The First
Attack
Captain G.B. Elliot of the HMS Spartan, acting as a Naval Military Observer to
the Mexican Military, reported to the British Admiralty on
25 April, 1843
, "...
Campeche
will very shortly have to surrender and leave
the squadron free to engage in operations against
Texas
."1
Van Zandt on 21 April wrote that Daniel Webster had frequently told him
"...the favorable or unfavorable termination of that (
Yucatan
) campaign would determine the ability or
inability of
Mexico
to reinvade
Texas
."
This above message was sent to the Texas Secretary of State.2
Therefore, the Mexicans were warned that Commodore Moore and the Texas Navy were
on their way. Arrangois of the
Mexican Government had warned Commodore Lopez, Commander of the Mexican
Squadron.3
Commodore Lopez in turn took the
schooner Fanny (American Registry) under charter and sent her off to instruct
the "Eagle" and the "Montezuma" to immediately
rejoin the Mexican squadron.4
Meanwhile the "Austin"
and Moore arrived at Telchac and found the enemy had gone 24 hours before.5
They were joined there by the "Wharton" and sailing in company
immediately set off in pursuit of the elusive "Montezuma" and
her consort "Eagle."
Hoping to overtake the Mexican Steamer,
Moore
kept close by the
Yucatan
Coast
, and in the early afternoon learned from the
Port
of
Sisal
that the Mexican Squadron was off
Campeche
.
Even though the
Texas
ships had missed their quarry, the warmth with
which they were received by Governor Barbachano of
Yucatan
and the rapidity with which armistice
negotiations were broken off with Santa Anna's besieging forces at
Campeche
was most gratifying to the tiny
Texas
squadron. Both
ships immediately filled away and running at 10.5 knots set their course for
Campeche
. Commodore
Moore
on the evening of the 29th of April determined
his position to be just off
Campeche
. Here
the "Austin" and "Wharton" stayed at anchor
until the morning's first light.
Moore
expected to meet some or all of the Mexican
Squadron, and wanted to meet them while the early morning breeze still allowed
his ships to operate effectively.
Moore
ordered both
Texas
ships to make preparations for their own
destruction by magazine explosion if capture seemed likely.6
Two small warships were moving to engage a larger force--for a contest between
sail and steam; solid shot against shell guns.
One Texas Sloop of War, and one Texas Armed Brig against the entire
Mexican Navy; whose seven ships included three fast steamers which carried
heavier guns.
Dawn broke of the 30th of April with the Texas Navy underway fifteen miles
northwest of Lerma, and the breeze from ESE.
The Mexican ships; "Montezuma" (8 guns-Paixhans), "Yucateco"
(17 guns), "Eagle" (7 guns-Paixhans). "Iman"
(9 guns), "Campecheano" (3 guns) were sighted about ten miles
to the South. The "Guadelupe"
(flagship of Lopez) was coaling ship close inshore to Lerma.7
Moore
faced the above force with the "
Austin
's"
20 guns (2 long 18s, 16 medium 24s and 2 medium 18s) supplemented by the "Wharton's"
16 guns (1 long nine, 15 medium 18s).
Moore
also expected some assistance from the Yucatan
Squadron under Captain James Boylan (formerly of the Lone Star Navy).
However, these two schooners "Siselano" and "Independencia"
were small, slow and poorly armed (8 guns-two long 12s, 5 long 9s and 1 long 6)
and each of the five accompanying Yucatan gunboats only mounted one 6 pounder
each.
It cannot be said of Commodore Moore that he faltered in the presence of the
enemy. Making some allowance for the
fact that Texan figures have been followed as to the armament of the sail ships
in the Centralist (Mexican) fleet, Moore with his ships manned by almost exactly
half of their full war strength, would have been justified in approaching the
blockaders with extreme caution and trepidation, if not waiting for another
night when a union with the Yucatan schooners at Campeche might have been made
under cover of darkness.
