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| - On 28 March 1864 the French flagship La Cordelière appeared near the center island, signaling between the French war vessels and boats which were about to land artillery and troops. French ships were being spread to a half circle around the shooting range of the port. At first all the boats advanced a league forward and unleashed their fires while approaching the Mexican positions, which was answered by six batteries commanded by the Captain Benitez Martial. Then a group of boats evaded to the left and only three boats remained in front of the total fourteen and landed the troops. Captain Marcial Benitez stayed on the beach, with two batteries to face the ships, while Colonel Gaspar Sanchez Ochoa with four pieces, commanded by Artillery Captain Jose Gamboa, and two battalions, advanced to
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| abstract
| - On 28 March 1864 the French flagship La Cordelière appeared near the center island, signaling between the French war vessels and boats which were about to land artillery and troops. French ships were being spread to a half circle around the shooting range of the port. At first all the boats advanced a league forward and unleashed their fires while approaching the Mexican positions, which was answered by six batteries commanded by the Captain Benitez Martial. Then a group of boats evaded to the left and only three boats remained in front of the total fourteen and landed the troops. Captain Marcial Benitez stayed on the beach, with two batteries to face the ships, while Colonel Gaspar Sanchez Ochoa with four pieces, commanded by Artillery Captain Jose Gamboa, and two battalions, advanced to confront those who had just landed and went by land. He proceeded quickly by ordering his troops to march at double time and to open fire, then switched into "battle formation" and following an artillery strike, and a series of gunshots; the French soldiers fled toward the boats. The victory by land had been of greater importance, though an unfortunate accident halted the enthusiasms of the Mexicans for a few minutes. The first captain of Engineers Miguel Quintana, responsible for putting the pieces of battery to shell upon the invaders who came by land, along with Lieutenant Cleopas Tagle, also of Engineers, wanted to personally roll some cartridges to position, when those exploded under unclear circumstances, and a grenade left Quintana seriously injured, three other gunners and a sergeant wounded and one soldier dead. Meanwhile the French boats rowed back to the ships with the surviving landing forces carrying their dead and wounded. The battle continued on the 31st when La Cordelière positioned itself to half firing range to face the fortifications, picked up her sails, triced up her war flag and hoisted her signal fire, and proceeded to launch 120 pounds bomb into the city, injuring some workers and regulars. Colonel Ochoa rode to the shore with the only piece that had a wider range, commanded by Captain Benitez Martial. He exchanged shots with La Cordelière for six hours with its 80-caliber cannon, until the French ship was covered in smoke and fire. The French flagship's inaccurate shots failed to do much damage in the forts or crew. Late that night, governor Jesus García Morales arrived on the scene and observed the combat as well as the British war sloop-of-war Charybdis and Lancaster of the American Navy. La Cordelière had to obey to the damages done to its deck, doused the war flag, and withdrew to the nearby island of Islas del Venado.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)