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Part II
President Woodrow Wilson saw the need to protect American interests and promote democracy in Mexico 100 years ago, and the U.S. Navy and Marines were sent into Vera Cruz. Part I of this threepart article, in the May issue, told of the landing of the force. Now read about the action ashore.
After the unopposed landing of Lieutenant Colonel Wendell C. "Buck" Neville's Second Marine Regiment on 21 April 1914, the streets of Vera Cruz were very quiet. Major Randolph C. Berkeley's 1st Battalion, 2d Marines began its push up Calle Montesinos without incident. Despite the lack of resistance, the Marines moved through the streets in open formation, column of squads, with advance guard and flank patrols to avoid providing easy targets to any potential enemy.
Equipped with four Colt machine guns, the column passed the quiet buildings ready for any threat ahead. The sound of Marine boots on the pavement was the only noise that pierced the silence of the city. Maj George C. Reid, commanding 2d Bn, 2d Marines, the provisional battalion comprised of the ships' Marine detachments, ordered 8th Company, led by Captain Jesse F. Dyer, to join the 1st Bn column as well, bringing up the rear.
At 1130, three scattered volleys of gunfire rang out from the cross street of Cinco de Mayo. The shots had no specific target other than the general direction of the Marine column. Berkeley's Marines also noticed, with some concern, distant clusters of Mexican soldiers keeping even with their column, but on parallel streets. A deadly silence then continued, as if both sides were waiting for the other to fire the next shots. As a precaution, Maj Reid ordered a squad of 8th Co dropped at every cross street after the column passed to avoid anyone coming in behind and cutting them off from the docks.
As the head of the Marine column reached Avenue Nicholas Bravo, almost five city blocks from the waterfront, intense gunfire erupted along the Marine column. The shots seemed to ring out from every part of the Montesinos road, but were focused at the intersections with the cross streets of Independencia and Cinco de Mayo. The Marines took cover at the corners of the wide streets, dodging the...