March 21. (_a_) Daylight—Rescue of the _Hunter_. (_b_) 8 A. M. Receives command of squadron. (_c_) Call with Conner on Gen. Scott. (_d_) Proposal for naval battery. (_e_) Perry returns to the fleet and assumes command. (_f_) Under stern of each vessel, announces naval battery. (_g_) Arranges for American women and children from Vera Cruz. (_h_) Preparations for landing the heavy navy guns. CHAPTER XXIII. THE NAVAL BATTERY BREACHES THE WALLS OF VERA CRUZ. PERRY’S first order being that the navy should give the army the most efficient coöperation, by transferring part of its heavy battery from deck to land, the six guns of the size and pattern most desired by Scott were selected. With a view to distribute honors impartially among the ships, and to cheer the men, a double crew of sailors and officers was assigned to each gun; one of the crews being the regular complement for the gun. As everyone wanted to accompany the guns, lots were drawn among the junior officers for the honor. The crews having been picked, the landing of the ordnance began on the 22d. The pieces chosen were two thirty-twos from the _Potomac_, one of the same calibre from the _Raritan_, and one sixty-eight chambered Paixhans or Columbiad from the _Mississippi_, the _Albany_, and the _St. Mary’s_. The three thirty-twos weighed sixty-one, and the three sixty-eights, sixty-eight hundred-weight each. These were landed in the surf-boats, and by hundreds of sailors and soldiers were hauled up on the beach. The transportation on heavy trucks was done by night, as it was necessary to conceal from the Mexicans the existence of such a formidable battery until it was ready to open. The site chosen was three miles off. The road, as invisible for the most part as an underground railway, was of sand, in which the two trucks—all that were available—sunk sometimes to the axles, and the men to the knees, so that the toilsome work resembled plowing.