Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-05-12
TAKING Of VERA CRUZ
WAS NO EASY JOB
[Continued From First Pagel

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thereby protected from the fire of the
Mexican troops. Upon our advance to-
ward the terminal, wot got heavy
fire from the Cortell Tower and sew
eral other tall buildings. The MeXl-
cans were using Hauser flat-nosed bull
Tets and machine guns, when the Flor
ida artillery got orders to destroy the
tower, which was done by our two field
guns. AS soon as the Prairie saw what
we were shooting at, she opened up at
close range with five 3-inch sheels and
she made the dust fly; every shot was
ait, as it was adlmost pointblank range
of 1900 yards.
by this time the Mexican army had
wormed its way down side streets, In
dian fashion, and taken every place of
vantage on all tall house tops. This
made our further advance impossible
without heavy loss of life, and, con-
sequently. the Utah reinforced at 2
p. m. Then, after some heavy firing
we got a good foothold taking the
terminal, post office and police sta
ton without, as yet, the loss of a man
killed and only about ten wounded.
We were now being fired up by the
police and civilians and we We're leaV-
ing an awful trail of death in our
wake. AS nearly all the MeXicans
were armed we had nothing to do but
shoot them and ask questions after
ward. Just to show how mean they
are, a Mexican millionaire who was
entertained several times aboard our
ship and was at our church services
on Easter Sunday, sat on his front
porch reading a newspaper, with a
Colt automatic in his hand, firing each
time one OF our boys came within his
range, and as there was so much
shooting going on, one could not tell
where il was from, as he was using
smokeless powder. Finally, he was
suspected, field glasses were put on
him and after he had been warned
that If we saw a shot come from his
house we would butcher him, it was
only a few seconds that two men were
sent around the corner to draw his
fire. Our glasses showed that he fired
and the sharpshooters who had been
placed to watch him let him have it.
He lived two days. Other Mexicans
laid around in the streets pretending
to be dead and giving it to us that
way, but after we got on the house
tops we had great sport watching for
these tricks and picking off the easy
ones.
The First Man Falls
Our men got possession of the post
office building and then small-sized
scrap was started with the Federal
troops on the Delegencia Hotel about a
block away 1t was here we lost the
first man of the day, A. Ponsett, of
Philadelphia, shot in the top of the
head. Shumaker. in charge of a squad,
was picked off about an hour later,
he having gone out into the middle of
the street purpose to draw the enemys
fire.
I'VE gradually closed down the
firing, but the Mexicans kept it up all
that night. Our. reinforcements arriv-
ed during the night and early morn
ing saw 5000 men ashore with the
Chester and her five-inch guns in the
inner harbor close to shore. command
ing the entire water front. The Florida
Utah and Prairie were now allowed to
| keep what they had and only had to
deal with snipers. Our boys had no
sleep for thirty-six hours, and all that
time carried sixty pounds on their
backs. Early in the morning 1 was
awakened by large gun, and rushing
on deck found our men trying to take
| the Naval Academy, which faces a big.
open parade ground. The Chester, see
| ing our predicament, had opened with
her five-ineh guns, shooting over our
men, who weer prone, and firing volley