Battle of San Juan de Ulúa

The Bataille of San Juan de Ulúa takes place at the time of the war of Pastry makings (in Spanish Primera Intervención Francesa in Mexico City or Guerra of los Pasteles ) which was an invasion of the Mexico by the French armies in 1838.

Context

In 1838, a forwarding was solved against the Mexico. France sent a squadron under the command of the Rear-admiral Charles Baudin, to make the blockade of all the Mexican ports of the Atlantic Ocean since the Yucatán until the Río Grande and fascinating for pretext of the acts of violence and the flights to the detriment of French tradesmen of which a pastrycook, of or the name of war of the cakes.

In next August, a squadron came to receive the order to move towards the coasts of the Mexico to put its ports in a state of blockade, in order to force the Mexicans has to repair the caused damage. Prince de Joinville having received the command of the Creole , corvette of 24 guns, left Brest on September 1st with the rear-admiral Baudin, ordering squadron.

Circumstances

The November 27th 1838, the frigate amirale Néréide , Glory and Ephigénie , and bombard them the Cyclops and the Vulcan , opened a terrible fire against Saint-Jean-with Ulloa, fortress which was not hones some but built out of fragile coral materials which produced by receiving balls of the very dangerous glares for its defenders. Badly defended by a weak garrison and equipped with an obsolete material it ordered the port and the city of the Veracruz.

During the combat, a ball fallen on the poop deck where the admiral was, had failed to carry it like all its staff. The Prince de Joinville, ordering the corvette the Creole , took part in this forwarding. This one had not been able to obtain to belong to the first division made up of the frigates Néréide , Glory , Iphigénie and of two bombards S; but with the signal of the combat, he requested with as well authority the favor to take share with the attack as the admiral had to yield. The corvette the Creole went at once poster to a range of gun of the castle of Ulua and cannonaded with strength the bastion of Saint-Crispin and the shaving battery of the East. It accepted several balls in its edge. One penetrated in the room of the prince and put his crockery in parts; the young commander took off his hat and greeted the Mexicans.

A few hours were enough to extinguish the fire of the Mexicans who lacked powder and of balls. This combat, in which the admiral Baudin covered himself with an easy glory, lasted four hours. At six o'clock in the evening, the fire of the fort was extinguished, the dismounted batteries, the demolished bastions, and the enemy asked to capitulate.

The next morning, the garrison of Saint-Jean-in Ulloa, which was not any more that one heap of ruins, delivered this fortress to French and the town of Veracruz. The admiral Baudin allowed the Mexicans to leave in this city 1.000 troops to maintain the order there. Prince de Joinville had taken a more considerable share; he had shown much audacity and skill in the way in which he had attacked under veils the shaving battery of the East and the rider of the Saint-Crispin bastion.

However the Mexican government again refused to yield. The admiral and the troops under his orders had to fight again. The boat assembled by Mr. Baudin, was sifted balls in the combat of the December 5th, and several sailors were killed.

The conventions concluded between the admiral and the Mexicans having been violated, one solved a descent to disarm the garrison. The December 5th, the unloading took place in three columns; prince de Joinville ordered the avant-garde of the column of the center, made up of 90 sailors of the Creole . The door of the Mole, against which this column was directed was inserted soon by means of powder bags; the prince sprang the first in the city and moved to the step of race towards the house where the Mexican generals Santa Anna and Arista were.

This last was seized by a sailor of the Creole ; the prince arrived and accepted the sword of the general., whereas Santa Anna succeeds in threading between the French troops and escaping to them. However the left-hand column examined sharpest resistance at the end of the city, the prince runs there with his sailors; already it began the seat of a large barracks, already the casualties and deaths fall around him when the admiral Baudin gives the order to re-embark himself. The results which one wished were obtained.

The result of this business was the disarmament of Veracruz, the temporary defeat of the Mexicans, of which the heroic general Santa Anna who had a piece of carried foot, and finally a peace by which the France obtained satisfaction. The town of Veracruz obtained the title of heroic for the splendid resistance which she opposed to the invaders.

Source

Vicente Rivetted Palacio - Mexico City has notched joints of los siglos - Mexico City

Henry B. Parkes _ History of Mexico PAYOT - Paris

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