Once in possession of Veracruz, Scott’s primary objectives were to secure civil control, round up supplies and draft animals, and move inland as soon as possible. He appointed Worth military governor of the city, regulated food prices, issued 10,000 rations to the poor, and paid idle citizens to clean debris out of the streets. In addition to the rubble from the bombardment, the Americans were astonished to find piles of garbage in the streets, along with a stench that hung over the city. “Vera Cruz,” thought Lieutenant Roswell Ripley, “deserves from its filth to have all the diseases which ever issued from Pandoras box.” Lieutenant Isaac Stevens also commented on the “miserable, dirty” condition of the city, and also described as “troublesome” the number of fleas and mosquitoes. The houses in Veracruz were made of brick or stone with tile roofs, but many of them appeared “much worn by time.” Aside from its imposing strength, the next most commonly mentioned characteristic of the castle of San Juan de Ulúa was its filth, and work crews cleaned the city as well as the castle. Just as American soldiers had shared their rations with the departing Mexican soldiers, they also loaned money to and shared their food with needy residents, who “clamor[ed] about [the] commissaries’ depots for bread.”7
Scott and Worth worked quickly to put the city in order so that preparations could be made to move inland. The docks were reopened for trade, and, in accordance with a system of duties established by the Polk administration to help pay for the war, duties collected at Veracruz went to pay for the occupation. Also, straightway Scott issued General Order No. 20 proclaiming the city under martial law. This order had been first articulated at Tampico, one of the army’s collection points, but since landing below Veracruz, many of the soldiers had seemingly ignored its provisions. The immediate imperatives of the siege had apparently resulted in lax discipline, because numerous soldiers engaged in lawlessness in the latter stages of the bombardment. Groups of volunteers and sailors had robbed and looted in the suburbs outside the city wall the day before the cease-fire, and even some regulars, having gotten drunk, became unmanageable. Some had to be “tied and gagged,” and Lieutenant Hill went so far as to “give one of them a sound drubbing with my own hands” in order to gain control. With Scott’s martial law proclamation, he served notice that past indiscretions would no longer be tolerated. Thus, murder, rape, assaults, and robbery were forbidden, as was desecration of religious, personal, and public property and interruption of religious ceremonies. Scott’s purpose for using martial law to maintain discipline was for “the welfare of the military service, for the interest of humanity, and for the honor of the United States.” Both Mexicans and Americans were subject to the general’s directive, and violators were subject to strict punishment. Although American offenders would be tried by court-martial, Scott allowed the Mexicans to choose their own magistrates to mete out punishment to their countrymen.8
Within three days after the reissue of the martial law order, two military commissions had been established and were preparing to hear cases against both regulars and volunteers. Some soldiers, however, worried lest the influence of politics result in inequities, especially in the volunteer units. Soldiers in those units came from the same communities back home, and selection as an officer often resulted from past political connections or future political aspirations. Under such circumstances, how could officers assigned to adjudicate cases render impartial judgment against potential future voters? There is no direct evidence of such corruption plaguing the courts, but military commissions from different states often handed down widely divergent punishment for the same offense. Assault, theft, and public drunkenness seemed to be the most common crimes. One soldier had gotten drunk and assaulted a Mexican woman, for which he received twelve lashes, then was ordered to perform hard labor in ball and chain for the war’s duration. Two soldiers were sent to the dungeon of the castle for stealing. Three volunteers were tried for stealing jewelry, furniture, and other items worth $300 from the home of Rosalie Lopez. All three were convicted and sentenced to confinement, a fine, and the return of the stolen property. Lopez was so astonished when American officials returned her belongings that she wrote a letter of gratitude to Scott.9
