Chapter XII: The Defence of Rivas (10)

The lake steamer, La Virgen, was lying near the wharf at Granada during the action of the 12th and 13th; and late in the evening of the 13th she left for Virgin Bay, carrying several officers who were returning to the United States, and also Father Vigil for San Juan del Norte. The curate of Granada was wiser in the ways of Central American warfare than the Bible Society’s agent, Mr. Wheeler, or the Methodist preacher, Mr. Ferguson: for as soon as he heard the Guatemalans were in the Jalteva he fled into a swamp near the town and remained hid away until the retreat of the enemy was entirely certain. Late in the afternoon of the 13th he came to congratulate the general-in-chief on the victory obtained over the Allies; and his congratulations ended in a request for a passport to go aboard the steamer about to leave for Virgin Bay. Nor did the good father feel easy until he was safely on the steamer beyond, as he thought, the reach of the dreaded _Chapines_.

A few days after the action of the 13th, the army received a valuable accession in the person of Col. C. F. Henningsen, who arrived at Granada in charge of arms and ordnance stores from New-York. When not more than nineteen, Col. Henningsen had commenced his military career under the Carlist leader, Zumalacarregui; and his service in Spain was well fitted to qualify him for war in Nicaragua. Although an Englishman by birth, he had spent most of his life on the continent of Europe; and after the death of Zumalacarregui he had resided for some years in Russia. Finally in 1849 he espoused the cause of Hungarian independence and came about the same time as Kossuth to the United States. A day or two after he reached Granada he was appointed brigadier-general, and charged specially with the organization of the artillery and with directing the practice with the Minié musket. Much dissatisfaction was evinced by many officers at the rank given to Henningsen; nor were efforts wanting to create prejudices against him because he was not an American. But his own worth and merits soon overcame most of these prejudices, though in the breasts of some officers jealousy lurked to the last. Walker, however, never had reason to regret the confidence he early placed in the capacity of Henningsen.

The efficiency of the new brigadier-general was soon felt in the organization of two companies of artillery and of a company of sappers and miners. Full and detailed instructions for the use of the Minié musket were written by Henningsen, and practice with this arm was carried on for some days under his supervision. He had much to combat in the idleness and indifference of the officers, too many of whom valued their rank more as an excuse for indulging their ease than as an incentive to difficult and arduous duty. He was more successful in the artillery practice than with the new rifle-muskets; for among the officers of artillery were several who had much pride of profession. The skill and experience of Major Schwartz have been mentioned, and besides him, Capt. Dulaney and Lieut. Stahle deserve mention. Capt. Ferrand had courage and little else; his laziness was intolerable. Stahle was particularly useful in the practice with howitzers and cochorn-mortars. The proper carriages for the howitzers having arrived they were more fit for service than before, and the mortars, being light and easy of transportation, carried the same shell as the howitzers. The practice with the mortars was much simplified by always using the same charge, and determining the distance the projectile was to be sent entirely by the angle of elevation of the piece.

Meantime the Meridional Department was unprotected save by the schooner Granada, lying in the port of San Juan del Sur. During August and September Lieut. Fayssoux had been cruising first about the gulf of Fonseca and then in the gulf of Nicoya, and finally off Realejo; but he had not been able to see anything with a hostile flag. The presence of the schooner at several points on the coast had kept the enemy in constant fear, and the Granada had, in many ways, embarrassed the action of the Allies. As the time, however, for the arrival of the steamer from San Francisco approached it became necessary to send a guard for the specie across the Transit and also to afford protection for the passengers on the Isthmus. Hence Gen. Hornsby was, on November 2d, sent from Granada to Virgin Bay with one hundred and seventy-five men. He reached the Transit just in time to guard the specie brought down by the Sierra Nevada.

It was known that a detachment had been sent from Masaya for the purpose of occupying Rivas; while the reports of a fresh force from Costa Rica, with a view of co-operating with the Allies in the Meridional Department, were frequent and continued. Therefore Hornsby was ordered to remain at Virgin Bay with a view of holding the wharf, so that a force from Granada might at any moment be landed; while Fayssoux remained in the port of San Juan del Sur to keep the enemy uneasy in case they attempted the occupation of that place. The log of the Granada shows how she performed her part. On the 7th of November, “At 4.30 P.M.,” so the log reads, “received a notice, dated 4 P.M. at one mile from San Juan, and signed José M. Cañas, commanding vanguard of Costa Rican army, to surrender the post without firing a shot; if I did so the citizens should be protected, if not, no protection would be given; to which I paid no attention. At 5 P.M. Mr. G. Rozet—United States inspector at San Juan—came on board with a message that Gens. Bosque and Cañas were in the Plaza with six hundred Costa Ricans; that they demanded the surrender of the schooner without my firing a shot; if I did not the citizens would not be protected. I replied I would not surrender, but not having the power to drive them from the town I thought it would be prudent to run out of the harbor. At 5.45 P.M. cast loose from the buoy, ran out and lay off the harbor.” Then on the 8th the log proceeds: “Lying-to off the harbor. At 3.30 P.M. received letters from the officer in command of San Juan, Guardio, offering protection to all citizens that would deliver up their arms to him, and from Mr. Rozet praying me not to come in, that if I did all Americans would perish. My answer to Rozet was that I did not intend to come in and for him to say to Guardio that I would not communicate with the enemy. The persons who came off to me reported that the Costa Ricans were looking hourly for a bark and two brigs, the latter armed and carrying troops, the former with provisions and troops.” On the 10th: “At 12 M. close in the mouth of the harbor. Saw a number of mounted men, and apparently about one hundred and fifty foot soldiers leave the town.” The cause of their departure will appear by returning to the movements of Gen. Hornsby at Virgin Bay.

