Perhaps one of the most signal evidences of cool bravery shown by the sailors was when Santa Anna was landed from the American fleet. As the reader will remember, Santa Anna had been President of Mexico earlier in the trouble with the United States, but a revolution had overthrown him. The American Government thought to make a new revolution in Mexico and at the same time get a man in power there who could be bought into making a peace, by aiding Santa Anna to return. Negotiations were opened with him at Havana and some kind of an arrangement made by which he went to the American fleet off Vera Cruz, and it was then proposed to land him with his suite under a flag of truce. A more dangerous movement for that brave Mexican could not be imagined, for he was outlawed, and any soldier might kill him at sight. But Lieutenant Josiah Tattnall went ashore with him, and on landing took his arm, and then the two, at the head of the general’s suite, walked up the streets. The throng looked on in silence until a squad of soldiers recognized the old hero and saluted. At that everybody cheered, and Santa Anna was again, practically, master of Mexican affairs. And what was of more importance, he was a patriot first of all, and the Americans soon found they had made a mistake in sending him home. [Illustration: The U. S. Naval Battery During the Bombardment of Vera Cruz on the 24th and 25th of March, 1847. _From a lithograph designed and drawn on stone by Lieutenant H. Walke, U. S. N._] A feature of the operations alongshore that deserves mention, if only to say a good word for a brave officer, was a third attack on Alvarado. The Mexicans had collected a lot of horses there that Scott needed for the advance on the capital after Vera Cruz was taken. The steamer _Scourge_, under Lieutenant Charles G. Hunter, was sent to blockade the place, while a larger force was to follow to attack it. General Quitman was to get in behind and cut off retreat. Hunter arrived at the port on March 30th, and immediately captured the town with his one ship. Quitman had not yet arrived in the rear, of course, and the enemy got away with the horses. Because of Quitman’s delay, Hunter had to suffer. He had, perhaps, exceeded his orders somewhat in capturing the place, but his gallantry in taking it single-handed where a squadron was thought necessary for the task, deserved a better fate than it received. He was court-martialled and dismissed from the service. One cannot help saying that a great wrong was done, not so much because one man suffered unjustly, but because no nation can afford to punish a man beyond a reprimand for an excess of bravery and zeal. At 8 A.M. on March 25th, the firing at Vera Cruz ceased, at the request of the Mexicans, and after a talk between the commanding officers the town surrendered on March 28, 1847, and the important work of the navy for that war was done.