The Second Battle of Las Cruces, or the New Years Day Battle, was a major engagement of the United States occupation of Nicaragua. It was fought on January 1st, of 1928, during an expedition to destroy a Sandinista fortress. A column of marines and Nicaraguan National Guardsmen were attacked by a superior force of rebels entrenched on Las Cruses Hill and after a long battle the Americans and Nicaraguans routed the Sandinistas and captured their positions.[2][3]
Background
In November of 1927 a marine recconassaince aircraft detected the fortress of El Chipote which was the main base of the Sandinista rebels, located near the border with Honduras. There was much rebel activity in the area so the American marines and the Nicaraguan guards had no choice but to destroy the fortifications. Accordingly, two columns of men were dispatched on this mission, one under Captain Richard Livingston, composed of 115 men and the second under First Lieutenant Meron A. Richal, composed of sixty-five men. Captain Livingston was in Jinotega and his orders were to leave on December 19, 1927 to meet up at Quilali with Richal's troop which was marching from Telpaneca. Before the rendezvous however, both columns encountered resisitance. Captain Livingston was the first, while just 1,500 yards south of Quilali, he was attacked by approximately 200 Sandinistas well concealed behind rocks and foliage. After an eighty minute battle the rebels retreated though they managed to kill five marines and two of the guards, twenty-three others were wounded. Livingston then proceeded into Quilali without further opposistion. On the same day Lieutenant Richal's men were twenty-two miles away from Telpaneca when engaged in a twenty minute skirmish with about fifty enemies but they were beaten off. One marine was wounded in the engagement and the rebels aren't believed to have sufferred any casualties. After that Richal continued towards the rendezvous and on January 1 of 1928 another battle was fought, six miles northwest of Quilali.[4]
Battle
At about 12:30 pm, the column was marching single file up the trail when suddenly fired on by the Sandinistas from well entrenched positions on Las Cruces Hill, also called Sapotial Hill in Richal's report. The location had been the scene of a rebel victory two months earlier. Colonel Francisco Estrada was in command of the rebels and he had with him about 400 men armed with several machine guns, rifles, pistols and dynamite, positioned in parapets made of pine trees. After the first shots Richal ordered his men to return the enemy's fire which had moratally wounded Sergeant Thomas G. Bruce who was serving as a lieutenant and commander of the Nicaraguan guardsmen. The Sandinistas then charged and forced the marines and guards back fifty yards to the protection of their Stokes mortar and a Lewis machine gun which were then opened up against the hill along with a 37-milimeter field piece positioned some distance up the trail. Richal ordered his men to form a skirmish line and he also noted that most of the fire, at that point, was coming from his right flank against the main body while a few enemies on his left flank were engaging both his main body and the rear guard. Though the machine gun used by the marines eventually jammed, rifle fire and that of the artillery successfully held off further Sandinista attacks and Gunnery Sergeant Edward G. Brown counter attacked with a handful of men and captured the hill as the rebels fled. Immediately afterwards, two American biplanes arrived on scene and began strafing the retreating rebels.[5][6]
Aftermath
Augusto César Sandino, the rebel general, was known for over exaggerating and he claimed that his men won the battle after three hours of fighting. Sandino went on to say that ninety-seven Americans were killed, mostly by machetes, and another sixty men were wounded. He also claimed that six Lewis machine guns, three M1A1 Thompsons, forty-six Lewis automatic rifles and sixteen pack mules loaded with ammunition were captured, as well as battle plans and a code book for communicating with American aircraft. Captain Livingston, knew that Richal was likely to run into an ambush during the march so he sent a platoon of sharpshooters, under Second Lieutenant A. T. Hunt, to reinforce the column. This force of around twenty men arrived at Las Cruces Hill at 2:15 pm, after the fighting was over and both Richal and Hunt's men camped on the hill for the night. On the next day they proceeded into Quilali without opposition. Meanwhile, Sandino reinforced his defeated troops and besieged Quilali for a few days which forced the marines and guardsmen to abandon the expedition to El Chipote a few days later and withdraw. During the battle Lieutenant Bruce was the only fatality though Richal was seriously wounded when he was hit in the eye by a bullet, three others were also wounded while an estimated twenty rebels were killed. Richal later recieved a Navy Cross for his conduct in the engagement.[7][8][9]
United States
Nicaragua