Although the nominal numbers of the infantry at Virgin Bay was 175, their real strength was much less; and when, on the 10th, Hornsby was reinforced by Sanders with 150 rifles and a howitzer under Capt. Dulaney, he was not able to march against the enemy with more than 250 men. Cañas had taken up a position on the hill over which the Transit road passes about a mile beyond the Half-way House toward San Juan del Sur. Just beyond the Half-way House there is a deep cut in the road, and some hundred and fifty yards farther on there is a slight bridge thrown across a deep ravine. The enemy had barricaded near the bridge, and thus commanded a long stretch of the road, flanked on one side by rising ground and on the other by the ravine. Captain Ewbanks, with a detachment of Rifles, turned the right flank of the Costa Ricans defending the bridge; and thus Hornsby was enabled to reach the foot of the hill where the main body of Cañas was posted. When, however, the American general reconnoitred the hill the Costa Ricans occupied, and saw the effect produced on his men by the fire they had just passed through, he deemed it prudent to retire without hazarding an attack. He therefore withdrew to Virgin Bay, and repairing to Granada reported in person to Walker the result of his march against Cañas.

It was all-important to keep the Transit clear of any formidable force of the Allies. The enemy were well aware of its importance to the Americans when they styled the Transit the “highway of filibusterism.” Accordingly, on the 11th, Walker repaired with 250 Rifles to Virgin Bay, taking also a howitzer, a mortar, and a squad of sappers and miners. General Henningsen accompanied the force with a view of directing the new corps which had been formed under his supervision. The Artillery had not acted well on the 10th, and the general was anxious for it to redeem its character.

Walker landed on the afternoon of the 11th; and marched the same night to the Half-way House, which he reached just before daybreak. After a short rest, the advance resumed its march and had proceeded as far as the cut in the road when the enemy opened fire from the same barricades near the bridge they had occupied on the morning of the 10th. Captain Ewbanks, being familiar with the ground, was ordered to make a large detour to the left, and he thus succeeded as before in dislodging the Allies from their barricades. The whole column then pushed forward without interruption to the foot of the hill where Cañas held his whole force, probably 800 strong.

The enemy, chiefly Costa Ricans, occupied the very ground on which the Democrats, a little over a year previously, had awaited in ambush the approach of Corral from Rivas toward San Juan del Sur. Colonel Natzmer, acting as aide to Valle in September, 1855, was therefore acquainted with the sides of the hill on which the Democrats had then been placed. Accordingly he was ordered to take the sappers and miners along the hill-side to the right of the road and cut a path toward the top of the hill and in the rear of the first barricades of the enemy. Captain Johnson, with a company of Rifles, followed and protected the working party. Captain Green was also sent in the rear of Johnson’s company; but getting separated from those in advance, Green lost his way in the thick undergrowth and was not seen for several hours afterward.

The movement of Natzmer was covered by advancing the howitzer toward the curve in the road fronting the first barricades of Cañas, and by sending several shells into the works of the enemy. The fire of the allies was, however, so fierce and well-directed as to make it prudent to withdraw the howitzer, under cover, after a few rounds. On this occasion, the artillerymen behaved with commendable coolness, and recovered, by their steadiness under fire, some of the reputation they had lost on the 10th. In the meanwhile, the Costa Ricans kept up an irregular fire of musketry and rifles—for they had a number of riflemen with them—and Capt. Stith lost his life by exposing his tall person for a moment in the middle of the road.

In the course of an hour and a half Col. Natzmer had succeeded in reaching the point at which he aimed; but in the meantime the enemy, becoming aware of his movement and fearful of its effects, prepared for retreat. When Johnson and the Rifles reached the barricades, they were already deserted, and Cañas was on his way toward San Juan del Sur. The Americans then pushed on in pursuit, and as some of the Rangers were well mounted, they, acting under the orders of Henningsen, pressed on the rear of the enemy. Cañas conducted his retreat with deliberation as far as San Juan, taking advantage of several points in the road to delay the progress of the Americans; but, finally, near where the little stream that runs into the sea on the edge of the town crosses the Transit road, Henningsen, followed by Capt. Leslie, Lieut. Gaskill, and a few of the Rangers, charged on the retreating foot soldiers and breaking them completely, drove them at a rapid pace through San Juan and across the river up the coast trail to Rivas. The enemy were so scattered after passing San Juan that further pursuit would have been fruitless.

