NAVAL DIPLOMACY (cont.)

When Master Commandant Uriah P. Levy approached the coast of Yucatan in USS VANDALIA, 20, in March 1839 it was uncertain the degree of intimidation he would discover to which American interests had been subjected.  As it turns out, the American consul, Jack Thomas, had none but disparaging comments about the local power-monger, a militaristic would-be despot who had managed to collect a following by focusing contempt and mistreatment upon “Yanquis.”  Thomas described this half-breed as well-armed but little more than a brigand, who used insult, blackmail, and extortion against American businessmen.

Levy approached the rotund, tobacco-chewing generalissimo, sternly, explaining he would accept the general’s apology for mistreatment of Americans and the return of monies extorted.  The amused general noted the paltry number of Americans in the Commandant’s company as compared to the size of his force and added that any monies had long ago been spent.  Levy retorted with the threat to close his warship and blast the town to pieces.  The fact that the bay was too shallow to accommodate the draft of VANDALAI was lost on the land-locked general, who now reconsidered his position.  He tentatively agreed to Levy’s requests, but only in exchange for two barrels of whiskey, an American salute to his forces, and a sharp-looking uniform from Levy’s seabag.   With an eye toward diplomacy, Levy agreed.

The following day the town witnessed a ceremony the likes of which were probably unique to that time and place.  Tumbledown Mexican militia, at whose head stood the general resplendent in one of Levy’s uniforms (devices removed), faced a sharp American color guard across the square.  After an exchange of pleasantries both flags were run up and salutes by both sides rendered.  A barrel of American whiskey was cracked open, and the participants enjoyed several days of guarded camaraderie.  A substantial portion of the disputed funds was located and returned.  Levy summarized his visit to the Secretary of the Navy concluding that, “any future visit of a national vessel of the U.S…. will be hailed with great joy and delight by all classes.”

It is often noted in modern times that Army and Air Force practice allows officers to execute only those actions specifically prescribed in their orders.  Historically however, Naval officers have often operated independently, at great distances, out of ready communication.  As such Naval tradition allows the latitude to employ a variety of means to accomplish a mission, except any specifically prohibited in written orders–a subtle, but significant, cultural difference.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  21 FEB 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret

Fitzgerald, Donovan and Saul Saphire.  Navy Maverick:  Uriah Phillips Levy.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1963, pp. 153-55.

Minster, Christopher.  “The Pastry War.” ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/the-pastry-war-mexico-vs-france-2136674, retrieved 1 February 2025.

The post Naval Diplomacy (cont.) appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                 LAST EVERGLADES EXPEDITION

After our acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819, settlers came into increasing conflict with the Native Americans of Florida, collectively called Seminole Indians.  Conflicts over territory and over the sheltering of runaway slaves led to a series of Seminole wars and the decision in 1832 to re-locate the Seminoles to the Oklahoma Indian Territory.  The US Army was sent into southern Florida to round-up and deport the Seminoles.  These efforts met with mixed success, and when it was suspected that the Indians were obtaining weapons and supplies from Cuba, the US Navy was called upon.  By 1842, a “mosquito fleet” of small coastal schooners and canoes was in Florida service, under the command of LT John T. McLaughlin.  Ten years of Army persistence had pushed Seminole populations into decline.  Army COL William J. Worth, the overall area commander, estimated in February 1842 that only about 300 were left, most of whom were hiding in the impenetrable reaches of the Everglades swamp.  Worth asked that the Army suspend its Florida campaign.

Then, eager to demonstrate the value of the Navy, LT McLaughlin proposed that two Navy assault parties sweep the Everglades to clear these last holdouts.  LT John B. Marchand and a detachment of sailors from the schooners WAVE, 1; PHOENIX, 2; and VAN BUREN, 4, entered the Everglades from the southwest on this day.  Two days later another party from MADISON, 1, and JEFFERSON, led by LT John Rodgers, entered the swamp from the east.  Each party ran up streams and followed the trails they encountered in an effort to rout any remaining Seminoles.  For two months they lived in their canoes, slept at their thwarts, and hunted alligators, waterbirds, and the occasional fish that jumped into their canoes.  At times they had to drag their canoes through chest-high sawgrass–appropriately named for the wounds it inflicted!  They searched every stand of high ground, and on multiple occasions found Seminole encampments–always abandoned, usually only a day or so ahead of their arrival.  They even sighted native canoes in the distance on two occasions but were unable to overtake them.  It seemed as if the Seminoles were keeping one step ahead.  By the end of the two-month trek, the men were exhausted, hungry, and badly cut.  Most sustained wounds and infections that would fester for years in these days before antibiotics.

