Autobiography of an English soldier in the United States army by George Ballentine

Author:George Ballentine [Ballentine, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Geschichte
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2017-06-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter XIII.

General Scott—The Shell—Naval sporting—Investment of Vera Cruz—Vergara—Spoiling the knapsacks.

EARLY next morning, the third division, with the Commander-in-Chief, General Scott landed; and our army having been formed into column, we moved to a position a mile or two nearer the town, and covered from observation by the sand-hills. Here we bivouacked in the vicinity of a small stream—General Scott and his staff had tents pitched—the remainder, officers as well as men, crept under the shade of the bushes to screen themselves from the scorching rays of the sun, or sticking stout branches upright in the ground, cut a quantity of leafy twigs to serve as a roof, and thus made a tolerable sort of bower. In the meantime, one of our light batteries was out skirmishing with the enemy's outposts, which offering slight resistance, were successively driven in with little difficulty. From the landing of siege material and heavy ordnance, which had busily commenced, we now perceived that the intention of General Scott was to bombard the city.

A great deal of virtuous indignation has been exhibited by the English press on the subject of the bombardment of Vera Cruz, which it has generally stigmatized as a barbarous slaughter of women and children, having no parallel in modern history. It was asserted that Wellington, or any of his generals, had never bombarded an open city, and great deal more of a similar tendency, all calculated to show that war is carried on in a highly humane and civilized mode by the enlightened nations of Europe; and that the Americans, and General Scott in particular, had behaved in a very barbarous, manner. Now all that sort of twaddle seems excessively weak to any one at all acquainted with the circumstances; the truth being notorious that General Scott, besides being one of the most skilful and scientific generals of modern times, is also one of the most humane men in the world. For my part, I have not the slightest doubt that his character, in respect of the noblest attributes of humanity, may bear triumphant comparison with that of the most praiseworthy and philanthropic members of any society, order, or profession, in the world. The real fact being, that his humanity, and a desire to spare a needless effusion of blood, caused him to adopt the method he took for the reduction of Vera Cruz; being anxious to avoid a repetition of the horrible and savagely barbarous scenes consequent on the storming of a city, of which the history of the Peninsular war may furnish a few examples illustrative of the humane practices of European armies. To understand this apparent paradox, one should know a few of the facts of the case. In the first place, Vera Cruz, so far from being an open city, is very well fortified, having a wall and ditch all round it, and a series of half-moon batteries, not deficient in the requisite ordnance to make stout resistance. These batteries sweep a perfectly level plain, extending from half

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