in 1859, a Mexican officer named Thomas M. Marin of the Mexican Navy purchased vessels in Cuba, that he armed and equipped to sail back to Veracruz to assist and supply General Miramon's siege of the held city. The Liberal Mexican government declared Marin's fleet to be that of pirates so ships of the Home Squadron were ordered to intervene and arrest Marin. Two of Marin's ships, the steamer General Miramon and the sloop-of-war Marquis of Havana, arrived at their rendezvous off Anton Lizardo. They were spotted by a Mexican fort and the frigate USS Savannah which ordered the sloop-of-war USS Saratoga to intervene with help from two steamers. The American ships under Commodore Thomas Turner approached and fired warning shots, the Mexicans obviously fired back as the American fleet had no jurisdiction within Mexican waters. Despite the fact of being outnumbered by the American fleet, the Mexican vessels engaged in battle resulting in a bloody encounter Battle of Anton Lizardo and the capture of the conservative ships and over thirty casualties on both sides. The battle played an important role in ending the Reform War with a liberal victory and the signatory of the secret MacLane-Ocampo Treaty where Juarez and the radical liberals agreed on further cessions of Mexican territory to the U.S., as well as a couple of transit concessions through the Tehuantepec Isthmus, and from Tamaulipas across Mexico to the Gulf of California in perpetuity to the U.S. that eventually was rejected by the American congress, as it was determined that the inclusion of these states into the American federation could strengthen the southern confederate states. Due to the American intervention, the conservatives under General Miramon failed to take Veracruz from the liberals for a second time, which a few years later led Mexico to a French intervention. Slave trade Slavers seized by the Home Squadron: Commanders Charles Stewart (1842) David Conner (1845–1847) Matthew C. Perry (1847–1848) Foxhall A. Parker, Sr. (c. 1851) John Thomas Newton (1852–1855) Charles Stewart McCauley (1855–1856) Hiram Paulding (1856–1858) Garrett J. Pendergrast (1858–1861) William J. McCluney (1859–1860) Silas H. Stringham (1861) References Ship squadrons of the United States Navy 1838 establishments in the United States 1861 disestablishments in the United States