COL Worth’s opinion had proven correct, neither Navy party found any Seminoles.  The number of remaining Indians was indeed small enough, and the swamp large enough, that they simply faded into the environment.  Further operations were suspended, and to this day, the Seminoles still inhabit the Everglades.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14-15 FEB 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Buker, George E.  Swamp Sailors:  Riverine Warfare in the Everglades, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. Presses of Florida, 1975, pp. 127-32.

Mahon, John K.  History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. of Florida Press, 1985, p. 304.

Preble, George Henry.  “A Canoe Expedition into the Everglades in 1842.”  Tequesta magazine, Vol 5, 1945, pp. 30-51.  AT: http://www.digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1945/ 45_1_03.pdf, retrieved 20 December 2010.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  (Later) MGEN William Worth was second in command to Zachary Taylor during the Mexican War of 1846-48.  He is the namesake of Fort Worth, Texas, as well as numerous counties and townships in the eastern and mid-western US.

The post Naval Diplomacy appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                           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 4^th 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.

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                       “FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA…” (cont.)

Meanwhile, a diversion created by Quitman’s troops allowed a second Army division under MGEN Gideon J. Pillow to carry the lower walls of Chapultepec from the west.  And, to the south, Quitman’s follow-up forces overtook the Marine’s position, struggling through small breaches in the castle walls.  Watson’s Marines joined the rush to the castle, from whence the overwhelmed defenders now ran.

Noting the incipient rout, a Marine company commanded by CPT George H. Terret, who had no intention of stopping at the castle, broke from their position to charge after the fleeing Mexicans.  Joined in the confusion by a small Army unit under LT Ulysses S. Grant, Terret’s men rushed up the causeway leading to the San Cosme Gate.  Here Terret’s unit fell into a heated action with the defenders of a Mexican barricade just outside that gate.  Additional Army units converged on the site, and after further fierce fighting, the gate was taken.

As the fighting at San Cosme progressed, Watson’s remaining Marines regrouped at the castle.  They captured the cannon of one of the last functioning Mexican batteries then rejoined Quitman’s main force in the rush for the Belen Gate.  The defenders here fell back more easily, allowing Quitman’s men to enter the city.  Watson’s Marines secured the buildings around the gate and successfully fended-off several sharp counter attacks.

In total seven Marines were killed and 24 wounded in the fighting this day.  The following morning Quitman’s fatigued division marched into the center of Mexico City where Marine 2^nd LT A.S. Nicholson was given the honor of raising the American flag.  Quitman next detailed the Marines to secure snipers and looters from the Palacio Nacional, a building the Marines mistakenly thought had originally been the site of Aztec emperor Montezuma’s throne.  Here, the high shakos and crossed white chest belts of the Marine uniform caught the eye of occupied and occupier alike.

The Marines remained in Mexico City until January 1848, and upon their return home, Marine Corps Commandant LCOL Archibald Henderson was presented with a set of colors by the citizens of Washington, DC.  Upon these were emblazoned, “From Tripoli to the Halls of Montezumas.”  Returning Marines applied this phrase to a bar tune they had sung in Mexico, giving birth to The Marine’s Hymn.  LCOL Henderson, ever willing to bolster Marine Corps honor, canvassed those returning for examples of heroism.  He was thus able to convince himself that Terret’s men at the San Cosme Gate had been the first Americans to enter Mexico City, undoubtedly fostered in part by reports of his son, 2^nd LT Charles A. Henderson, an officer in Terret’s unit.  The myth persists today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  21 SEP 23

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Bauer, K. Jack.  The Mexican War  1846-1848.  Lincoln, NB: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1974, pp. 308-23.

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.  Soldiers of the Sea:  The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1991, pp. 50-52.

Millett, Allan R.  Semper Fidelis:  The History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 77-81.

Simmons, Edwin H.  The United States Marines, 1775-1975.  New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976, pp. 38-40.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Prior to 1848 the Marine Corps colors bore their official motto:

                                           “To the shores of Tripoli.”

The inscription on the new colors presented to LCOL Henderson above expanded that older motto.  (The current motto of the Marine Corps is, “Semper Fidelis”–Ever Faithful). 

