The war in Nicaragua

In the beginning of September, 1856, the army of Nicaragua was organized in two battalions of Rifles, two of Light Infantry, one of Rangers, and a small company of Artillery. The First Rifles was the fullest as well as the best corps of the army, and it scarcely mustered two hundred effective men. The Second Rifles was a mere shadow of a battalion, and its discipline was almost entirely neglected. The Light Infantry battalions were larger than the Second Rifles, and some companies of these, as, for example, the company of Capt. Henry, of the Second Infantry, were in good order and condition. The Rangers consisted of three small companies, under the command of Major Waters, and were capable of effective service. Capt. Schwartz, with a few artillerymen, had shown capacity for organizing his corps, and possessed knowledge in his profession, he having served for some time as an artillery officer in Baden during the revolutionary troubles of 1848. The whole effective force scarcely amounted to eight hundred men.

Gen. Hornsby was in command of the Meridional Department, having his headquarters sometimes at San Jorge, sometimes at Rivas, and sometimes at San Juan del Sur. He had with him some companies of the First Infantry and the artillery squad—it could scarcely be called a company—of Capt. Schwartz. The First Rifles were at Granada, while the Second Rifles, under Lieut.-Col. McDonald, were at Tipitapa. The Second Infantry were at Masaya, and, in the absence of Col. Jaquess, it was commanded by Lieut.-Col. McIntosh. Capt. Dolan had been in command of a company of Rifles at Managua, but about the middle of September, Major Waters was sent thither with his Rangers. The principal depot of commissary, quartermaster, and ordnance stores, and all the work-shops of the army, were at Granada. The San Juan river was guarded by two companies of infantry, and Lieut.-Col. Rudler was placed in charge of that frontier.

The main strength of the enemy was at Leon, under the orders of Gen. Belloso, and in the month of August Martinez began to collect men in Matagalpa, and even as far down as Chocoyas and Trinidad. The troops under Belloso were kept closely about Leon, and Rangers from Managua were in the habit of scouting beyond Pueblo Nuevo without meeting any signs of the enemy. Martinez, however, was collecting the herdsmen and servants attached to the Legitimist owners of cattle-estates in the upper part of Chontales and Los Llaños, and these being familiar with the country were easily able to provide their chief with any news in that region of country. A large proportion of the cattle used by the Americans was drawn from these districts, and they were generally driven to Granada by native officers, accompanied by small detachments of riflemen mounted for the occasion. One of the most efficient of these native officers was Ubaldo Herrera, whose services during the civil war have been heretofore related.

In the latter part of August, Herrera, with a few Americans, was sent to one of the cattle-estates of Los Llaños, and while carelessly driving cattle toward Tipitapa he was attacked and slain by a small band of Legitimists. This incident occurred not many miles from Tipitapa, and in consequence of it Lieut.-Col. McDonald received orders to cross the Tipitapa river, and marching toward Los Llaños, to ascertain whether any traces of the enemy were to be seen in that direction. The roads were, at the time, difficult, and all movements were necessarily slow and uncertain, owing to the heavy rains of the season. McDonald, however, with Capt. Jarvis, and about forty men, proceeded in the direction of San Jacinto, a large cattle-estate a few miles east and north of Tipitapa. It was reported that some of the enemy were quartered at the country-house belonging to the estate, and McDonald, arriving near the house before daybreak, postponed a nearer approach until he might be able to see the strength of the enemy. Soon after daylight he drew up his force for an attack, but while proceeding at a quick pace he was received by such a sharp, steady fire that he deemed it prudent to withdraw. Capt. Jarvis was brought off mortally wounded, and McDonald had ascertained that the enemy were in larger numbers than he expected, and strongly barricaded behind adobes.

The presence of the enemy at San Jacinto was a serious inconvenience to the commissariat, and when it was known at Granada there were numerous volunteers who proposed to drive the Legitimists from the house they occupied. The state of the roads made it almost impossible to send artillery against San Jacinto, even had there been the round shot or shell requisite for rendering a gun useful in an attack on adobes. There was a general impression at Granada that McDonald’s Rifles had retired too soon, and the impression was due to the utter want of discipline in the corps. Seeing the enthusiasm of some officers and citizens, and desirous of ascertaining more exactly the strength of the enemy beyond Tipitapa, Walker consented that volunteers should be engaged for an attack on San Jacinto.