However, apparently, this did not occur to the Texas Commodore, and he felt that
he had already waited far too long for this move against the enemy.
The first attack was begun.
(1)--Elliot to Adam,
25 April,1843--
(Public Record Office,
London
ADM 1/5529);
(2)--George P. Garrison (ed.) Diplomatic Correspondence of the
Republic
of
Texas
II (1), Part II, 168;
(3)--Pena y Barragan Minister of War,
16 May 1843
(Archivo Historico, Secretaria de la
Defensa Nacional
,
Mexico
, D.F., XI/481.3/1928);
(4)--Lopez to Secretary o State,
29 April, 1843
(Archivo Historico, Secretaria de la Defensa,
Mexico D.F., XI/481.3/1986);
(5)--Edwin Ward Moore, To the People of
Texas
, P.172;
(6)--Telegraph and Texas Register,
28 August, 1844
, p. 2, col.1;
(7)--Lopez to Secretary of State,
1 May, 1843
(
Archivo de Cancelados
,
Mexico
D.F.,Caja 546);
Further
References:
Hill,
"The
Texas
Navy";
Douglas
, "Thunder On the Gulf";
Wells,
"Commodore Moore and the
Texas
Navy."
The
Texas
Navy and The French Ironclads
The First Texas Navy had been dissolved as an active service by President
Houston prior to 1839. This pioneer
service was, however, reestablished by the incoming President of Texas, Mirabeau
B. Lamar for the purpose of defending the tidewater areas of the new
republic
of
Texas
. A sum of $800,000 was spent to put together this new fleet which contained the
following ships:
--The War-Brig "
Austin
"(20);
--Brigs "Wharton" and
"Archer";
--Schooners "San Barnard", “
San Antonio
", and "
San Jacinto
";
--Steamer "Zavala" (8).
The crews were recruited in the area of
New Orleans
. La and placed under the command of Commodore
Edwin W. Moore, Texas Navy.
Commodore Edwin Ward Moore (1810 - 1865), naval officer, was born in
Alexandria
,
Virginia
, on
July 15, 1810
. He
attended
Alexandria
Academy
, and entered the United States Navy as a
Midshipman on
January 1, 1825
.
Moore
served as Midshipman on the sloops "Hornet"(of
the West Indian Squadron) and "
Boston
." Later
he served on the "
Fairfield
" in the Mediterranean Squadron and in 1835
was promoted to lieutenant. In July
1839, he resigned his U.S. Navy Commission on "
Boston
" to accept the offer of Commodore of the
Texas Navy for a salary of $200 per month. During the winter of 1839-40 he spent
his time in the
New York
area enlisting seamen and in 1840-41 he was off
the
Mexican
Coast
in an attempt to hasten peace negotiations
between
Texas
and
Mexico
. With
the collapse of negotiations,
Moore
's small squadron of wooden ships swept the seas
in the
Gulf of Mexico
of all ships of Mexican registration.
He made an alliance with the
Yucatan
authorities who were in rebellion against the
government of
Mexico
and capture the city of
Tabasco
.
Moore
then undertook to survey the
Texas
Coast
and produced a chart that was later published by
the British Admiralty. This chart
also significantly reduced the cost of shipping insurance for vessels sailing
for commercial purposes in the area and resulted in a significant increase in
sea-borne trade. On
September 18, 1841
,
Moore
received orders to guard the
Yucatan
Coast
in conformity with the Texas-Yucatan Treaty and
on
December 13, 1841
, left
Galveston
with three ships to join the
Yucatan
feet at Sisal.
He captured several Mexican Vessels and then returned to
Galveston
for refit of his ships and re-supply.
In 1842, the first iron-clad ships came into American waters in the form of two
Mexican ironclad frigates; the "Montezuma" and the "Guadalupe."
These ships were built by the British to a French design and sold to the Mexican
Navy in retaliation (in probability) for the
U.S.
vs. British "
Oregon
" dispute.
These ironclads were paddle-driven steamships mounting heavy ordnance.
