Battle of Fort Rivière
| Battle of Fort Rivière | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the US occupation of Haiti, Banana Wars | |||||||
 Capture of Ft. Riviere 1915, showing Sgt. Iams, Maj. Butler, and Pvt. Gross breaching the fort's wall | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States |
 Cacos | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Smedley Butler |
Josaphat Jean-Joseph † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 100 marines and sailors | 50+ militia | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 50+ killed | ||||||
The Battle of Fort Rivière was the decisive battle of the First Caco War during United States occupation of Haiti in 1915. A combined force of United States Marines and sailors defeated Cacos rebels at Fort Rivière, ending the First Caco War.
Background
[edit]In 1915, United States forces landed in Haiti during a period of political instability. Cacos insurgents, quasi-military mountain tribes who served as mercenaries for the highest bidder, routinely attacked political targets, as well as ordinary Haitians, to sustain themselves. By October, United States Marines had trapped the Cacos in the mountains of northeastern Haiti, and moved in to eradicate them. On 25 October, Marines from the 15th Company, 2nd Marine Regiment, under the command of Major Smedley Butler, had dealt the Cacos a significant blow at the Battle of Fort Dipitié, and shortly thereafter took its parent Fort Capois with heavy Cacos casualties.[1] On 8 November, Butler's force captured Forts Selon and Berthol without resistance,[2] leaving Fort Rivière as the final Cacos stronghold.[3]
Fort Rivière had been built by the French in the latter 1700s out of brick and stone atop Montagne Noire, at an elevation of 4,000 feet (1,200 m), approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of Cap-Haïtien. The fort, measuring approximately 200 feet (61 m) square with 25-foot-high (7.6 m) walls, was in a state of disrepair,[4] but due to the harsh terrain, Marine strategists considered the fort impregnable unless a whole regiment with artillery was sent to attack. However, Major Butler convinced his commanding officer, Colonel Eli K. Cole, that he could take the fort with 100 men, and assembled a task force from 5th, 13th, and 23rd Marine companies, as well as from the Marines and sailors aboard the USS Connecticut.[3]
Battle
[edit]At dusk on 16 November, Butler's force began its ascent of the mountain toward the fort. At daybreak on 17 November, Butler deployed both companies from the Connecticut on the south wall: the Marines, under the command of Captain Frederick A. Barker, as well as the bluejackets, under the command of Lieutenant (junior grade) Scott D. McCaughey, whose force also included a machine gun detachment from the 23rd Marine company. Captain Chandler Campbell led the 13th Company's attack on the east wall and Butler led Captain William W. Low's 5th Company against the west wall.[5] The attack commenced at 07:30 and the Marines immediately began taking fire—Butler described it as "heavy, but inaccurate"—with scant cover.[1][3]
Butler's force located a partially sealed drain 4 feet (1.2 m) wide, 3 feet (0.91 m) tall, and 15 feet (4.6 m) deep in the fort's wall, which served as a Cacos entrance. Sergeant Ross Lindsey Iams and Private Samuel Gross were the first through the tunnel,[a] followed by Butler with his .45 caliber pistol. The trio of Marines crawled through the wall, and emerging unscathed, immediately began firing on the 50 surprised Cacos in the fort—Butler described them as "half naked madmen, howling and leaping"—and they were joined shortly by the rest of the 5th Company streaming through the drain. Private Gross dispatched a massive Cacos with his rifle just moments before he would have struck a devastating blow to Butler's head with a club.[3][4]
As panic overtook the Cacos, Butler wrote that they "threw away their loaded guns and grabbed swords and clubs, rocks and bricks, which were no match for bullets and bayonets." After ten minutes of intense close quarters combat, the Marines had killed the entire Cacos garrison, including their commander, Josaphat Jean-Joseph, a former Haitian cabinet minister.[4][7] Those Cacos who had escaped the fort by jumping over its parapets were cut down by the force covering the south wall.[3][8]
Aftermath
[edit]The American force had won an "astounding little victory" and had suffered no casualties—one man lost two teeth to a thrown rock—despite a sharp conflict.[1][3] Butler wrote that if the defenders "had only realized the advantage of their position, they could have shot us like rats as we crawled, one by one, out of the drain." Having delivered a massive blow to the Cacos themselves, the Americans leveled Fort Rivière with dynamite and destroyed 60 dwellings outside the fort, thus ending the First Caco War.[8] Butler wrote that the returning Americans were greeted by Haitians roadside, who were grateful for "ridding them of the Caco terror" that had plagued the countryside.[1] Armed resistance to the American occupation did not end, however, as minor skirmishing continued until the Second Caco War (1918–1920) erupted.
For their heroism during the Battle of Fort Rivière, Major Butler, Sergeant Iams, and Private Gross all received the Medal of Honor; the award was Butler's second, having received the first the prior year during the Battle of Veracruz.[9]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ In his unpublished memoirs, Vice Admiral Joel T. Boone (USN), then a lieutenant (junior grade) and the medical officer of the 13th Company, wrote that under Captain Campbell's orders, he led six Marines in breaching the fort first by climbing over the parapets of the east wall. "Our linkup with Butler [inside] raised a question as to who had entered the fort first," Boone wrote, noting that he and Butler disagreed on the matter.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Schmidt, Hans (1998). Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 80–81. ISBN 0-8131-0957-4.
- ^ Cooney, David M. (1965). A Chronology of the U.S. Navy 1775–1965. New York: Franklin Watts. p. 220.
- ^ a b c d e f Musicant, Ivan (1990). The Banana Wars: A History of the United States Military Intervention in Latin America from the Spanish-American War to the Invasion of Panama. New York: MacMillan. pp. 198–201. ISBN 0-02-588210-4.
- ^ a b c Beede, Benjamin R., ed. (1994). The War of 1898 and U.S. Interventions, 1898–1934: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. pp. 189–190. ISBN 0-8240-5624-8.
- ^ Buckner, David N. (1981). A Brief History of the 10th Marines (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Marine Corps History Division. p. 9–10. Retrieved 4 June 2025.
- ^ Boone, Joel T. (March–April 1987). Heller, Milton F. (ed.). "Dr. Boone's First Battles". Navy Medicine. Vol. 78, no. 2. p. 22–25. Retrieved 25 May 2025.
- ^ Dubois, Laurent (2012). Haiti: The Aftershocks of History. New York: Metropolitan. p. 230. ISBN 978-0-8050-9335-3.
- ^ a b Langley, Lester (2002). The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898–1934. Lanham, Marlyand: SR Books. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-8420-5047-0.
- ^ "Haiti: US Navy Medal of Honor — Haitian Campaign, 1915". Navy Department Library. Archived from the original on 8 July 2010. Retrieved 15 July 2010.