The volunteers were principally Americans who had been in the army, and who had been discharged or had resigned; and these had their numbers swelled to about sixty-five or seventy by the officers at Granada and Masaya. Among the officers who joined the expedition were Major J. C. O’Neal, Captains Watkins, Lewis, and Morris, and Lieutenants Brady, Connor, Crowell, Hutchins, Kiel, Reader and Sherman. They left Granada on the afternoon of the 12th of September, and passing through Masaya reached Tipitapa on the morning of the 13th. At Tipitapa they offered the command of the party to Lieutenant-Colonel Byron Cole, who had been visiting several points in Chontales with a view of procuring cattle for the army, and Cole agreed to accept the offer. Wiley Marshall, a citizen of Granada, was named as second in command. The spirit of adventure which controlled not only these men but many others in Nicaragua can be judged of by the fact that under this improvised organization Major O’Neal consented to receive orders from a simple citizen, Marshall.

Cole and his command arrived before San Jacinto about 5 o’clock, on the morning of Sunday the 14th of September. They found the house well situated for defence on a gentle elevation commanding all the ground about it. Near the house was a corral, the sides of which afforded protection against rifle or musket balls. Cole halted a few minutes to arrange his plan of attack; and dividing his small force into three bodies, placed the first in charge of Robert Milligan, an ex-lieutenant of the army, the second under Major O’Neal, and the third under Captain Watkins. The attack on the enemy was to be made at three several points, and the weapons to be used principally were revolvers. These arrangements being made, the order to charge simultaneously the points assigned to each division was given. The order was gallantly obeyed, and Cole with Marshall and Milligan had already gained the corral when they were struck down by the well-directed fire of the enemy. O’Neal was more fortunate, receiving only a wound in the arm, while Watkins was disabled by a shot in the hip. Thus, almost at the same instant, and when the men were within a few rods of the house, all of the leaders and nearly one third of the whole force were either killed or wounded. Then the others, seeing nothing was to be accomplished with their numbers, withdrew, carrying off their wounded; and in a few minutes they were in full retreat toward Tipitapa.

Thus in the bold but fruitless charge he made on San Jacinto perished Byron Cole, whose energy and perseverance had done so much toward securing the presence of the Americans in Nicaragua. It was the first opportunity he had for being under fire; and he had scarcely seen the flash of an enemy’s musket before he met his fate. For months preceding the arrival of the Americans at Realejo, he had travelled and toiled in their behalf; and the only reward of all his labor and anxiety was death on the first field where he met the foe of the principles he had aided to advance. Nor was Cole the only loss of note on that fatal day. Marshall died of his wounds after reaching Tipitapa; and among the missing was Charles Callahan, who had been appointed collector of customs at Granada. The latter was correspondent of the New-Orleans Picayune newspaper, and his genial nature secured for him a large circle of friends who regretted his untimely loss. The thirst for action led him to exchange his business in Granada for the excitement of the attack on San Jacinto; and he never returned to fill the duties he had so well begun a few weeks previously.

The retreat of the volunteers from San Jacinto was irregular and disorderly; and on such a command as that of McDonald at Tipitapa the arrival of the defeated party had an alarming effect. So great was the panic that the bridge across the river was torn up to prevent the expected enemy from using it. But no enemy appeared and the alarm gradually subsided. The news, however, of the defence at San Jacinto encouraged the Allies greatly; and soon after the news of the affair reached Leon, Belloso, urged on by some of the more resolute of his officers, determined to advance toward Granada.

A few days after the affair at San Jacinto, about two hundred men arrived at Granada from New-York for the Nicaraguan service. They were soon organized into companies; but they showed from the beginning how worthless they were for military duty. A very large proportion of them were Europeans of the poorest class, mostly Germans who cared more for the contents of their haversacks than of their cartridge-boxes. With the exception of Captain Russell and Lieutenants Nagle and Northedge, the officers were as trifling as the men; and these New-York volunteers, as they called themselves, had not been in the country ten days before they began to desert in numbers. The promise of free quarters and rations seemed to have carried the most of them to Nicaragua; and the idea of performing duty could scarcely have entered their minds when they left the United States. Of course such trash as these men proved to be were far worse than no men at all; for their vices and corruptions tainted the good materials near them.