Numbers of the Costa Ricans had, in the confusion of the retreat, escaped from their ranks and taken the road to Guanacaste. Thus Cañas reached Rivas with a force not only thinned by deaths and desertions, but also discouraged and demoralized by defeat. It was evident, therefore, that he could not soon take any measures to trouble the Transit; he could scarce venture to show himself out of the barricades of Rivas. Hence Walker was anxious to return immediately to Granada and again attack Belloso, while Cañas was calling on him for aid in the Meridional Department. On the 13th, then, Walker marched from San Juan to Virgin Bay, and embarking his force on the lake steamer, arrived the same night at Granada. Col. Markham, with the First Infantry, was left at Virgin Bay.

On the morning of the 15th, the Americans were again on the road from Granada to Masaya. The force consisted of Sanders’ Rifles, and a company of 2d Rifles, together with Jaquess’ Infantry, a body of Rangers, under Waters, a few sappers and portions of the two companies of Artillery. The whole strength was about 560 men. The Artillery consisted of a twelve-pound howitzer, two small brass pieces, taken from the Allies, and two of the small mortars. As the train of pack-mules, carrying the ammunition, was long, and the day hot, the march was slow and fatiguing; nor had the force passed over more than half the distance to Masaya, when Walker ascertained that Jerez had marched toward Rivas with seven or eight hundred men. In consequence of this information Jaquess, with his Infantry, was ordered to return to Granada, and take a lake steamer for Virgin Bay. Thus Walker reduced his own strength to less than 300 men.

Major Henry, although scarcely able to walk, had mounted his mule and followed the column marching on Masaya. Two or three miles from the edge of the town he and Col. Thompson succeeded in passing the advanced guard, and coming on a picket of the enemy charged it at full gallop. The picket fled like deer, one of them leaving his hat, with a hole made by a bullet from Henry’s revolver, and the blood sprinkled over the coarse straw of the crown. This incident, while it shows the excess of courage animating some of the officers in Nicaragua, also proves how difficult it was to restrain their valor within the limits of order and regularity; though it is probable Henry and Thompson were not aware of the fact that they had passed the guard, owing to the neglect of the officer in charge of the advance to perform his duty.

As the Rangers in front approached the small huts on the edge of Masaya, the enemy opened a heavy fire of musketry, and Waters drawing his men to the right of the road, in order to cover them with the heavy tropical vegetation, gave room for the Rifles to pass. In entering by the plazuela of San Sebastian, the road passes through a cut, on each side of which are scattered small reed huts, in the midst of plantain patches. The Allies, posted in the plantain patches, poured a most destructive fire into the Rifles as they advanced. Sanders, however, contrived to move toward the plazuela, deploying his men on each side of the road; while Henningsen, pushing the howitzer close to the enemy, poured into them a rapid rain of canister. For several minutes the fighting was furious; but finally the firing became less and less, and the enemy falling back into the main part of the town, left the Americans in possession of the suburbs.

But the ground had not been gained without severe loss. The Nicaraguans had lost more than fifty-six killed, and more than forty wounded. Lieut. Stahle, a valuable officer of artillery, had fallen beside his gun, and Major Schwartz had been wounded. Besides this, several of the best officers of the Rifles had been severely hurt. Capt. Ewbanks and Lieut. C. H. West had received painful and dangerous wounds; and Col. Natzmer was struck down by a spent ball hitting him back of the ear. The approach of night, too, no less than the nervous state of the command, exhausted by the excitement and heavy loss, made it expedient to encamp on the high ground abandoned by the enemy. Hence orders were given to unpack the mules, and post the pickets for the night.

In the condition, however, of the force, it was far easier to issue orders than to have them executed. Owing to the darkness, it was some time before the wounded could be got together near the centre of the camp, and the surgeons had some difficulty in dressing their wounds in the dark. As the general-in-chief passed from one point to another, in order to see his commands executed, he found so many of the officers in such a state of languor and exhaustion, that they were incapable of controlling their men. Some of them during the long march had taken a great deal of liquor, and this, as well as the excitement of the conflict dying out, left them utterly deprived of moral strength. It was only by his personal exertions that Walker obtained any security for the camp; and never, during the whole time he was in Nicaragua, did he find it so difficult, as on that night to have his orders executed. The will of the force seemed to be momentarily paralyzed by the fierce fire through which it had passed.

The night was long and tedious; but finally day broke, and the men somewhat refreshed by the short and interrupted sleep they had procured, were again ready for action. Major Schwartz, with admirable accuracy, threw a few shells from the howitzer into the houses near the plazuela of San Sebastian; and then Major Caycee advancing with a few of the Second Rifles, got possession of the little square apparently just abandoned by the Allies. Soon the wounded were comfortably quartered in the small church of San Sebastian; and after the troops had taken a hearty breakfast, their spirits were as good as ever. The sappers began their work cutting through the houses on each side of the street running into the right-hand corner of the main Plaza as you approach from San Sebastian. The cuts made through the adobe houses, during the attack of the 12th of October, were also found serviceable.