Isaac Kirk, “a free man of color,” who worked as a teamster for the army, was arrested for theft and rape. Lieutenant George Turnbull Davis, a staff officer on Brigadier General James Shields’s staff and acting judge advocate of the Volunteer Military Commission, knew that Kirk was of “a degraded and friendless race” and as a consequence would receive no special sympathy. So he was vigilant in his oversight of this trial to be sure that Kirk received a capable defense and that the evidence was compelling. Evidently it was, for the court convicted Kirk and sentenced him to hang. In writing the court’s findings and the punishment to which Kirk was sentenced, Davis concluded with, “And may God have mercy upon your soul.” According to Davis, when Scott’s military secretary, Lieutenant George Washington Lay, read that part of the court proceedings to the commanding general, Scott liked it so much that he ordered that those words be included in the records of all future capital cases that ended with a guilty verdict.10
Public intoxication became a problem. Sutlers and army followers opened liquor shops in the city, and within days, the Americans had to designate a guardhouse for the detainment of soldiers found drunk in the streets. The building used was more like a large stable approximately a hundred feet by forty feet, and all of the doors and windows were locked except one, which was blocked by guards. According to John Smith, who visited the guardhouse a few days after the surrender, about 150 men were confined: some had passed out on the floor, while others leaned against the wall in a drunken stupor. Occasionally one would make a dash for the door to try to get into the street, but would be blocked by the sentinels and often “knocked down by a blow” from a musket butt—the nose apparently being the favorite target for the guards.11
Rigid discipline did not eliminate crimes by American soldiers, and dealing with lawless behavior was an ongoing concern. Some of the men seemed indifferent to the strict regulations; others simply failed to understand why they could not act as they pleased in a foreign country against a race of people that they did not respect. Why, some wondered, could they not take whatever they wanted—food, drink, souvenirs of war—and just live off the land? Breaches of discipline thus continued. A company of Pennsylvania volunteers stationed outside the city walls adopted the practice of luring into their camp Mexicans who they knew to be carrying liquor, whereupon they “confiscated” the strong drink. In this fashion, the Pennsylvanians succeeded in accumulating quite a bit of the beverage.12
In the days after the announcement of martial law, the commanding general continued to receive reports that American soldiers were stealing cattle, produce, and other provisions. Scott lamented the shameful acts committed by “worthless soldiers,” and on April 1, he issued a general appeal to his men. The actions of a few had dishonored the entire army, he wrote, and “every good soldier” should help maintain order, discipline, and honor by turning in those who violate orders. He implored his men not to allow a small minority to bring dishonor to the whole army, and he reminded them that the army had made provisions to purchase its food, and individuals must pay for items in a fair and honest fashion, “as at home.” Even though such behavior was not eliminated, Scott’s diligence, along with that of other officers, did limit such acts—enough to enable Isaac Stevens of the engineers to inform his wife a week later that “scarcely an outrage has been committed in the city.” He may have exaggerated, but the surprising degree to which the American soldiers were kept in check demonstrated to the Mexican people that their rights would not be lost during the occupation. “Every exertion is made to protect the whole city in its rights,” continued the officer. And according to Robert Anderson, “Genl. Scott will be as liberal towards the Vera Cruzians as his duty to his own Govt. will permit.”13
In this manner, Scott hoped to prevent a hostile uprising by the civilian population�
��a guerrilla war that could potentially peck away at his small army, thus rendering it unable to march on the capital. And while guerrilla attacks were a constant menace, attacking supply trains and reinforcements, they were never widespread to the point of threatening the survival of the army. Partisan bands that roamed the countryside were a constant concern and annoyance, and Scott had to make adjustments to meet the threat they posed. However, he never did have to significantly alter his plan in a way that deterred him from his march to the capital. And because guerrilla bands preyed on Mexican civilians as well as American soldiers, they never won the universal support of their own people. Internal dissension among the various classes of Mexican people also prevented them from unifying against, or even identifying, a common enemy. Scott’s pacification plan was, for its time, a sophisticated model for waging war in a foreign country and occupying enemy territory without alienating the civilian population. As America’s first foreign war, the government had no experience in such matters, but Scott’s system of martial law, despite its imperfections, established a noteworthy pattern for waging war in another country.