While these recruits were arriving at Granada, Belloso, having received reinforcements from San Salvador and Guatemala, was marching from Leon toward Managua with a force of about eighteen hundred men. He was accompanied by General Zavala, the second in command of the Guatemalan officers, Paredes remaining sick at Leon. Jerez also followed the allied camp; nor was he unattended by such Leoneses as Mendez and Olivas, eager for any disorder which held out the prospect of plunder. Valle, having ventured back to the Occidental Department after the June changes, with the view of raising the people against the Rivas authority, was arrested and afterward kept under the eye of the police. He waited at Chinandega hoping for the turn in affairs which might render his presence there useful to the Americans. By remaining in the Occidental Department he aided to keep the people of that region from joining in the crusade the Allies preached against the “filibusters.”

Major Waters watched closely the advance of the Allies, and by the firm front he showed at Managua delayed them for several days on the road between that place and Leon. When, however, Belloso approached within a few miles of Managua Waters received orders to fall back to Masaya. At the latter place, Lieutenant-Colonel McIntosh was commanding, and the garrison consisted of about two hundred and fifty men; these had been increased in numbers, though not much in strength, by the Second Rifles from Tipitapa. Subsistence for many days was collected at Masaya, and the commandant began to build barricades and other defences near the main square of the city. While these works were going on, Captain Henry, who had been confined to his bed for many weeks from a painful wound received in a duel, came out, and by the skill he evinced inspired the soldiers with confidence in his judgment and sagacity. The commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel McIntosh, was sadly deficient both in knowledge and force of character; and the effect of his irresolution was such that it was clear the force at Masaya could not be depended on for holding the town against the advancing enemy. Had Henry been in command the condition of the garrison would have been far different; and it was unfortunate that his long confinement had prevented his capacity from being known until the last moment. As will be seen hereafter, his disposition to get into danger, kept him on the list of wounded nearly the whole time he was in Nicaragua. During the war in Central America, there was no better soldier engaged in it than Henry; and by reading and study, as well as by practice and habit, he was familiar, not only with the details of military administration, but also with the deeper and more difficult principles of the art of war.

After halting a short time at Managua, Belloso continued to advance; and at Nindiri, a league from Masaya, he was joined by Martinez and his followers from Chontales and Matagalpa, thus swelling the allied force to twenty-two or twenty-three hundred men. The moral condition of the command at Masaya was such that McIntosh received orders to retire on Granada; and the state of his men may be judged from the manner in which they left Masaya. Such was the haste and confusion that Capt. Henry was left behind, and his safety was the result of accident, being due to the good-will of the women who attended him during his illness. A brass six-pounder was left on the road, about three miles out of Masaya, and the enemy afterward got possession of it. McIntosh might have been deliberate, even slow in his movement with entire safety; for Belloso did not enter Masaya for some hours after it was abandoned by the Americans.

Walker, had he desired it, might probably have prevented for a time, or at least much embarrassed the junction of Martinez with Belloso. But a war against scattered guerillas was more exhausting to the Americans than a contest with the enemy gathered in masses. The Allies were less formidable when united than when acting in detached bodies at several distant points. Hence, no obstacle was put in the way of Martinez in his march toward Belloso. In fact, the best manner of treating a revolutionary movement in Central America, is to treat it as a boil, let it come to a head, and then lance it, letting all the bad matter out at once. It was an object for the Americans to let all the dissatisfied elements in Nicaragua gather about the Allied force, so that the question at issue might be decisively determined. The accession of Martinez really added little, if any, to Belloso’s military strength.