The work of the sappers was, however, slow; and while they were advancing in front under the protection of a company of Rifles, it was several times necessary to defend the plazuela from the attacks of the Allies. But the enemy, after several repulses with loss, seemed to conclude that they were exhausting their strength fruitlessly by these demonstrations against the rear of the Americans. Then, too, the front having got so far toward the Plaza that it was inconvenient to keep up communications with San Sebastian, Walker pushed his whole available force close up to the enemy, burning the houses behind him so as to protect his rear. Moving thus during the 16th and 17th, the Americans had on the evening of the latter day, got within twenty-five or thirty yards of the houses on the Plaza held by the enemy.

General Henningsen had established a mortar battery in a hut near the enemy, and a few shells thrown from it were quite effective. But the fuses were, as before noticed, too short-timed, and the shells at the disposal of the Nicaraguans were too few to justify any lavish use of them. This, in fact, was a main reason for the small effects produced by the mortars and howitzers (when shells were used in the latter) during the whole campaign. In addition to the defective fuses, and the small supply of shells, the effects of three days’ labor and fighting were seen in the lassitude of the men and the almost utter impossibility of having guard duty properly performed. Although the Allies were clearly disheartened by the approach of the Americans, it would have required some time longer to drive them from the town; and Walker, anxious about the Transit, resolved to retire to Granada, preparatory to an abandonment of the Oriental Department.

Accordingly, near midnight of the 17th, after a few hours’ rest in the early part of the evening, the Americans silently abandoned the houses they held and took up the line of march for Granada. In the darkness of the night the force was divided for a little while, but it was soon re-united and pursued its way toward the lake. The loss during the three days was nearly a hundred—one third of the whole number which attacked Masaya; and the long line of the wounded mounted on horses, necessarily impeded the march to Granada. But in spite of the exhaustion of the command, the march was regular and the force was kept compactly together. General Henningsen, with a howitzer, kept the rear well closed up, and secured it from any annoyances the enemy might have attempted. The Allies, however, did not trouble the retiring Americans; they were probably glad enough to be rid of such troublesome neighbors. On the morning of the 18th, Walker again entered Granada; and he soon after announced to Henningsen his determination to abandon the place.

Chapter Tenth.

THE RETREAT FROM GRANADA.

The obstinate resistance of the Allies at Masaya was due mainly to the fact that they had received a reinforcement of about eight hundred Guatemalans the very day they were attacked. It was these Guatemalans who had been placed in the plantain patches a few hours after they reached Masaya; and ignorant of the effects of American rifles they had kept their ground longer than any other portion of the allied force would have maintained it. During the three days’ fighting, however, the fire had been taken from the new men of Belloso; and his losses had been such that it was supposed he would scarcely be able to move without fresh troops. Hence Walker imagined the evacuation of Granada might be effected without any interruption from the enemy. He had, however, determined to destroy as well as abandon Granada; and as this duty required skill and firmness, he decided to intrust the task to Henningsen.

Preparations for the retreat from Granada were begun on the 19th. The sick and wounded in the hospital were placed on a steamer for transportation to Omotepe Island. In order to make the movement as rapid as possible, both the lake steamers, the San Carlos and La Virgen, were engaged for the service. On the 20th Walker repaired to Virgin Bay with the view of having all ready for a march to San Jorge or to Rivas, after the destruction of Granada. He supposed that the government property and stores would be at Virgin Bay on the 21st or the 22d, at latest: but several causes delayed the movement. There was a great deal of property scattered through Granada, belonging to officers and soldiers, and each one tried to save everything he owned. Besides, as soon as the idea got abroad that the town was to be destroyed the work of plunder began, and liquor being abundant, nearly every man able to do duty was more or less under its influence. Henningsen found it impossible to restrain the passions of the officers, and these, in turn, lost all control over their men. On the 22d, however, Fry had removed the women and children, as well as the sick and wounded, to the island, and had with him a guard of about sixty men. Henningsen had removed most of the ordnance stores to the steamer, and was proceeding with the destruction of the city. As the burning went on the excitement of the scene increased the thirst for liquor, and soldiers thought it a pity to waste so much good wine and brandy. In spite of guards and sentries, orders and officers, the drunkenness went on, and the town presented more the appearance of a wild Bacchanalian revel than of a military camp. Of course, Belloso soon knew the state of affairs at Granada, and on the afternoon of the 24th the town was attacked by the Allies.

At Virgin Bay the Infantry of Markham and of Jaquess were in a very disorganized condition. It being the close of the rainy season there was much fever in the camp; and the contrast between the quarters at Granada and at Virgin Bay, as well as the scarcity of vegetables in the rations at the latter point, depressed the spirits of the officers no less than of the soldiers. There were some choice men who seemed more cheerful at the prospect of difficulty and danger and privation; but such organizations are rare in every time and among every people. They are, unfortunately, the exceptions and not the rule.