The "Montezuma" (1,164 tons) carried a 68pdr. pivot gun and six
32pdrs. The "Guadalupe"
(775 tons) carried two 68pdrs. Both
ships were manned by English crews and commanded by British Officers "on
leave" from the British Royal Navy. Although
these ironclads had the attention of the naval authorities in
Washington
D.C.
and caused a great deal of worry at that place,
Commodore Moore did not seem overly concerned with their presence.
By 1842 the Mexican Revolution had led to a great scarcity of Mexican shipping
in the Gulf. The Texas Navy crews
began causing trouble with the disappearance of all that lucrative prize-money.
The "San Barnard" was wrecked off
Galveston
by mishandling attributed to the crew, and the
"
San Antonio
" slipped away i the night, later to be
reported in the
Caribbean
as flying the "Jolly Roger" as a
pirate vessel. Commodore Moore
himself was required to personally quell a mutinous riot close-by the Isle of
Mergeres. Finally in the early
months of 1843, the ragged Texas Navy made port in
New Orleans
, with no on-board provisions, no pay for the
crews, and with two vessels of the fleet missing.
Commodore
Moore
was next commissioned by the President to
blockade the
Mexican
Coast
.
Enter at this juncture "The Raven" the new President Sam Houston who
withheld the distribution of the funds for the blockade.
Houston
, wanting nothing further to do with the
rebellious sailors, ordered the Texas Navy Fleet home to
Galveston
to be sold at auction.
Commodore
Moore
stung by this obviously insulting order rejected
it, and entered into negotiations with the
Yucatan
authorities on his own.
In effect, Commodore Moore undertook to "rent" the Texas Navy
to
Yucatan
in return for funding to pay the fleet and
resupply and refit the ships. Thus
Moore
financed by
Yucatan
, joined the
Yucatan
fleet once again to break the Mexican blockade
of
Yucatan
, thereby saving the Federalist Yucatecans from
hasty piece with Centralist Antonio Lopez de
Santa Ana
. President Houston immediately took action to
denounce the action of
Moore
and labeled him and his crews as renegade.
According to Commodore Moore they were still the Texas Navy when on
April 30, 1843
they attacked the Mexican Fleet then lying off
Campeche
, ucatan. This
Mexican Fleet was commanded by Don Thomas Marin and featured two schooners, two
brigs, the armed steamer "Regenerator" and the two previously
described ironclads under the command of Captains Cleaveland, and Charlewood
(RN). This first attack was a draw
and the fleets separated.
The next event was orchestrated by the Moore and his "Texians" who
lured the Mexican Forces into a narrow roadstead, and used his forces to pound
the Mexican Ironclads to junk. The
battle toll came out as; "Austin" (three dead), "Wharton"
(two dead), "Montezuma" (forty dead), and "Guadalupe"
(forty-seven dead). The Mexican Fleet was effectively destroyed.
By June 1842, the Texas Navy controlled the Gulf.
On
June 1, 1843
,
Moore
ha received
Houston
's proclamation accusing him of disobedience and
suspending him from the Texas Navy; so
Moore
returned to
Galveston
on July 14 and demanded a trial.
Commodore
Moore
was toasted by the City Of
Galveston
for his victory and arrested by
Houston
authorities as a mutineer.
A joint report of naval committees in the Texas Congress recommended a
court-martial to try him for disobedience, contumacy, mutiny, piracy and murder.
In response
Moore
published “To the People of Texas” (1843) a
personal vindication and account of the navy.
The court found
Moore
not guilty except on four minor charges and gave
him the right to continue in the navy. The
Texas Navy, however, remained in port at anchor until adopted into the U.S. Navy
in 1845 with the annexation of
Texas
.
Moore
spent many years in prosecuting financial claims
against
Texas
. In
1857 Congress awarded him five years pay. His
quarrel with Sam Houston over the justness of his suspension from the Navy
continued during
Houston
's senatorship.
