March 1847
U.S. bombardment of Veracruz kills civilians
Veracruz, Mexico; city residents and defenders
U.S. forces under Winfield Scott besieged and bombarded Veracruz before advancing toward Mexico City. Shelling destroyed homes and struck places used to shelter and treat residents, killing civilians as well as combatants. The city surrendered, and U.S. troops occupied it on March 29. Civilian suffering was part of the conquest, beyond the battlefield losses recorded for armies.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The March label covers the siege and bombardment, not uninterrupted shelling from the March 9 landing through occupation. No single civilian death count is adopted. Zinn’s witness quotations and Sánchez Ulloa’s later study support the account of harm; the underlying witness texts and military files have not all been independently collated.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 8, pp. 165–166; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- National Park Service, An Extended War, Veracruz landing and surrender chronology ↗
- Cristóbal Alfonso Sánchez Ulloa, “Puerto de pólvora,” Ulúa 36 (2020), pp. 143–151; online publication 2021 ↗