The Washington herald., 1914-01-18

Commodore Matthew C. Perry. a great
man with a rough voice, the new COM
mander-in-chief from the North, Joined
the naval force OF the walled city OF
Vera Cruz in the morning.
That night his barge was under the lee
of each OF the i've vessels. which. with
the flagship. composed his fleet. He wore
q sword. cloak and cooked nat
AT daylight" he called in the darkness
to every captain. begin taking one Oh
your se-pounders ashore"
A battery of big-mouthed mortars was
already in an ancient cemetery near the
beach. Scotts army had been landed IN
small boats without the loss Of q man or
q gun.
The Sa-pounders. weighing more than
three tons apiece. were hoisted from the
decks lowered into the water between
surf boats, made fast and pulled to land-
Thence they were dragged by marines
over the ground to fort made Of sand
in bags.
Robert E. Lee chief engineer of Scotts
invaders had designed the fort Scott
afterward was generous enough to say
that the fall of Vera Cruz could be at
tributed largely to the skill Of Lee, then
a captain in the regular army.
The six 32-pounders having been placed
in position. forty men with axes began
the fertilization that the gunners might
have a clear vision to operate their artil-
lery. The Mexicans knew about the war
vessels at anchor, about Scotts trenches
and the mortars in the cemetery.
They were surprised. however, to see
the battery of ships guns on land. now
revealed in the chopped spot among the
jungle-like growth, and opened fire at
500 yards from their four bastions and
10 4f TTlla Thew
threw ball shot nd canister. The g.
Founders, loaded and aimed. accepted the
challenge instantly. The mortars came
into action at that moment and the six
ships poured broadsides of shrieking iron
Iandward upon the enemy.
Hammered Down the Walls.
The fight of the first day has no place
in this article. Eariy on the second
day John Henry Upshur, a young mid
shipman, left the feet and made his way
over the sand to the battery OF 81
Founders. U for Upshur Is near the end
Of the alphabet. otherwise this particular
midshipman, one in a hundred or more.
might have been in the battle when il
opened. He had to take his chance for
glory impartially-and according to the
first letter of his surname-with the rest
of his comrades in arms.
Crouch down., yelled his shipmates
at the guns when they saw him coming.
Shells We're exploding in the air and on
the ground. Nearly sixty-seven years
after that morning and day Of historic
adventure, John Henry Upshur, now an
admiral, was telling me his experiences
at the Metropolitan Club in Washington.
II saw six dead sailors under a tree"
he said. ''Such was my introduction to
death on the battlefield. A short time
afterward a man at my own gun had the
top of his head taken of. At noon.
Mayo. a daring officer and a bon vivant.
invited US to a dinner of terrapin and
rare sherry from the island of Madeira
We sat cross-legged upon the sand. Look
out shouted his Maryland cook. We
iucked as a shell blew up over our
heads. A piece of iron weighing ten
pounds buried itself in the earth at our
Sides
THE ships and the batteries hammered
a breach fifty feet wide in the wall of
the Mexican fort and put many Of the
guns in the bastions out of commission.
Our sailors fired 1850 rounds in the two
days of fighting. Vera Cruz surrendered.
We captured 5000 prisoners and 400 can
mons with a loss of only siXty-seven men
killed or wounded.
Then Scott marched on to Mexico City.