The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-25


Slave in n Barrel and Drop. Him
Overheard.
! to discuss terms of surrender, and the
commodore and Captain Armstrong
showed them all over the vessel that
| they might appreciate our power. The
men were all at quarters, our battle
lamps were lit and the sailors with
sleeves rolled up and side arms with
them ready for action, made a grand
sight, which fully impressed the Mex
| leans with sense of our strength.
They held consultation with Com
modore Jones and our officers and it
! was privately agreed that the fort
! should be surrendered in the morning,
but that for the sake of appearances
we were to storm it with our crews
and the MeXicans were to march out
with reversed arms without fighting.
Our crews, however, knew nothing of
this arrangement, but expected hard
battle and prepared for it.
THE CAPTURE OF MONTEREY.
In the morning there was fog so
dense that we could not see five feet
ahead, and at o'clock the boats were
manned, oars were muffied, and every
thing was as still as death. Orders
men under Lieutenants Delaney and
| Avery were landed from the ships; the
rest of the crews remained on board to
fight. All of the landing party were
barefooted, and they advanced upon
the fort without making a particle of
noise.
Il pulled bow oar in the second cutter
with an Irishman named John Hughes
We carried a load of marines and three
4 off CHI md Hnc nd 7
left in charge of the boat, with strict
orders to stand by it to recover the
storming party in case it was beaten.
1t was our duty to obey, but as We
were only 80 yards from the fort and
were anxious to witness the fight, we
| thought we could venture a little way
and see something of what was going
on. So we started together on our
! hands and knees for the fort. 1t was
I uphill mostly through grass, but we
kept on and made no noise. We could
not see where we were, but we could
! feel and in a few moments our CROP
| ing hands struck the stone fertilization.
We crept along until we reached
| portfolio, where we could hear the
slow, steady step of a sentry walking
back and forth inside the embrasure
| We listened to him few moments,
and then Hughes proposed to me. in a
whisper to capture him.
Il said it would not do; the sentry
would fire his musket and alarm the
fort. Hughes said he would grab him
by the throat, catch his musket by the
lock and muzzle him so he could make
no outcry, if L would pull his feet from
under him and secure him. l agreed
to this, and we waited until the sentry
was near enough; then, as he was
passing the portfolio, Hughes sprang
upon him, caught him by the throat,
and wrenched his musket from him,
while tripped him and threw him to
the ground. Then, with our handker-
chiefs, belts and the lanyards of our
jack-knives and his own bayonet, we
gagged him, dashed his wrists and
ankles together. doubled him forward,
ran his musket under the knees and
over his arms and 'bucked' him so
that he could not stir. Helpless and
speechless, that sentry was the picture
of humiliation and despair.
I'VE then discovered that our captive
was the guardian of the flagstaff from
which floated the Mexican standard.
This was better luck than we expected
and Hughes told me to run to the cut
ter for the boats signal-dn American
flag. When / returned with it Hughes
had hauled down the Mexican flag. We
beat on the American flag to the hal
yards and made fast the Mexican I'M
der it and were hosting them to the
top when Lieutenant Delaney and his
storming party came up and caught
US. He was dunbfounded when he dis
covered that we were ahead of him, and
he rebuked us sharply for leaving the
cutter. but he had a hearty laugh at
! our prisoner.
'I ought to report you two for pun
ishment,' he said, but if you will hurry
I 1a
this
1--WE returned to the cutter crestfal-
len but happy in the knowledge that
we were the first sailors whoever hauled
down a foreign flag for the. American
government.
THE fog cleared away, the sun came
| out and the Mexican troops marched
out from the fort as had been arranged
with reversed arms. The only crea-
ture in the fort that showed fight was a
big black dog that disputed the en-
| trance of our men. Some of the sail
ors would have killed him, but the
officers forbade them injuring him be-
cause, they said, he was the only brave
Mexican in the fort.
I'VE kept the place three days and
then we received word from Washing
ton that war had not been declared,
and we were ordered to restore the
fort and city to the Mexican govern
ment and to give up to the original
owners all prizes we had taken. The
vessels which we had captured con-
tanned valuable cargoes, and it was
estimated that the distribution of them
among the ships crews would make
every sailor in the fleet independently
rich 1t was a sad blow to all of us
and bitter was our disappointment.
We had to give up everything, and
Commodore Jones was ordered home to
Washington for court marital for max
ing such a mistake. When we got
back to Callao the British sailors
chaffed us numerically.
Well, warriors, they would say,
what did you do with Monterey? When
you get a good thing you can't keep
it, can you2