Meanwhile the force in Granada was increased by the arrival, on the 4th of October, of Col. Sanders, with Capt. Ewbanks, and about seventy recruits from California. Three days after, Col. John Allan landed with nearly one hundred fresh men; and at the same time two twelve-pound mountain howitzers, with a small supply of shells, and four hundred Minié rifles were received from New-York. By some blunder, however, the carriages of the howitzers did not accompany them; and several days elapsed before Capt. Schwartz was able to have temporary carriages prepared. The arrival of the howitzers and shells had been anxiously expected, since it was hoped with their aid to drive the enemy more readily from the towns they were in the habit of barricading with adobes, thus making it difficult to carry them by assault, unless with the loss of large numbers of men.

General Hornsby, with his command, was ordered from the Meridional Department to Granada; and thus nearly the whole force of the Republic was concentrated at this point. The effective strength was about a thousand men, including those employed in the several departments of the army, as well as those in the line. A very large proportion of these, however, were newly arrived in the country; many of them had no military training whatever and still more had never seen an enemy during the whole course of their lives. Nevertheless it was necessary to strike a blow at the Allies, if for no other purpose than to show them that the Americans were not thrown entirely on the defensive. Accordingly, as soon as the howitzers were mounted on their rather clumsy carriages, and the new men, suitably armed and equipped, were distributed in the several corps, orders were issued for a march.

On the morning of the 11th October, Walker marched to Masaya with about 800 men. It was near midday when the First Rifles formed in the Jalteva and thence proceeded along the middle road to Masaya. In advance of the Rifles was Major Waters, with two companies of Rangers, and in their rear was the Cuban body-guard of the general-in-chief. Next after the guard came Capt. Schwartz with the howitzers; then the ammunition mules. The Second Rifles followed; and after them were the two Infantry battalions, under command of Gen. Hornsby. A small body of Rangers brought up the rear. The march was quiet and uninterrupted; and a little after nine o’clock in the evening the force encamped on the edge of the town of Masaya, occupying the high ground flanking each side of the Granada road as it enters by the plazuela of San Sebastian. Some irregular firing took place during the night, between mounted scouts of the enemy and some of the American pickets, but the skirmishing was slight and unimportant. Soon after daybreak on the 12th, Capt. Schwartz threw a few shells into the plazuela of San Sebastian, and then Capt. Dolan, with his company of rifles, proceeded at a brisk pace, to occupy the square, finding it entirely abandoned by the enemy. Belloso had withdrawn his whole force into the houses near and around the main Plaza; and the mouths of all the streets leading into the large square were strongly barricaded. After the main body of Nicaraguans had reached the plazuela of San Sebastian, a few sappers and miners who had been hastily organized by a civil engineer, Capt. Hesse, were ordered to cut through the walls of the houses on both sides of the main street leading from the plazuela to the Plaza. Hesse worked quite vigorously, supported by the Rifles on the right side of the street and by the Infantry on the left. From time to time Capt. Schwartz tried to throw shells into the midst of the main Plaza, but the fuses were too short-timed, and the shells, for the most part, burst in the air. Besides the unfitness of the fuses, one of the howitzers was dismounted after a few discharges, and the carriage of the other was ill-adapted for its purposes.

The Rifles and Infantry, however, preceded by the working party, steadily advanced toward the Plaza, sometimes encountering the enemy in their progress through the houses, and always driving them back. Capt. Leonard, with Capts. McChesney and Stith, were the foremost and most active among the Rifles; while on the left of the street, Dreux, of the Infantry, took and kept the lead. By dark the houses fronting on the Plaza were all that divided the Americans from the enemy; and then the men, tired out by their labors of the day were obliged to suspend work until morning. In the meanwhile, also, the Rangers on the Granada road reported heavy firing in the direction of the lake, and it became necessary to ascertain the meaning of it. Col. Fisher, the quartermaster-general, accompanied by Lieut.-Col. Lainé and Major Rogers, with an escort of Rangers, was sent to Granada in order to procure some stores, and also to ascertain whether or not the road was clear of the enemy. Not long after midnight Rogers returned, with the report that the enemy had attacked Granada, and were occupying much of the town, with the hope of getting entire possession of the place.