To add to the general gloom, on the morning of the 23d, news came from San Juan del Sur that the schooner Granada had gone out of the harbor to engage a Costa Rican brig, and the people of the town had watched the fight by the flashes of the guns, until a broad bright light, accompanied by a loud noise as of thunder, led them to suppose one of the vessels had been blown up. Couriers arrived at Virgin Bay from time to time during the night of the 23d, announcing it as the general impression at San Juan that Fayssoux had blown up his schooner rather than let her fall into the hands of the enemy. This report, while it shows the opinions held by the people as to the inevitable result of a conflict between a vessel of the size of the Costa Rican brig and the little schooner, also indicates the idea they had formed of the character of the commander of the Granada. The failure of the schooner to enter the harbor during the night confirmed the impression of the townspeople; and at Virgin Bay few, besides the general-in-chief, doubted the correctness of the conclusions drawn from the light and the explosion.

On the morning of the 24th, however, the schooner was seen coming into port, and although her deck seemed covered with more than her complement of men, she cast anchor as usual in the harbor. In a little while the news spread that it was the enemy’s vessel which had been blown up the night before. The log of the schooner for the 23d tells the story thus: “Commences with light breezes from the N. and E., and pleasant. At 4 P.M. saw a sail off the harbor; hove up anchor, and stood out to her. At 5h. 45m. she hoisted Costa Rica colors. At 6, within four hundred yards of her; she fired round shot and musketry at us. At 8 we blew her up. At 10 we had taken from the sea her captain and forty of her men. Her name was Once de Abril, Capt. Antonie Villarostra; crew, 114 men and officers; guns 4, 9 lbs. calibre. The captain states that he was about surrendering when she blew up. All were lost and killed but those that I picked up. I had one man, Jas. Elliot, killed; Mathew Pilkington dangerously wounded, Dennis Kane seriously, and six others slightly. Light breezes; stood in for the harbor.”

The simplicity of the narrative reveals a feature in its author’s character; but it needs the commentary of the schooner’s size, and crew, and armament, to make its fall force felt. The Granada was about seventy-five tons burden, and had on board during the action with the Once de Abril twenty-eight persons all told, and among them were a boy and four citizens of San Juan. She carried two six-pound carronades, and had not more than 180 rounds of ball and canister. No wonder the people on shore imagined that a fight of two hours at close distance (for they knew, they said, Fayssoux would bring the brig to close work), had disabled the Granada to such an extent as to induce her commander to blow her up.

The destruction of the brig was caused by a ball fired into her from the schooner, the shot probably striking some iron or caps in the magazine. The Costa Ricans, however, and the people of Nicaragua, imagined it was effected by some new missile the Americans had invented. Many of the prisoners were badly burned; and they appeared grateful and somewhat surprised at the care the surgeons bestowed on their wounds. The captain was badly hurt, but after some time his burns were healed, and passage was given him on the steamer to Panama. The prisoners who could walk were soon released, and passports were given them for Costa Rica. When they reached home their reports did much to correct the prejudices the Moras had created against the Americans; and the released prisoners were finally silenced by the orders of the government. None of them, however, could ever be forced to march to Nicaragua.

The day after the action with the Once de Abril, Fayssoux was promoted to the rank of captain, and the estate of Rosario, near Rivas, was bestowed on him for the signal services he had rendered the republic. The result of this first sea-fight with the enemy, the disparity of numbers and guns, as well as the decisive character of the contest, gave new life to the men at Virgin Bay. Even the mean quarters and scanty rations of the village were, for a while, forgotten in the new glory the Granada had won for the red star flag of Nicaragua. And when, late in the evening of the 24th, news came that Henningsen was attacked at Granada, it did not interrupt the cheerfulness inspired by the success of the schooner off San Juan.

About three o’clock in the afternoon of the 24th the Allies attacked Henningsen at three points almost at the same moment.[4] One body of the enemy appeared in the Jalteva, another on the side of the San Francisco church, while a third body attacked the Guadalupe church on the street leading from the main Plaza to the Playa of the Lake. Major Swingle with a few cannon-shot soon caused the force in the Jalteva to disappear; while O’Neal resisted the advance of the enemy on the side of San Francisco. At the Guadalupe, however, the Allies were more successful. They not only gained possession of the church of Guadalupe, but also commanded the church of Esquipulas, about half way between the former and the Plaza. Thus a small body of men at the fort and on the wharf engaged in sending freight aboard of the steamers were entirely cut off from Henningsen and the main body of Americans.

Soon after the enemy appeared around Granada Lieut. O’Neal had fallen; and his brother Calvin, half frantic from the loss, called on Henningsen to permit him to charge the enemy forming near the church of San Francisco. The Allies were between four and five hundred strong; but O’Neal, in his fury, thought not of numbers, and every other feeling was drowned in grief for a brother’s death. At a convenient moment the general gave him thirty-two picked Rifles and let him loose on the enemy. O’Neal, barefooted and in his shirt sleeves, leaped on his horse, and calling on his Rifles to follow, dashed into the midst of the Allies as they formed near the old church. The men, fired by the spirit of their leader, followed in the same fierce career, dealing death and destruction on the terrified foe. The Allies were entirely unprepared for O’Neal’s sudden, dashing charge, and they fell as heedless travellers before the blast of the simoom. The slaughter made by the thirty-two Rifles was fearful, and so far were O’Neal and his men carried by the “rapture of the strife” that it was difficult for Henningsen to recall them to the Plaza. When they did return it was through streets almost blocked with the bodies of the Guatemalans they had slain. This charge well closed the fighting on the first day of the attack.

