Combat· Mexican-American War
Capture of Tuxpan
One of the largest Marine landings of the Gulf campaign, and a settling of accounts at the place where the Truxtun had been lost.
In mid-April 1847 Commodore Perry stripped his larger ships of their seamen and Marines to assemble a strong landing force against Tuxpan, the river port whose batteries had helped doom the stranded brig the previous August. More than a hundred and sixty Marines under the squadron's senior Marine officer joined the assault. The landing party went ashore, engaged the Mexican defenders, and carried the town, recovering in the process the guns and gear salvaged from the wrecked Truxtun. The operation was among the heaviest Marine commitments of the war's Gulf phase. It avenged the earlier loss, removed a fortified obstacle on the coast, and demonstrated Perry's willingness to concentrate a substantial force from across his squadron for a single hard blow.
Podcast episodes on Mexican-American War
Record no. 354