It seems that when Zavala, who, with his Guatemalans and some Legitimists, was occupying Diriomo, a small village between Masaya and Nandaime, heard of Walker’s march from Granada, he determined to attack that place, supposing it to be left entirely defenceless. Gen. Fry had, however, command at Granada; and although the regular force under his orders was small, the citizens of the town, and the civil employees of the government, brought the number of the Americans to about two hundred. The force of Zavala was not less than seven hundred when he entered the town, and it was probably swelled to nine hundred before the morning of the 13th. Among his followers was a renegade named Harper, who, in the previous April, had fled from Granada to join the Costa Ricans, because his known character of pardoned convict from the California penitentiary had prevented him from securing the position he expected in the Nicaraguan army.

When Walker heard of the attack on Granada he immediately ordered his whole force to prepare for marching, and early on the morning of the 13th he was proceeding with rapid steps to the relief of Fry and his little garrison. Not long after nine o’clock, A.M., the returning Americans heard frequent volleys of small arms in the town; and, on approaching the Jalteva, they found a strong body of the enemy, with a small brass gun, occupying both sides of the barricaded road. Colonel Markham, with the First Infantry, was in advance; and the fire of the Allies was so sharp and well-directed that, for a time, it arrested the progress of the Infantry. In a few minutes, however, the Americans were brought to a charge, and then the enemy disappeared, scattering in all directions and leaving their gun behind them. Then the main body of the Nicaraguan force proceeded rapidly toward the main Plaza, where they saw their flag yet flying, and the town was soon cleared of the Allies. Zavala left another piece, besides the one taken at the Jalteva, behind him: and the streets were strewn with the bodies of his dead. Several prisoners of rank and some wounded remained in the hands of the Nicaraguans.

After Walker reached the Plaza, he ascertained that Zavala had attacked the town early the day before, and that the little garrison had been fighting the Allies for nearly twenty-four hours. The citizens of the place acted with commendable courage, and some of them received wounds they will carry to their graves in defence of their new homes. Major Angus Gillis, acting recorder of the Oriental Department, had gone to Nicaragua to revenge the death of a noble son who fell fighting at Rivas on the eleventh of April; and while with all the vigor of youth he was acting against the hated foe which had robbed him of his son, he received a severe and painful wound in the face, injuring permanently the sight of one eye, if not of both. John Tabor, the editor of the Nicaraguense, had his thigh broken while defending his right to print and publish his opinions in Central America. Douglass J. Wilkins had defended the hospital, threatened almost every instant with assault, and he had infused something of his own unquailing spirit into the weak and wasted forms of those stretched on the beds and gathered up in the hammocks of the several wards. The officers, too, attached to the several departments of the army had been very serviceable in repulsing the attacks of the Allies. Colonel Jones, paymaster-general, had directed the defence of the government house on the corner of the Plaza; while Major Potter, of the ordnance, was serviceable at many points, and particularly at the guard-house near the church. It was on this occasion, too, that Captain Swingle first displayed the skill and courage which made him so useful in future operations.

Nor did those, whose usual avocation was to preach peace, deem it unworthy of their profession to strike a blow in defence of a cause reviled and persecuted of men, but just and sacred in the eyes of those familiar with the facts of the contest. It may not appear singular that the judge of the Court of First Instance, Thomas Basye, used his rifle in defence of the authority by which he held his commission; but the conduct of Father Rossiter, a Catholic priest who had lately been appointed chaplain of the army, is more likely to attract attention and inquiry. But when we ascertain the acts of the Allies on their entrance to the town, it will not surprise us to see even a priest of the church arm in defence, from the attacks of those who acted like savages. This brings us to some incidents which occurred during the attack on Granada, indicating the character of the war the Allies were waging.

Among the old American residents at Granada was John B. Lawless, a native of Ireland but a naturalized citizen of the United States. He had been for a number of years engaged in trade on the Isthmus, principally in the purchase of hides and skins for export to New-York. Of a mild temper and inoffensive manner he had conciliated even Granadian jealousy by the honesty of his dealings and the integrity of his character. During the first weeks of the occupation by the Americans he had been of much service to the Legitimists by bringing their little grievances and complaints to the attention of the general-in-chief; and his intercessions were uniformly in favor of the native race, and in order to protect them from the thoughtless conduct of the new-comers. So entire was his faith in the good will of the Legitimists toward him, so perfect was his confidence in the protection of his American citizenship, that he refused, when opportunity offered, to repair to the Plaza to seek the safety afforded by Nicaraguan arms. He remained in his house when the soldiers of Zavala entered the town; and he was in the very act of unfolding the American flag before his door, when the Guatemalans tore him from his house, took him to the Jalteva, and there riddling his body with bullets, vented their savage passions in stabbing the lifeless body with their bayonets.