As proof that his pacification plan worked, Mexican citizens who had either fled the city or hidden in their homes began to return and enter the streets to mingle with the foreigners. Learning that the army would pay for, rather than take, their goods, they reopened their shops two days after the surrender, and merchants and street vendors began to make a profit off the Americans. The soldiers could purchase all manner of produce in the streets’ open markets. Eggs sold for fifty cents a dozen and chickens for $1.50. Some merchants advertised turkey eggs for sale, but once the soldiers discovered that they were really buzzard eggs, they stayed away from anyone with such advertisements. Some of the troops especially liked Mexican honey, until they learned that it was generally transported to market in cowhide sacks sewn together with the hair turned inward. American atrocities against Mexicans were the exceptions, while civility and commerce were the rule.14
Respect for religious services and property was another aspect of Scott’s pacification program. The anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment of the nativist movement back home influenced the attitudes of many soldiers, who were predominately Protestant. They often viewed the Mexican peasantry as ignorant and superstitious because of their devotion to the church, and they considered the church, with its wealth and influence, a corrupt institution that rivaled the Mexican government in oppression. But Scott understood that winning the hearts and minds of the civilian population had to be done within the context of their own culture, and many Mexicans were devout Catholics. So, American prejudices notwithstanding, soldiers were required to show proper reverence and respect for Mexico’s religious heritage. After Veracruz surrendered, news circulated that the churches would not be conducting their normal services for fear that the American “heretics” would desecrate their services. As a way of placating the clergy and the church faithful, Scott saw to it that churches were open the following Sunday, and he made a public display of attending mass at a church outside the city walls. His staff, other officers, and quite a crowd of soldiers also attended.15
It was concerning one of these services in Veracruz that Joseph E. Johnston later related the following ribald anecdote regarding Robert E. Lee. The antecedent to the story actually occurred three years earlier, when Lee and Johnston were stationed at Fort Hamilton in New York during the Oxford Movement, also called Tractarianism, in England. Among its advocates in England was a man named Edward Pusey. This controversial religious movement sought to introduce high church practices into the Anglican church, and some American Episcopalians were concerned lest its influence spill over into the United States, thus moving their religion in the direction of Catholicism. Lee was a vestryman in the local parish, but he usually refrained from discussing Tractarianism when it was the topic of conversation. During one particularly heated debate among several officers at Fort Hamilton, they made an effort to draw Captain Lee into the discussion, to which he simply advised that they not get involved in the questionable movement. Then in a playful and vulgar use of a double entendre, he warned them to “Beware of Pussyism! Pussyism is always bad, and may lead to unchristian feeling; therefore beware of Pussyism!”