In 1860
Moore
returned to
Galveston
where he built the Galveston Custom House.
He dies in
New York City
,
October 5, 1865
.
Moore
County
in the Panhandle is named for him.
Rafael Semmes said of him that he was the "Star" of Texas Naval
History. In spite of that and his signal achievements in the
Gulf of Mexico
he was not afforded the privilege of the "
Austin
" when she was adopted into the U.S. Navy.
It was thus that the Texas Fleet, disavowed and labeled mutineers sank
the Mexican power on the seas, and made possible a sea-borne invasion of the
Mexican
Republic
.
The
Civil War in Mexico
and the Texas
Question--1842
The
new Centralist Government of Mexico under President Santa Anna was at war with
rebels in the
Yucatan
Peninsula
known as Yucatecans or "peninsulares."
The Texas Navy had been of assistance to these rebels in April 1841, in
an effort to keep the Mexican Navy too busy to attack the
Texas
seaport of
Galveston
, but within six weeks of his Texas Navy Squadron
leaving the area the fortunes of politics and war had turned against them. A
Mexico Navy armed steamship with two other war vessels took the offensive and
captured the "peninsulares" finest war-brig the "Yucateco"
and paved the way for joint army / navy offensive directed at the Island of
Carmen, not far from Laguna, which served as the Yucatecan Naval Base. In August
of that year the Naval Base and the three remaining Yucatecan ships were
captured and became part of President Santa Anna's fleet.
In addition to the above activity, a few months later two large warships
were begun a-building in English shipyards, which were supposedly destined for
the Royal Navy. While President
Houston's naval policies had left a good part of the Texas Navy rotting in the
mud of
Galveston
Harbor
two vessels boasting the latest known art of
naval architecture were being produced at two of the best known shipyards in the
world.
The Ironclads
The
first ship of this dual threat, by name the "
Guadeloupe
", was being constructed from French Naval
Plans in the British shipyard of Jonathan Laird in
Birkenhead
,
England
and was specifically designed to operate in the
shallow waters of the Gulf. She drew
only 10 feet of water and was further designed to be fully dependent upon steam
power for movement, and her weapons battery was as modern as her propulsion.
She was of 788 tons displacement, 183 feet in length, and had the means
within her propulsion system to develop a full 180 HP.1 She had two
32 pdr. long guns and two 68 pdr swivel Paixhan's pivots--"the guns with
the explosive shells as large as good-size pumpkins."2
Ultimately this was armament that would render all other weapons of the period
obsolete. "Guadeloupe" was the first iron steam warship in the
world to be launched and when she was launched, the largest iron vessel ever
built.3 A further feature that was unusual for the period was her
construction in the use of watertight compartmentation throughout.4
Although not accepted into the Royal Navy, the British Admiralty maintained a
careful surveillance of this vessel and her performance throughout her seafaring
career and added many of her particular features to later vessels built for
seaborne warfare.
The second vessel of discussion was the "Montezuma."
She was a wooden hulled iron-clad and even larger than the "
Guadeloupe
." She
displaced 1164 tons, extended in length to 203 feet, and possessed a surprising
280 HP in her engines. Her extensive
armament consisted of two 68 pdr swivel and six 42 pdr long Paixhans guns.5
She was built in
London
in the shipyards of Greens and Wigrams.
She was a heavy-timbered wooden vessel constructed along what were then
ultra-modern lines.6 With such heavy guns, and under able management,
these two steamers alone were (on paper) far more than a match for the Texan
Fleet which did not mount a gun heavier than several long 24 pdrs.
The Sale
and Delivery of Ships
The
building of these ships came to the attention of the
Texas
Chargé d'Affaires in
London
(Mr. Asbell Smith) who came to came to realize
the danger of the vessels a-building. He
began his official investigation in January of 1842, and by April of that year
the ships were well along in construction. It was in that month that Mr. Smith
found out the truth about these ships, that they were intended for the Mexican
Navy. At this time he made every
effort to stop the ships from sailing and many years before the problem of the
Confederate Rams went through the whole gambit of protests.
