1915, July 1–26: (One of the Bloodiest Crimes: Caperton Neutralizes the Cap, Beach Meets the Cacos, and the Plot Thickens in Port-au-Prince): When the Washin…

1915, July 1–26: (One of the Bloodiest Crimes: Caperton Neutralizes the Cap, Beach Meets the Cacos, and the Plot Thickens in Port-au-Prince): When the Washington reached Cap Haïtien on the morning of July 1, 1915, Admiral Caperton’s first action was to thank the French captain for Descartes’ timely intervention and make clear that the United States would now assume charge. Caperton next sent Captain Beach ashore with a Marine squad to make contact with General Probus Blot, the government commander, and with Dr. Bobo — Beach’s message was simple: any further fighting was to take place well clear of the city, and henceforth the Cap was neutral ground. Beach never got to Dr. Bobo but, with Livingston as guide, found Pierrot, one of the revolution’s ministers, at Petite-Anse, east of the Cap, where Henry Christophe had once commanded as général de brigade. The look of Pierrot’s Cacos, related Beach, seemed hardly reassuring — a more villainous appearing set of men were never gathered together, all slightly clad and each armed with a musket, a pistol, a sword, and a long vicious knife, each man looking to be a diabolical devil. But appearances were deceiving: the diabolical devils got cane-bottomed chairs from the huts, put them in the shade for the blan to sit on, and produced little cups of hot coffee and coarse sugar and oranges sweet despite green skins — it is not likely there ever was better coffee, Captain Beach commented — and when the mission departed, the Cacos gave them a great, fat, beautiful dressed turkey. Thereafter, with gunboat Eagle well inshore and covering the bridge into town, and with twenty-nine Marines from the Washington operating a radio at the consulate and patrolling, the Cap remained neutral while Blot and Bobo skirmished about the Plaine-du-Nord. As July wore on, Port-au-Prince seemed quiet enough — the gold-braided, cocked-hatted chief of police, General Charles-Oscar Étienne, well-nicknamed Le Terrible, kept tight rein on the steamy capital. Or so he thought. Charles de Delva in the Portuguese consulate, and behind him Charles Zamor in the French legation, knew otherwise, and as tropical night fell swiftly on July 26, their plan was complete.