Three years later in Veracruz, General Scott, along with a host of other officers and men, attended a religious service, and Johnston found himself seated next to Lee in the crowded assembly. At one point, a church official brought to Scott, and to the officers seated around him, candles, and they were instructed to rise and walk around the building in a procession that to many of the Protestant Americans looked very high church. Johnston and Lee were walking shoulder to shoulder, candles in hand, just behind Scott, when Johnston touched Lee on the elbow. Lee looked dignified and graceful as he pretended to know what the ceremony was about, and he gave his friend a quiet but “rebuking look.” Johnston touched him again, and this time Lee leaned over and whispered, “What is it?” To which Johnston responded, “I really hope there is no Pussyism in all this.” Lee tried to keep a straight face, but “the corners of his eyes and mouth were twitching in the struggle to preserve his gravity.”16
In the days after the surrender, lack of transport remained Scott’s most pressing problem. The army had 185 wagons and 1,100 mules, but he informed Marcy that he needed an additional 60 wagons and enough mules to pull them in order to begin his march inland. The army’s persistent and unfulfilled transportation needs seemingly induced the secretary to wash his hands of the problem. “What embarrassments may attend your forward movements, arriving from the difficulties of obtaining supplies and the means of transportation, cannot be foreseen or anticipated here,” came Marcy’s response.17
To fill his needs, he sent Brigadier General John A. Quitman’s brigade, a contingent of dragoons, and the navy to Alvarado fifty miles to the south. Located near the mouth of the Río Papaloapán, it was an ideal site for an American naval base, but Conner had tried and failed to capture it the previous fall. Scott and Perry wanted to try again, and they hoped that in the process, the army would be able to procure an abundance of cattle and horses from the farms in the area. Accordingly, Perry ordered Lieutenant Charles G. Hunter, commander of the iron-screw steamer U.S.S. Scourge, to blockade the mouth of the river until the army-navy expedition arrived. However, the overly aggressive Hunter arrived on March 30 and bombarded the city. The Mexican troops spiked the guns and fled, the town surrendered, and Hunter garrisoned Alvarado with half a dozen sailors. When Perry arrived with twelve vessels and Quitman with his infantry on April 2, Hunter had already sailed further upriver to capture other towns, and in so doing, had alerted the surrounding countryside. The inhabitants drove their cattle and horses away and burned supplies to prevent them from falling into American hands, and the net result was that Quitman came away from the lush ranching area with few animals.18
The Alvarado expedition proved frustrating for all involved. The infantry had marched under extreme conditions of heat and lack of food and water, at one point quenching their thirst out of a muddy pond from which their horses refused to drink. Upon arriving, they were angry at having endured such hardships for no apparent reason. As one soldier put it, with a bit of exaggeration, the town had surrendered to “a midshipman & four men.” Many in the brigade suffered from dehydration, dysentery, and other illnesses and had to be carried back to Veracruz on board naval vessels. After two days of rest in Alvarado, Quitman ordered the brigade back to Veracruz, and once again the oppressive heat took its toll. Quitman pushed them to get back in three days, even though several died along the way. “We were marched back in a deuce of a hurry,” remarked an annoyed William Johnson. Scott and Perry were also angry about Hunter’s independent action, Scott because the army so desperately needed the animals and Perry because he wanted to be the one to capture Alvarado. Perry had Hunter court-martialed, and the court found him guilty. Although U.S. newspapers portrayed Hunter as a hero, he was no longer allowed to serve in Perry�
��s squadron. Later his aggressive nature landed him in trouble again while commanding a ship as part of the Union naval blockade in the Civil War. He pursued a British blockade runner in Cuban waters, was again court-martialed, and was dismissed from the service.19
Meanwhile, Colonel William S. Harney and his dragoons combed the area around Antigua for animals and supplies. He brought back some of both and a few enemy prisoners as well, but still the army needed more. Scott’s lack of transportation on both water and land had already cost him six weeks in January and February, and he knew that he could not linger on the coast much longer. The periodic northers that had wreaked havoc on the army and beached dozens of vessels had at least kept the mosquitoes away. Soon the northers would end, and the mosquitoes would arrive, bearing their debilitating and often deadly diseases. The soldiers were aware of the approaching yellow fever season and worried about its potentially “dreadful ravages.” Early symptoms of the vomito, as Americans called it, included jaundice, fever, headache, and vomiting. In severe cases, blood vessels ruptured, which caused black-and-blue spots to appear on the skin. The hemorrhaging blood began to fill the lungs, and eventually the victim began to vomit dark, coagulated blood. In the nineteenth century, people commonly believed that yellow fever resulted when the wind stopped blowing and the spring rains created stagnant pools in the lowlands, especially in marshes or close to the coast. These factors, they believed, created an unhealthy environment that could be avoided by moving inland to higher elevations, and they were correct to a point. They just did not know that the mosquitoes that bred in such places were the actual carriers of the disease. So as the first week of April drew to a close, Scott knew the clock was ticking and that he had to get his army inland.20
A Gallant Little Army Page 9