right Of Casa Matin. The Gov
eminent troops being in large force, succeed
ed in taking the works, but it was not without
a hot fight and considerable loss of life.
About the same time another charge was
made on the works to the left, where a hand
to hand encounter ensued. The fighting was
desperate for few minutes, but the superior
forces of the Government troops enabled
| them to carry the day, but it was with the loss
of General Alcantara who fell MORALLY
wounded by bayonet thrust. After carrying
the breastworks they marched rapidly on Casa
Matin, placing scaling ladders over the trench
and finally made an entrance, though there
was hardly spot on any of the ladders but
was
DYED WITH BLOOD.
Upon entering the fort they Immediately
turned the insurgents guns upon the insur-
gents themselves, and drove the handful that
was not killed, into the city, where every man
in uniform was captured; if an officer he was
taken before the cathedral and shot. Only
two Lieutenants out of all the insurgent off,
GERS escaped alive. Out of twelve hundred
insurgents but three hundred and seventy
three prisoners were taken; the rest were
killed during the attack or afterwards. The
Government troops numbered over three
thousand. The cemetery along side of Casa
Matin was terribly damaged by missiles, the
ground was ploughed up, vaults broken open,
and the collins and the bones of the dead
scattered around. Night and day for five
days the dead killed in the battle were buried
in this yard.
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE IN TROUBLE.
One American came to grief during the in
surrection. He had come to Tampico from
New Orleans as cook of schooner. The
insurgents heard he was good artilleryman,
experienced in our late rebellion, and they
induced him to take charge Of a gun; he fred
ten shots and then dismounted his gun, which
SO disguised his employers that they at once
dismissed him. When the Government
troops came in they captured him and threat
ened to shoot him, but upon the intervention
of our Consul his life was spared. Captain
Byron Wilson of the United States steamer
"Nipsic," upon his arrival, warmly interested
himself in his behalf
MEXICAN HosPITALITIEs.
General Corella, the commander of the
Mexican forces here, entertained some of the
officers of the U. S. steamer ''Nipsie" the
night before her departure in very hospita.
BILE and agreeable manner-so agreeable that
the party did not disband until about four
| o'clock in the morning. There was a number
OF Mexican army officers present, and
| from the tenor of their conversation it was
evident that they, and Mexican officials gem
orally, have the greatest admiration for the
United States Government, considering it the
best and strongest in the world, and anxious
for their own to pattern after it, and they
were particularly grateful for its sympathy
during their late insurrectionary troubles.
BY the way, General Corella's wife came
near being made a victim to the inhumanity
of the insurgents, who intended to place her
IN fort Casa Matin so that she might be killed
by the shells from her husbands forces, but
an American merchant, at the risk of his life,
kindly concealed her until after the siege.