At daybreak on the 25th, Henningsen had concentrated his force and was able to ascertain his real strength. He had only 227 men capable of bearing arms, and was encumbered with 73 wounded and 70 women, children, and sick persons. Twenty-seven had been cut off on the wharf, while Capt. Hesse with 22 men had been lost, either killed or taken prisoners, at the Guadalupe church. Henningsen had also seven guns and four mortars; but his supply of ammunition for these was so short as to make them of much less service than they might have been. This force was, during the night of the 24th, concentrated near the Plaza, and it held the adobe houses on each side of the principal street leading from the main square by the churches of Esquipulas and Guadalupe to the lake. A breastwork was built from the parish church on one side of the mouth of this street to the guard-house on the other side; and the Americans were also partially protected from the enemy by the burning buildings around and near the main Plaza.

During the 25th, Henningsen, while repelling the advances the enemy were constantly attempting to make, pushed on toward the Esquipulas, driving the Allies from the huts and small houses of the neighborhood; and in the afternoon he succeeded in getting possession of the church. The hot embers had prevented the enemy from occupying Esquipulas; but they had loopholed several huts near, and thus, for some time, kept the Americans from getting possession. After a second charge, however, the Allies were driven from their barricades in the brush as well as from the huts they held; and thus the way was open for the advance of the Americans toward Guadalupe. The losses during the day were small; and the wounds slight.

On the 26th, all the houses on the Plaza were destroyed, except the church, the guard-house, and one or two others. Still the operations were delayed by the too free use of liquor; and it was difficult to get work done at the time and in the way it was ordered. The general commanding found himself unable to keep together a sufficient force to aid in the attempts he made against the Guadalupe church. In the efforts to gain this point much of the slender supply of shot and shell were exhausted without making any impression on the defences of the enemy; and the Americans, on the contrary, were somewhat discouraged by the success of the Allies in knocking away the works they hastily built. About sunset Henningsen gave up the attempt on Guadalupe, with a loss of sixteen killed and wounded. In addition to this loss several officers had been hurt during the day at different points; and Col. Jones had received a wound which kept him on his back for many weeks afterward. Fortunately, after this, the supply of brandy in the American camp was scanty; and the allied soldiers having got some of the liquor left in the town, it is probable, that Belloso found difficulty in managing its distribution.

Soon after giving up the attempt on Guadalupe, Henningsen heard heavy firing, as he supposed toward the north; and then prolonged shouts coming apparently from the same direction. He fancied, at the time, it might be a relieving force, which had been landed to the north of the town; but it was really the firing and shouts of the Allies at the attack they made on the men at the old fort, which had been partially destroyed for the purpose of building a wharf. This point was held for two days by the captain of police, Grier, assisted by some twenty-five of his men and of other civil employees of the government. On the evening of the 25th, Walker hearing no news from Granada after the attack, took the steamer San Carlos, which anchored off the wharf early on the morning of the 26th. The general-in-chief seeing the red-star flag flying on the parochial church, and the smoke of the burning houses constantly rising in new directions, inferred that Henningsen, not having completed the destruction of the town at the time of the attack, was delayed on the Plaza more through choice in the complete execution of orders, than by any necessity the Allies had imposed. But perceiving the importance of holding the fort for Henningson’s ready communication with the lake, Walker sent to the wharf in order to ascertain the state and the wants of its defenders. Grier sent word that his men were in good spirits, confident of holding the position, and that all they wished was, after a while, some provision and ammunition. At dark, a boat was sent from the San Carlos to the wharf with the articles required; but then the aide, who went in the boat, reported, on his return, that the spirits of the men were failing. The change was due to the desertion of a young Venezuelan, Tejada, who had been released from chains by the Americans, on the 13th of October, 1855. The consciousness that their exact number and condition were reported to the enemy by Tejada, made the men nervous of an attack on the fort. By their courage and skill in the use of their weapons they had given the Allies the idea, that they were much stronger than they really were; but now, the deserter, by destroying the delusion of the enemy, also destroyed the confidence of drier and his men.

Scarcely had the aide-de-camp returned to the San Carlos before the heavy firing Henningsen heard on the evening of the 26th was also heard aboard of the steamer. The frequent flashes of discharging small arms formed a circle of fire around the wharf, and the deep, prolonged volleys of musketry, so distinct from the short, sharp crack of the rifle, told that the enemy were doing most of the work; nor were the shouts from the shore such as come from the lusty lungs of defiant or triumphant Americans. In a short time, too, a man swam to the steamer, and saying he had escaped from the wharf, told the story of its capture by the allies. The deserter, Tejada, had not only given the number of Grier’s men to the enemy, but had also pointed out how the wharf in the rear of the Americans might be reached with a large iron launch on the beach. At the same time Grier was assailed in the rear, a large force attacked him in front, and, paralyzed by the combined assault as well as by the number of the enemy, the Americans were nearly all killed or wounded, and taken prisoners without a serious struggle. Well does the conduct of these men, before and after the desertion of Tejada, illustrate the oft-repeated remark of the great captain, “that in war the moral is to the physical as three to one.”