Thirteen of 23 Marine officers received brevet (frocked) promotions as a result of actions around Mexico City this month.

Gideon J. Pillow went on to serve as a General Officer in the Confederate Army of the Civil War, fighting in Tennessee and Kentucky.  John Quitman did not live to see the Civil War.  He died of “National Hotel Disease” in 1858–an outbreak of severe dysentery that claimed the lives of 400 guests of the National Hotel in Washington, DC–guests who were attending President James Buchanan’s inauguration.

The capture of Mexico City ended the fighting in the Mexican War.  The Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo on 2 February 1848 ceded the land that would eventually become the States of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, and portions of Utah and Colorado to the United States.  Baja California, in US hands at the end of the war, was vacated by US Navy occupation forces and remains today part of Mexico.  (Texas had previously won her independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto in April 1836).  Curiously, years later, Germany would tempt Mexico into entering World War I on the side of the Central Powers by promising the return of these ceded lands.

The post “From the Halls of Montezuma…” (cont.) appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                            “FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA…”

By this date in the 17-month-old war with Mexico, the United States had gained control of California from San Francisco to Los Cabos in southern Baja.  But complete victory in the war required nothing less than the capture of the Mexican capital, Mexico City.  Toward that end, in March 1847 GEN Winfield Scott was landed with a sizeable US Army at Veracruz on the Mexican Gulf coast.  By late August his troops had fought their way inland toward Mexico City.  With Scott’s Army was a 357-man US Marine Battalion under brevet LCOL Samuel E. Watson that was serving as part of the Army corps under MGEN John A. Quitman.

Mexico City’s 32,000 defenders had a significant ally in the physical situation of city.  Nestled amid protective wetlands, the city was accessible only by four elevated causeways, each built across impassable marshes.  Each gated causeway could be swept by fire from strategically placed permanent defensive bastions.  Mexican GEN Antonio López de Santa Anna deployed his forces to block Scott’s approach from the south, causing Scott to shift his attack to the southwest, across the causeways that led to the Belen and San Cosme gates.  This approach was guarded by Castillo de Chapultepec, a large fortress-like edifice that our Marines mistook to be Aztec Emperor Montezuma’s former castle.  In 1847 it served as Mexico’s Colegio Militar.  The impressive castle stood on a 200-foot hill, and behind its double walls waited nearly 1000 Mexican troops and cadets.

Scott’s initial attentions, however, were distracted toward El Molina del Rey, a group of out-buildings adjoining Chapultepec where intelligence reports (later proven faulty) indicated the Mexicans were melting down church bells to recast as cannon.  On September 8^th, Scott sent his best division under BGEN William J. Worth against Molina, whose defenses proved more formidable than expected.  The attack succeeded however Worth’s division was badly mauled.  Quitman’s men, who had been relegated to guarding the supply train, were called to the front.

In the assault on Chapultepec itself, carried out this day, Quitman’s division drew the difficult task of storming the castle’s steep southern facade.  Quitman’s detailed his Marine Battalion to spearhead the assault in four advance parties.  The first, led by Marine CPT Levi Twiggs and a second were to approach in concert, providing cover for a third party of “pioneers” with scaling ladders and fascines.  Watson’s remaining men established a firing line short of the walls as the stormers worked.  However, while still 200 yards from the castle, these units came under heavy crossfire.  They were forced to ground, unable to advance.  Twiggs, rallying his Marines, was struck in the chest and killed.  Watson, saw the casualties and confusion that had befallen his parties, and held his position awaiting ammunition and further instructions.

Continued tomorrow…

Bauer, K. Jack.  The Mexican War  1846-1848.  Lincoln, NB: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1974, pp. 308-23.

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.  Soldiers of the Sea:  The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1991, pp. 50-52.

Millett, Allan R.  Semper Fidelis:  The History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 77-81.

Simmons, Edwin H.  The United States Marines, 1775-1975.  New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976, pp. 38-40.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, referred to later by Europeans as “Montezuma II,” was the ninth emperor of the Aztec Empire, reigning from 1502-03 to 1520.  Under his rule the Aztec Empire reached its greatest extent and influence.  He was emperor at the Aztec’s first contact with Spanish conquistadors, and Montezuma was killed on 29 June 1520 at the hands of Hernàn Cortés.  Montezuma’s name was still widely known in 1847.

Two US Navy destroyers honor CPT Twiggs, the WWI-era Wickes-class DD-127, and the WWII Fletcher-class DD-591.

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