AFTER ACTION REPORT: Casa Del Carlos
Chapter One: The Peasants are Revolting!
It was a sunny afternoon in 1856. It seemed to be just another quiet morning on the Nicaraguan coffee plantation of Carlos Valdez. The landowner and his small staff went about their business in the hacienda. The village women attended to the daily manual chores around the large main building. But the fields were oddly deserted. The peasant men had not appeared as usual - they had run off into the jungle! It was rumored that Norte Americano raiders were in the area and would raise the flag of rebellion against the local lords and the national government. Would they actually come? Beyond the big house, the estate was oddly quiet.
Just about the time the men inside the house began to notice the empty fields, armed skirmishers ran up from the small village to the south in rushes! The women screamed in terror at the sight of invaders and ran into the house as Valdez and his men grabbed up their muskets, pistols and machetes. As the mercenaries ran up to the porch which stretched all around, a fusillade of shots rang out. Two of the foreigners fell to the ground, one with the cased flag of the company.
But even as Valdez and his men fired out to the south, a second band of attacking filibusters appeared from the banks of the stream to the north. Half ran up to the house, half toward the main gate in the stone fence off to the east. Those heading toward the undefended northern side of the hacienda rushed through the door and then it was hand to hand. Women cowered as Valdez pulled out a large Bowie knife and killed one of his attackers. But then he saw that only one of his men remained alive besides himself and he was looking down the barrels of many guns. Growing red in the face, he dropped his knife and surrendered.
Out in the jungle, dozens of peasants were gathering in two groups, each around a leader who had promised them that if they fought, the land would be redistributed amongst them. Now muskets, ball and powder were being distributed around. The two leaders then moved forward into the front ranks waiting for the flag that would signal them that the hacienda had been seized and their Padrone Valdez captured. Then the flag broke out into the breeze from the southern side of the manor. The Anglos had come and the rebellion was beginning!
By the walled gate, a small company of mercenaries watched from behind the stone wall as a squadron of Government Dragoons in fancy green and pink uniforms rode up the road toward them. Then the riders spotted the scruffy strangers and dismounted. The Colonel in the lead in an even more ornate blue uniform waved at the men behind the wall. "Banditos Yanquis - adelante, muchachos! The line of dismounted dragoons, outnumbering the adventurers two to one, readied their carbines and advanced.
The mercenary officer who was second in command of the Filibusters brought up his own musket. "Pour it into 'em. Send 'em to hell!" The Battle of the Valdez Gate had begun. While great masses of armed, white clad peasants emerged from the jungle and charged out over the fields toward the massive hacienda in the distance behind them, the mercenaries could see long disciplined lines of blue coated infantry in tall shako hats and even a horse drawn artillery gun team with caisson and cannon marching up behind the helmeted dragoons.
Back in the hacienda, the rough mercenaries had been making sport with the prisoners and trying to enlist the sympathies of the village women to their cause. Now they looked out the Eastern windows as their two remaining comrades, including the second officer, were pressed back as the enemy armor came up to wall. "Should we head on up there, Colonel Walker?" William Walker, known as "The Grey-Eyed Man of Destiny," gestured at their allies outside. "Here come the peasants. Let's see what they can do." And indeed, the ranks of farmers rose forward past both sides of the big house. Walker could see a leader he recognized in the front group of both sides of the house rush by. The Americans stuck their heads out and cheered them on, waving their hats: "Welcome compadres! Down with Valdez! Viva Walker!" And the rebel peasants answered, running past with the bandeleros of ammunition across their chests and muskets in their hands. Some of the women blew them kisses and exchanged banter with them, warming more to the foreigners who they could now see were working with their own. Carlos Valdez, tied up inside, only glared.
Colonel Esbrucas, commander of the Government column, turned on his horse to look at the mob of insolent peasants streaming towards him. His losses had been light so far, although the mercenaries had held up his advance - he would have to man the wall now; there was no chance of taking the house. He regarded his men around him. The fifty infantrymen, with a large proportion of young officers, wore almost every conceivable type of Napoleonic fancy dress uniform. Tubular shakos clashed with old fashioned Spanish bicornes worn sideways. Tall grenadier bearskins rode next to flat lancer caps, and even wide brimmed planter hats. The helmets of the remaining dragoons flashed in the sun as they remounted. The sombrero of his gun captain floated nearby. "Unlimber your cannon at the gate, Esteban, and the infantry will form behind the wall! This peasant rabble will soon break trying to take this position, and then we'll be on the rabbits!"
The equally arrogant Walker, having lost a good half of his own men already, looked through his spyglass at the peasants forming ragged lines to the east of the big house, before the wall that harbored their enemies. Their own leaders seemed to know what they were doing. The farmers spread out on both flanks; into the stream bed to the north and far outflanking the wall to the south as well. There were many more of them than he had expected to come to this first incident, although there were only three leaders.
Then the Government cannon fired at the peasants in the center with it's great bass rumble and they began to die. He saw his two men who had survived so far move up to the wall in support of their allies as their bodies piled up on the ground before them. His men were shooting at the cannoneers! Now his allies came closer and exchanged gun volleys with the enemy. Wounded were streaming back from both sides, but the Government's left flank collapses first, running to the rear. Then the gaily costumed Colonel ran back to rally them and they turned to the battle once more.
The peasants on the other flank were forced to retreat. Many were breaking back past the house, far back to either rally in the open or disappear into the jungle on the horizon. The rebels paused as their final reinforcements came up. "This is it," shouted Walker to his last company, "Let's be at it, then!" Margarita, a young adventurous peasant girl with flashing eyes came with him. She had been the only women to take up a proffered musket - a minor victory in itself! So heartened by her bravery, the last group of adventurers left the shelter of the house for the danger of the battle ahead.
On the peasant's left flank by the stream, the Government army had formed a formidable double ranked firing line, a more complicated formation than the peasants could manage. But, instead of engaging it directly, the northern peasant leader brought his men forward around it's flank. Individual skirmishers on both sides exchanged aimed fire and the peasants were pushed back again, with about half breaking for the safety of the rear. The two peasant flanks could not manage a coordinated attack but the Government army was now stretched out thinly enough that it would have no further reserve should either flank break again.
The Government dragoons, having failed when on foot against the wall, now rode forward, ready to charge an unsophisticated enemy in the open. They charged forward, but the volleys of the peasants were able to repel them! The northern peasants cheered; they felt that they had won a great victory for themselves.
In the south on the right flank, the peasant's red-shirted leader led them onward once more. The cannon crew attempted several times to fire cannister, but the gun refused three times in succession to fire properly! It swung around to face south as a musket volley fired at it's crew; now only Captain Esteban was alive to serve it. The peasants surged forward on the right flank toward the road. There were only a few lines of them left in good order. This last push would decide the issue here. As the Government forces which had rallied previously routed once more, their officers failed now to rally them and there was a decisive breakthrough.
The Government forces now panicked and ran from the field with the Colonel and the limbered gun swept up in the general retreat. Walker's last formation came up in support but the enemy rushed away before they could even get into effective range. Walker smiled and waved at the peasant leaders who were still alive, despite being in the thick of the fighting. The first step had been taken on his road to conquest!
Tune in next game for Chapter Two: A Serious Battle
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© Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum
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