Anna McClarmonde Chase
1809 – December 24, 1874
Anna McClarmonde Chase, spouse of U.S. consul in Mexico Franklin Chase, operated as a spy for the U.S. in Tampico, Tamaulipas during the U.S.-Mexico War. Her intelligence gathering led to the bloodless capture of Tampico by the U.S. Navy.
Born in Northern Ireland in 1809, Anna McClarmonde Chase's family immigrated to the U.S. in 1824 after her father died. Her mother died a year after their arrival, so she moved to Philadelphia to assist her older brother in managing his business. She proved herself industrious and capable, earning a stake in the business. The pair moved to New Orleans in 1834 and then to Tampico two years later.
While living in Tampico, she met merchant and U.S. consul Franklin Chase. They married in 1838 when she was twenty-nine years old.
When the U.S.-Mexico War began in May 1846, the Mexican government ordered all U.S. citizens to evacuate the country. Anna Chase's husband signed over his property to her in a successful effort to thwart its confiscation by the Mexican authorities. He left the country on June 7, and she stayed in Tampico to manage the family business. Her official status as a British subject exempted her from the evacuation order.
Chase actively learned as much as she could about the port city's defenses. She spied on troop movements and even provided misinformation to local military officials. She passed along information to the U.S. Navy through neutral British sailors in the city.
Local authorities suspected Chase of espionage, but she successfully avoided arrest by stressing her supposed neutrality as a British subject and informing them that thousands of U.S. troops were preparing to take Tampico. She greatly exaggerated the number of troops.
The U.S. Navy was in fact planning on invading Tampico in an effort to breach the interior of Tamaulipas. Antonio López de Santa Anna, possibly upon learning of Chase's estimation of U.S. forces, ordered the withdrawal of the city's defenses. Commandante Anastasio Parrodi, commander of Tampico's military garrison, started to lead his men out of the city on October 22. They were all gone by October 28.
U.S. Commodore David E. Connor's Home Squadron (the naval force blockading the Gulf of Mexico) did not sail towards the city until receiving word from Chase in early November that the city's defenses were withdrawing. On November 14, 1846, Conner captured the city without any loss of life. Upon finding out that U.S. troops had landed at Tampico, she raised a U.S. flag over her home. The invading troops named their fortifications after Chase: Fort Ann.
She achieved a measure of celebrity because of her efforts. She was nicknamed "The Heroine of Tampico." She died in Long Island, New York on December 24, 1874.
Bibliography
Crawford, Mark, David S. Heidler, and Jeanne T. Heidler. Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1999.
Overton Jr., J. W. "Spying and Deception turned the U.S. Invasion of Tampico into the Battle that Wasn't." Military History. Vol. 22. Issue 3. June 2005.
Papers of Franklin and Ann Chase, 1835-1909. AR343. Newspaper clipping, undated. http://library.uta.edu/usmexicowar/collections/pdf/usmw-AR343_Chase_His…. Accessed June 29, 2015.
Tucker, Spencer C. The Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2012.