His actions delayed the sailing to some small extent, but in the end both
ships sailed, with Royal Navy Officers in command, British Navy crews, and if
the guns were not mounted in
England
they were mounted soon after.
Before Christmas of that year both ships were duly armed and had become a
part of Santa Anna's Centralist Fleet. The "Montezuma" was
captained by Commander Cleaveland R. N. and the "
Guadeloupe
" by Commander Charlewood R.N.
Thus reinforced the Centralist Fleet now consisted of the two new
ironclads, two gun-brigs, two war-schooners, and a well armed merchant steamer
together with several supply and troop ships. This fleet was busy being very
effective in supporting two Mexican Armies on the
Yucatan
Peninsula
, the first being at Telchac and moving toward Merida, and the second was in the act of laying siege
to
Campeche. The
idea here of the Centralist Government was to conquer the
Yucatan
and use the resources thus gained to supply and
support an attack on Texas
and her closest seaport
Galveston, so that a support of the Yucatan Rebels was a
major step in the long term defense of
Texas
. At this point Commodore E.W. Moore is having
financial difficulties in maintaining the Texas Fleet with no funding from the
Texas President, who is politically active in trying to hurry the annexation of
Texas
along by playing a double game in appeasing the
British Government and trying to "scare" the U.S. Governmnt into
speeding up the annexation process. The
Commodore takes the extraordinary step of "renting" the Texas Navy to
the Yucatecans to defend against the Mexican Naval Forces and in spite of
specific objections from President Houston sails with the approval and person of
the Naval Commissioner of the Texas Navy to the relief of the Yucatan Rebels.
Both the Rebels and the Mexican Naval Forces are aware that he is on his
way and the stage is now set for one of the most interesting and little detailed
naval battles of the 19th century---wooden vessels against ironclads,
solid shot against Paixhans explosive shells, and sails against steam, 18 years
BEFORE the famous battle of the Ironclads at Hampton Roads: Monitor and
the Virginia!!!
1
Sir Allen Moore, BT, "Sailing Ships Of War", P. 55; (Mr J.D. Hill in
his "Texas Navy indicates 775 tons).
2
George P. Garrison (Ed.) Diplomatic Correspondence of the
Republic
Of
Texas
. II (1). Part III, 986.
3
James Phinney Baxter, "Introduction of the Ironclad Warship", P. 34.
4
George P. Garrison, "op cit", II(1), Part II, 983.
5
Asbell Smith to Sam Houston,
1 Sept, 1842
, Unpublished letters of Sam Houston (Archives
Collection,
University
of
Texas
,
Austin
)---(J.D. Hill indicates that she displaced 1111
tons, mounted one 68 pdr, 2 long 32 pdrs, 4 32 pdr carronades and a small 9 pdr.)
6
Jim Dan Hill, "The
Texas
Navy", P. 172.
References:
The
Handbook of
Texas
Douglas,
Claude L., "Thunder on The Gulf" or "The Story of The Texas
Navy," Turner Company, 1936, reprint Old Army Press, 1973, p128.
Hill, J. D., "The Texas Navy, In Forgotten Battles & Shirtsleeve
Diplomacy,"
Univ.
of
Chicago Press
, 1937; reprint State House Press, Austin, 1987,
p224.
Moore, Commodore E.W., To The People of Texas, An Appeal; In Vindication of His
Conduct of the Navy, 1843, Eugene Barker Library, Univ. of Texas, Austin, p204.
Wells,
Commander Tom H., USN (Ret.), "Commodore Moore and the Texas
Navy,"
University
of
Texas Press
, Austin Texas, 1960, second printing, 1988, p218
Website
-- Texas Navy Association Inc.
Roscoe,
Theodore and Freeman, Fred, "Picture History of the
U.S.
Navy, From Old Navy to New, 1776 to 1897",
Bonanza Books,
New York
. 1956.
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