Slowly, patiently, the Navy detachments pushed their way forward, attending to snipers and also searching houses for concealed arms and ammunition.
In the course of this search hundreds of Mexicans were arrested.
Even some very small boys were found with knives.
On the third day the residents of the city were warned that all who possessed arms must take their weapons to the provost officer's headquarters.

About nineteen hundred men, women and boys turned in their weapons, running all the way from the latest models of rifles down to century-old muskets.
Soon after orders were issued that all natives found armed were to be executed on the spot.

To the average American this might have seemed like a cruel order, but now the list of dead sailormen and marines had reached twenty-five, and there were scores of wounded American fighting men.

Stern steps were necessary to stop the deadly sniping.
Another day passed, and Vera Cruz, now completely occupied by the Americans, had ceased to be a battle ground.

Now and then a solitary shot was heard, but in every instance the sniper was tracked down, and his fate provided another tenant for the Vera Cruz burying ground.
Detachments were now posted even to the suburbs of the city.
On the morning of the fifth day, just after Trent's detachment had been roused from a night's sleep in a park in the heart of Vera Cruz, orders came to the lieutenant that seemed to please him.
"We are to march as soon as we have had breakfast," Trent told his two junior officers.