Nor was Lawless the only victim of their violence. An agent of the American Bible Society, Rev. D. H. Wheeler, was taken from his house and murdered after the same fashion as Lawless. Rev. Wm. J. Ferguson, also, a preacher of the Methodist denomination, was torn from the arms of his wife and daughter, and met the same fate as Lawless and Wheeler. Not satisfied with murdering these harmless persons, the brutal soldiers of Carrera had robbed them of their clothes and thrown their naked bodies, like dogs, into the public places. And in the house where Father Rossiter was quartered, a crime even darker still was committed by the followers of Zavala. When the Guatemalan troops entered the town the children of an Englishman, who had lately arrived at Granada from New-York, were seated at dinner. The group at the table consisted of a boy six years old, two girls one four and the other two years old, and their nurse. A soldier passing by the window pointed his musket at the innocent party, and firing deliberately, killed the boy instantly. The nurse saved the girls by flight to the next house, while the soldiers were forcing the doors and windows of the room, where the dead boy lay.

These injuries were done to persons claiming the protection of the American flag; but that flag itself was the scoff and scorn of the soldiers an unlettered savage had let loose on the plains of Nicaragua. The American Minister, when the Allies attacked the town, lay nigh unto death from the effects of a sudden illness, which had seized him a few days previously. The ladies and other non-combatants had been sent to the Minister’s house at the first moment of alarm; but it was well that a small body of riflemen was also sent to protect them. The Minister was not in a condition to take charge of the helpless persons at his house; but his flag was waving its ample folds in front of the door, and this was deemed sufficient protection from the Guatemalans. When the enemy, however, got possession of the houses near the American legation, they began firing at the “star-spangled banner,” and called on Mr. Wheeler to come forth into the street. All the choice phrases of Spanish ribaldry were poured over the name of the Ministro filibustero—the filibuster Minister; and no epithet of hatred or contempt for the race of the North was left unuttered by the old Legitimists of Granada. It was well for Mr. Wheeler that the American Secretary of State about this time gave him leave to return to Washington in order to report the condition of affairs in Nicaragua—a civil way of telling the Minister his government had no further need of his services.

The loss of the Americans during the action of the 12th and 13th at Masaya and Granada, was something upward of a hundred—twenty-five killed and eighty-five wounded. The loss at Masaya was very slight: most of the casualties occurred at Granada. A few were missing, principally those belonging to the party Col. Fisher had taken from Masaya on the evening of the 12th. Fisher returning toward Masaya by a different road from that Walker took on the morning of the 13th, was surprised when he reached the outskirts of the town to find himself in the presence of a large detachment of the enemy. Hastily taking a side path toward Diria and Diriomo he succeeded for a time in evading the enemy; but it was not long before he again fell in with them, though not in such force as previously. Then the Rangers and officers with Fisher found that the heavy night-dew had made the Sharp’s carbines they carried unreliable, the moisture getting in between the chamber and the barrel. Finally the party separated, some soon finding their way to Granada, while it was several days before others returned. Lieutenant-Colonel Lainé, aide-de-camp to the general-in-chief, was taken prisoner by the Allies and shot. As soon as his execution was certainly known at Granada two Guatemalan officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Valderraman and Captain Allende, were there shot in retaliation.

The loss of the enemy at Granada was heavy. On the night of the 12th they probably buried their dead of that day, as many new graves were found in the neighborhood of the houses the Allies occupied. In addition to these, nearly a hundred bodies were buried by the Americans after Zavala retired to Masaya. The reports also stated that there were large numbers of wounded not only carried from Granada but also of those hurt at Masaya on the morning and afternoon of the 12th.

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.