Washington orders Admiral Caperton to study Haiti’s situation

On this day the US Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, ordered Rear Admiral William B. Caperton to sail for the Antilles and report on Haiti. Haiti had burned through nine presidents in fifteen years, and German merchants in Port-au-Prince were financing Caco revolts. Washington had little money in Haiti, but it wanted the customs houses, the army, and the treasury under its own hand. Caperton’s reconnaissance became the occupation: on 28 July 1915 his Marines landed at Port-au-Prince. They stayed nineteen years.