1915, January 25 – February 5: (Campaign Pledges: Caperton Shadows Guillaume’s March South): Taking no outward notice of Guillaume’s theatrical self-presenta…

1915, January 25 – February 5: (Campaign Pledges: Caperton Shadows Guillaume’s March South): Taking no outward notice of Guillaume’s theatrical self-presentation, Admiral Caperton in due course extracted from him a pledge that he would not loot, or burn down the cities, or fire in the cities — a large commitment for the leader of a Caco army, but one that Guillaume, not always enthusiastically, was destined to keep. One reason for Vilbrun’s restraint in what U.S. Senator William King later drily characterized as electioneering by force was described afterward by Caperton to a Senate committee: he had followed Guillaume Sam around the coast in order to impress upon him the importance of carrying on civilized warfare, and Guillaume had finally laughingly said that every time he entered a city he found American representatives outside asking him to behave himself — he promised to do so, and upon the whole he did very well, considering everything. Since the Washington and her sister ship Montana — carrying 650 Marines whom the State Department had thought opportune to deploy into Haitian waters — were too large for any place but Port-au-Prince, Caperton ordered two smaller ships, gunboat Wheeling and cruiser Des Moines, to shadow Vilbrun Guillaume’s march southward and redeem his campaign pledges. On February 5, Guillaume Sam entered Gonaïves to the acclaim of twenty-one guns from local warlord Mizaël Codio. In the capital, birds of ill omen flocked overhead: Dr. Bobo, who had once so eloquently welcomed Théodore to the Cap and for his percipience been dubbed Minister, now became an ex-Minister and departed for the North, speaking darkly of a new revolution to come.