USS WOODBURY and the Pastry War
29 NOVEMBER 1838
USS WOODBURY AND THE PASTRY WAR
The Mexican Federalist War of 1835-41 pitted the aristocratic Centralist Mexican rulers against the federalist peasantry of the provinces. Foreign businessmen in Mexico who suffered collateral damages from Centralist Mexican Army operations had no redress of their losses. When Centralist troops damaged the shop of French pastry chef Monsieur Remontel outside Mexico City to the tune of 1000 pesos, Remontel turned to his native French government. His entreaties caught the ear of King Louis-Philippe who, in 1838, demanded of Mexico an astronomical indemnity of 600,000 pesos (3 million francs). He then sent a French squadron to blockade Vera Cruz. In what came to be known as the Pastry War, Mexican merchant ships, unable to land at Mexico’s busiest seaport, began off-loading at Corpus Christi (then the Republic of Texas) and trans-shipping cargoes overland to the south. In response, the French Navy began patrols off Texas. An alarmed President Andrew Jackson sent our warships. For this purpose, the Revenue Cutter Service’s USRC LEVI WOODBURY was assumed into our Navy as USS WOODBURY.
The cutter’s cruising off Texas proved uneventful, thus WOODBURY was sent south in the autumn of 1838 to protect American shipping off Mexico’s Gulf ports. Here she ran afoul of a French frigate. No shots were fired, but a miscue of maneuvering resulted in a collision that damaged WOODBURY. The French allowed her into Vera Cruz for repairs. During her detainment she was able to observe the French bombardment of Fort San Juan de Ulloa and its surrender on 28 November 1838. On this following day, WOODBURY was freed to return to New Orleans.
Thus ended American involvement in the Pastry War between France and Mexico. However, concern over French meddling prompted Jackson to return Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who had been in exile in the United States, to Mexico. Santa Anna organized a land army that surrounded the city of Vera Cruz in early winter. There, in one of several skirmishes, Santa Anna lost his left leg below the knee. British intervention ultimately settled the dispute, but among Mexicans, Santa Anna received the bulk of the credit. He was propelled once again to “Presidency for Life,” though he was deposed and re-exiled in less than a year. Overall, the French lost 12 killed, 85 wounded, and 24 victims of yellow fever in this Pastry War. Santa Anna lost 224 killed and wounded.
WOODBURY was returned to the USRCS and patrolled the Louisiana and Texas coasts for cotton smugglers. She escorted ships and transported troops for BGEN Zachary Taylor at the start of the Mexican War. But she was found to require extensive refitting and was decommissioned 14 September 1846.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 3 DEC 23
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 8 “W-Z”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1981. pp. 448-49.
Greenberg, Amy. A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012, p. 148.
Minster, Christopher. “The Pastry War.” Thoughtco website. AT: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-pastry-war-mexico-vs-france-2136674, 26 August 2020, retrieved 22 April 2022.
“The Pastry War-1838. History of Yesterday website. AT: https://historyofyesterday.com/the-pastry-war-1838-43699084f620, retrieved 22 April 2022.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Santa Anna was fitted with an artificial leg, which he wore for the remainder of his military and political campaigns. When MGEN Winfield Scott’s troops sacked Mexico City in the 1846-48 Mexican War, two of Santa Anna’s artificial legs were captured by the 4th Illinois Infantry. Never has the Mexican government requested return of the unpopular dictator’s prosthetics. One is on display today at the Illinois State Military Museum in Springfield. The other, a peg leg, was used by LT Abner Doubleday as a baseball bat, and can be seen today at the Governor Oglesby Mansion in Decatur, Illinois.
Levi Woodbury, Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Navy and later, Secretary of the Treasury, was honored again by our Navy with the Clemson-class destroyer of the 1920s, USS WOODBURY (DD-309). The 1830s schooner ANDREW JACKSON, the WWII troop transport PRESIDENT JACKSON (AP-37), and ballistic missile submarine ANDREW JACKSON (SSBN-619) all remember the no-nonsense President above.
