584 



MEXICO. 



Juarez, and had, while in Europe, advocated 

 the overthrow of the Mexican government, and 

 the placing of the Archduke Maximilian upon 

 the throne of the kingdom to be established 

 by the allies, arrived at Vera Cruz, having a 

 letter from the emperor Napoleon III, and 

 proceeded to the French camp at Tehuacan. 

 Juarez demanded that he should be surrender- 

 ed to his officers as a traitor and outlaw. The 

 French Admiral refused peremptorily to give 

 him up ; the Spanish and English commanders 

 insisted that it was his duty to do so. The 

 French Admiral, finding that his refusal was 

 regarded as a violation of the armistice by the 

 Mexicans, fell back to Cbiquihuite, according 

 to the terms of the convention of Soledad, 

 which the other commanders contended he had 

 no right to do without consulting with them. 

 Angry interviews resulted, and at length, after 

 a final conference not of the pleasantest char- 

 acter, on the 8th of April, 1.862, at Orizaba, the 

 Spanish and English commanders returned to 

 Vera Cruz with their forces, embarked on 

 board their transport ships and left the French 

 alone in Mexico. Th course adopted by these 

 commanders was subsequently approved by 

 their respective governments. 



No sooner were the allies of the French 

 forces gone, than Senor Almonte, who up to 

 that period had remained quiet, stirred up a 

 few malcontents to make pronunciamentos in 

 his favor at Cordova and Orizaba, and took 

 advantage of these to proclaim himself the dic- 

 tator of Mexico, and to organize around him a 

 band of officers composed of those who had 

 been traitors to their country. He collected 

 also a little troop of soldiers, which he put 

 under the command of one of his creatures, a 

 General Galves, and as Miramon had previous- 

 ly done, commenced a course of plunder, out- 

 rage, and murder, and by his subsequent course 

 in contracting loans in the name of his pretended 

 government, and his cruelties toward the Mexi- 

 cans who have fallen into his hands, he has great- 

 ly embarrassed his French allies, and made them 

 so obnoxious to the Mexicans, that they have 

 greatly regretted their connection with him. 



After the departure of the English and Span- 

 ish forces, the Admiral De la Graviere was 

 superseded by General Lorencez, who brought 

 reinforcements to the French forces, and who, 

 pushing forward from Chiquihuite toward 

 Puebla, and deceived by the promises of Al- 

 monte and his followers, that there was a large 

 party in that city who would revolt in favor of 

 the French, suffered himself to be persuaded to 

 attack it without sufficient artillery, met with 

 a mortifying and disastrous defeat, and was 

 compelled to fall back upon Orizaba. Here he 

 remained, urging the French Government to 

 send him speedy reenfor cements and supplies, 

 as all other sources of supply were cut off, and 

 even much of those sent to him from Vera Cruz 

 (where the fleet lay), was interrupted by the 

 Mexican guerillas. On the 18th of May, one 

 of his battalions repulsed a Mexican force 



which sought to prevent a junction of his forces 

 with those of Gen. Marquez, one of Almonte's 

 generals. On the 12th of June, General Zara- 

 goza, the Mexican commander of the forces of 

 Juarez, arrived at Tecamalucan, about 7 miles 

 from Orizaba, with a considerable force, and 

 sent the same day a letter to Gen. Lorencez, 

 representing the perils of his position and de- 

 manding his surrender ; Lorencez made an 

 evasive answer, and by two well-planned sal- 

 lies, on the 13th and 14th of the month, defeat- 

 ed separately the corps of Orteza, and that of 

 Zaragoza, and compelled their retreat with a 

 heavy loss, estimated by the French at 5,000 

 or more, killed, wounded and missing. From 

 this time until October, there were no battles ; 

 but the French army suffered terribly from the 

 vomito, losing nearly 1,000 men out of about 

 5,000, and were so constantly harassed by the 

 guerillas, who cut off their supplies, that they 

 were at times reduced almost to starvation. Early 

 in October, Gen. Forey arrived .with nearly 

 35,000 fresh troops, a part of them negro troops 

 from Egypt, loaned to the emperor by Said 

 Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt ; but the Mexi- 

 cans, nowise daunted by this display of force, 

 were working with great diligence to make 

 Puebla impregnable, and harassed the French 

 constantly by their guerilla attacks. Gen. Forey 

 moved forward on the route to Puebla in No- 

 vember, but soon found that his communication 

 with Vera Cruz, which was indispensable for 

 his supplies, was cut off, and it was only by 

 stationing a strong body of troops at La Soledad 

 that he could keep it open. His vanguard, 4,- 

 000 strong, under Gen. Berthier, were surprised, 

 before reaching Puebla,and over 2,000 killed and 

 wounded. The main army approached Puebla, 

 but were repulsed with heavy loss. Tampico 

 and Jalapa, the former an important port, 

 which had been in possession of the French 

 forces, were evacuated in the latter part of 

 December, in order to concentrate his force on 

 the line from Vera Cruz to Puebla. The small- 

 pox, in its most malignant form, had broken out 

 among the French troops at Vera Cruz, and the 

 French general found himself compelled at the 

 beginning of 1863 to call for 10,000 more troops. 

 The position of the Government of the Unit- 

 ed States on the affairs of Mexico was thus de- 

 scribed by the Secretary of State in a circular 

 dated March 3, 1862 : 



The President has relied upon the assurance given 

 his Government by the allies, that they were in pur- 

 suit of no political object, but simply the redress of 

 their grievances. He entertains no doubt of the sin- 

 cerity of the allies ; and if his confidence in their good 

 faith had been disturbed, it would be restored by the 

 frank explanations given by them, that the Govern- 

 ments of Spain, France, and 'Great Britain have no in- 

 tention of intervening to procure a change in the con- 

 stitutional form of government now existing in Mexico, 

 or any political change which should be in opposition 

 to the will of the Mexican people. In short, he has 

 cause to believe that the allies are unanimous in de- 

 claring that the revolution proposed to Mexico is 

 solely prompted by certain Mexican citizens, who are 

 now 'in Europe. 