On the 27th, Henningsen moved his wounded from the parochial church, and the difficulty with which the labor was begun shows the indisposition of his force to do any work except fighting. Some of the Jamaica negroes, who had been at work on the lake steamer, and were caught in the town accidentally, were of service for fatigue duty; nor were prisoners from the guard-house entirely useless. After the wounded had been removed, a few hundred pounds of damaged powder were put under one of the towers of the church, and all the houses remaining on the Plaza were fired. The enemy tried to press on the Americans as they left the main square, but they were kept back by a few riflemen in the church towers until Henningsen was ready to withdraw. When all was prepared, the Americans abandoned the Plaza, and as they retired put a match to a train reaching the damaged powder under the church. The fire reached the powder, blowing the tower high into the air just as the too eager enemy were crowding into the Plaza, of which they had so long strove to get the mastery.

The town was now almost entirely destroyed, and Henningsen having got his force completely together, determined to make another attempt on the Guadalupe church. He was now able to control sixty good men for the assault, and the spirits of his command were raised by the success of previous operations. Besides the sixty riflemen for the attack, there were twenty-four artillerymen at the three six-pounders, and after seven rounds from each of the guns, rapidly fired into the Guadalupe, the Rifles rushed to the assault. But the enemy had abandoned the church before the Americans reached it, and thus the most important point between the Plaza and the Lake was carried without the loss of a single man. Immediately the wounded, ammunition, stores, and guns, were moved to the Guadalupe, and Major Henry was ordered, with twenty-seven men, to take possession of two huts in the low ground between the church and the lake.

Henry forthwith executed the order, and soon reported that, from appearances, he expected an early attack by the enemy. He also advised the abandonment of one of the huts, adding that he could hold the other during the night. Henningsen urged him to hold the single hut as long as possible, and promised reinforcements; but the confusion of the move to the Guadalupe not being yet over, only ten riflemen, with Col. Schwartz and his howitzer, could be sent to Henry’s assistance. Nor was it long after dark when the enemy, under the shade of the thick plantain walks and mango trees, crept up toward the huts, with the hope of surprising the Americans. But a vigilant eye was watching their movements, and Henry, sending a few rifle shots among them, discovered their position and strength by the answering volleys of musketry. Then the howitzer threw its canister into the allied ranks, spreading death and confusion among the numerous body attacking Henry’s position. The enemy were driven back with severe loss.

After this repulse of the Allies Henningsen re-organized his force and found it stronger than he had supposed. He formed forty of the best men into a main guard, holding them in reserve for immediate and urgent use. A company of fifteen were detailed to guard the doors and windows of the Guadalupe church; while twenty were selected for the defence of the enclosure in the rear. Ten men were assigned to each of the six guns at the church, and besides these it was found there were yet thirty to spare. The latter were formed into a lower main guard and sent to report to Henry at the hut in the low ground. It will thus be seen that the fighting men, then for duty, numbered two hundred and ten.

Nor was the increase of strength by the new and more efficient organization the only added force Henningsen now had. The men recovering from the effects of debauchery in the town and seeing the necessity for laborious effort were more willing to work than they had hitherto been. During the night of the 27th, they worked with a vigor which surprised their commander, and by daybreak of the 28th, they had finished an adobe breastwork the general had scarcely hoped to see completed. Major Swingle, by his industry and intelligence, did much to forward the labors of the men, and it would have been difficult for Henningsen to find a man more capable than Swingle of directing the execution of any orders he might issue. But the concentration of the force at the Guadalupe, while it enabled Henningsen to complete an organization whereby his men were more readily handled, had its inconveniences and dangers. The crowding together of more than three hundred persons, many of them sick and wounded was calculated to affect the health of the camp; and the exposed nature of the ground where Henry was posted, commanded as it was by several points in the hands of the enemy, made it impossible to move non-combatants thither until it was properly entrenched.

On the 28th the enemy, under cover of a flag of truce, sent into the American camp a renegade by the name of Price, together with an aide of Zavala, bearing a letter to “the commander-in-chief of the remains of Walker’s forces.” This letter invited the commanding officer, for humanity’s sake, to surrender himself and soldiers prisoners-of-war, promising them safety and passports to leave the country. Price, too, at his entrance into the camp urged the men to give up their arms as they were surrounded by three thousand of the Allies, but Price was immediately arrested and silenced, and a defiant reply to their insulting invitation was forthwith despatched to the leaders of the hostile forces. The aide was evidently sent as a spy, for he entered without being blindfolded or duly introduced, and Henningsen showed his contempt for the Allied leaders by telling the officer he might pass through his camp and observe all his defences.

The enemy, finding it was necessary to use more vigorous means than words in order to get the Americans out of the positions they held, made several efforts to regain the church of Guadalupe. At three o’clock in the afternoon of the 28th, they tried to storm the church, but were repulsed with severe loss. Then at eight the same evening they attempted to surprise the position. The night was dark, and a large force got within eighty yards of the breastwork in the rear of the church before they were discovered. Major Swingle with two six-pounders poured canister rapidly into the approaching columns, and the blaze of the enemy’s musketry showing their position, the guns were used with deadly effect. In a short time the Allies were again repulsed, and without the waste of rifle caps, now becoming scarce in Henningsen’s camp. Several other faint attacks were afterward made on the church, but it was clear that the officers of the Allies could not drive their soldiers to an assault.

The entrenchments near Henry’s position were not sufficiently advanced to admit of the removal of the sick and wounded until the 1st of December. In the meanwhile cholera and typhus broke out in the Guadalupe. The crowded state of the church, the numbers of sick and wounded, and the bad air from the decaying bodies of the enemy’s dead, tended to produce sickness; and the tendency was increased by the exposure to night air and rains. The camp was now subsisting on mule and horse meat with small rations of flour and coffee; but this diet, sufficiently wholesome, had little to do with the disease which appeared. The Allies also perished in large numbers by cholera and fever; yet they had an excellent quality and great variety of subsistence. Among the allied officers who died of cholera was the commander of the Guatemalan forces, Gen. M. Paredes. His death left Zavala in command of the Guatemalan contingent.

The cholera was a more fearful enemy to the Americans than any by which they were surrounded. Hence it was important to hasten the removal of the sick and wounded to the entrenchments in the low ground; and after they left the Guadalupe disease diminished and the cholera almost entirely disappeared. About seventy men remained in the church; but its garrison was gradually reduced to thirty rifles under the command of Lieut. Sumpter Williamson. His steady courage and cheerful spirits made him competent, even with the small force at his disposal, to hold the position against any attempts of the enemy; and it was always easy for Henningsen, in an emergency, to strengthen him with fresh men.

But the cholera did not leave until it had taken off some of the most useful persons in the American camp. Among these was Mrs. Bingham, the wife of Edward Bingham, the actor. While the disease was worst in the Guadalupe, she had been constantly employed in the care of the sick; and her unwearied kindness and attention had probably enabled many to overcome the fatal epidemic. But she was herself finally seized and carried off by the disease in a few hours.

After moving the main part of his force to Henry’s position, Henningsen endeavored to work his way to the lake while keeping open his communications with Williamson in the church. For several days the enemy strove constantly to interrupt these communications. But all their attempts failed; and while the Americans held their ground against the enemy, the ordnance officers were increasing the supplies of ammunition. Major Rawle, one of the original fifty-eight, was possessed of untiring industry; and Major Swingle was fertile in resources and most ingenious in all mechanical contrivances. They made round shot by piling up small pieces of iron in sand hollowed on a six-pound ball, and then pouring lead over the iron pieces so as to hold them together. Thus the effective strength of the artillery was much increased; and the general was enabled to count on it as a means for breaking through the enemy’s lines in case such a step became necessary or advisable.

On the 8th Zavala sent another letter to Henningsen, imploring him to surrender, and saying that he need expect no assistance from Walker, as the steamers had arrived at San Juan del Sur and San Juan del Norte without bringing any passengers for Nicaragua. But the Nicaraguan general did not condescend to give a written reply to the Guatemalan officer. He merely sent the message that he could parley only “at the cannon’s mouth.” The men now began to be discouraged at the frequent appearance of the steamers on the lakes without the landing of a relieving force; and the enemy not moving it was necessary to send the Americans to attack some indigo vats on their right to keep them from dwelling on the condition in which they were placed by the Allies. The provisions were nearly exhausted; and the men had commenced discussing among themselves the necessity of breaking through the enemy’s lines, when, on the morning of the 12th, the steamer, La Virgen, again appeared off the port.

While the retreat from Granada was thus embarrassed by the large and constantly recruited force the Allies had brought against Henningsen, the troops in the Meridional Department were not prepared to relieve their beleagured comrades. Walker was almost constantly on the lake, watching the progress and attempting to ascertain the position of Henningsen; and when, at intervals, he returned to Virgin Bay, he usually found the force there nervous and apprehensive of an attack from Cañas and Jerez who then held Rivas. Jaquess, commanding at Virgin Bay, had more knowledge of tactics than of other branches of the military art more important in the operations of irregular war; and he permitted the most alarming reports as to the strength and resources of the enemy to be circulated in his camp. His men were worn out by heavy guard duty, and all the spirit was taken out of them by being kept in a state of constant anxiety and watchfulness.

Nor was the camp at Omotepe, whither the main hospital of the army had been temporarily removed, in a less uneasy mood than the Infantry at Virgin Bay. Fry had some sixty men capable of duty, and there were with him several efficient officers. It was impossible for the enemy, in any numbers, to reach the island, even if they had been able to spare the force from the position they held. But there were constant rumors of barges passing from San Jorge to Omotepe with arms for the use of the Indians on the east side of the island. Knowing well that but few of the Indians on Omotepe could be used against the Americans, even if the Allies had been able to furnish them all with arms, Walker felt confident that no serious attack could be made on the little village where the hospital had, for the time, been fixed.