The French in Mexico

The French intervention in Mexico began in January of 1862 just after the arrival of Spanish and British forces at Veracruz. This initial commitment consisted of 2,000 French marines and 600 zouaves from the French Army of Africa. With the perpetual chaos in Mexico about the only revenues the government could count on were the import tariffs collected at the coast such as the principal port city of Veracruz. However, the low-lying coastal area was a notorious hotbed for disease and it is no wonder that Benito Juarez took no action against the foreigners other than to threaten any Mexican who dealt with them with swift execution. He was content to simply let them sit in Veracruz and die off slowly from disease. The British and Spanish accepted a new bunch of promises and left but the French did not. After moving further inland to escape the unhealthy climate the French were attacked by some republican bands and so, as far as Napoleon III was concerned, the war was on and the primary drive on Mexico city could begin.

The French Imperial Army in Mexico was strengthened by 3,000 men under the command of Brigadier General Ferdinand Latrille, Comte de Lorencez. He was a dashing and adventurous figure who had little regard for the fighting ability of his enemies. He envisioned a swift and colorful military triumph all the way to Mexico City. After advancing to Cordoba Lorencez issued a proclamation saying that France would pacify the country, restore order and he called on the conservatives, recently defeated in the last civil war, to rally to the French flag and launch a counter-revolution. The French Imperial Army was, at that time, fresh from victories in Africa, Italy, the Crimea and was widely considered the best in the world. Throughout the length of the French intervention in Mexico the troops involved by the French Imperial Army included elements from 6 line infantry regiments, 3 zouave regiments, 4 light infantry battalions, squadrons from 3 cavalry regiments, 6 batteries of artillery, 5 companies of engineers, 1 supply train squadron, colonial troops from Martinique, Algeria and the Foreign Legion, 1 marine regiment, 1 battalion of sailors and 1 battery of naval (marine) artillery. According to the treaty signed with Archduke Maximilian the Foreign Legion was supposed to remain for around 6 years even after all other French troops had withdrawn as a core around which his own army could be built.

To be sure, the French army must have been a grand spectacle and they carried with them an illustrious reputation as they marched toward Mexico City. However, this may have been a factor in their over-confidence. The danger of this was realized at the famous battle of the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo) at Puebla where Mexican forces under General Ignacio Zaragoza (a Tejano) threw back the French attack and dealt the French one of their most humiliating defeats. The French were forced to fall back and President Juarez declared the 5th of May a national holiday which has been celebrated ever since. Lorencez had to withdraw to Orizaba to lick his wounds and wait for reinforcements from France.  Emperor Napoleon III increased the size of the French forces in Mexico to 28,000, sacked Lorencez and gave the top command to General Elie Frederic Forey, a more careful and methodical officer. As the French prepared to try again Forey was most concerned about his long supply lines running from Veracruz. To keep these open he entrusted their defense to the Foreign Legion and a battalion Sudanese troops provided by the Khedive of Egypt. It was thought these African soldiers would be better able to resist the disease-ridden climate of the coast. Whether that was true or not is debatable but their earned a reputation for discipline, good order and considerable cruelty toward the local population.

After the debacle at Puebla on the 5th of May the French seemed to take the whole enterprise more seriously. Many officers even adopted a more native appearance, in typical French style, wearing their coats open with extremely wide sashes and a large sombrero on their head to shield them from the tropical sun. They also made use of allied Mexican forces under the fearsome General Leonardo Marquez, the "Tiger of Tacubaya" who helped win a smashing victory at the battle of San Lorenzo in March as the French moved up to take on Puebla again, this time by siege. This time, however, it was the Mexican republicans who made a stupendous mistake. Puebla was the really only half-way defensible place on the road to Mexico City and Juarez decided to gamble everything on holding Puebla despite the fact that the French were better armed, better trained, better disciplined and more experienced than his own republican troops were. Despite their earlier victory, in any face-to-face fight the smart money was going to be on the French. Nowhere was the quality of the French forces better demonstrated than in a little battle along the French line of supply that may not be as widely known as Cinco de Mayo but is actually even more remarkable as is still celebrated today as the official holiday of the French Foreign Legion.

The battle revolved around a French wagon train that was taking a payroll of 3 million in gold from the port of Veracruz to the army around Puebla. The Juaristas learned of it and quickly sent a force of republican cavalry and militia to grab the gold while a company of the Foreign Legion was dispatched to intercept them. The two sides met at the hacienda de Camerone on April 30, 1863 where Captain Jean Danjou and 62 legionnaires confronted 2,000 Juaristas. The legionnaires repulsed several cavalry charges after being caught in the open before barricading themselves in the nearbye hacienda where they repulsed attack after attack, inflicting heavy losses on the Mexican republicans. They spurned demands for surrender even when reduced to a mere handful of men and when their ammunition ran out they fixed their bayonets and counter-attacked. Finally, with only 5 men left alive the legionnaires were forced to surrender though they demanded and were given to march out under their own flag. This was a stunning example of the tenacity and effectiveness of the French Imperial forces and demonstrated why it was a good idea for the Mexicans republicans to avoid formal battles with them considering how difficult it had been to defeat 62 of them with 2,000 men at their disposal. As for the Foreign Legion, they were looked at with a new respect from then on.           Given that, it was not surprising that after two months under the siege the Mexican republicans in Puebla surrendered to General Forey on April 17, effectively clearing the way to Mexico City. Juarez, for his part, did not even try to defend the city and quickly evacuated northward to San Luis Potosi. A week later General Forey and the French army marched triumphantly into Mexico City and soon called together the Assembly of Notables which soon formally invited Archduke Maximilian to become Emperor of Mexico. Yet, Napoleon III was bothered by the fact that his top commander, General Forey, seemed to have lost faith in the goals of the expedition and was extremely critical of the events on the ground and the long-term chances of success. However, as he could hardly punish the victorious avenger of Puebla, Napoleon got rid of Forey by "kicking him upstairs" and giving him the baton of a Marshal of France. He was replaced by his former sub-ordinate General Francois Achille de Bazaine.           Bazaine had started out as a private and worked his way through the ranks the hard way, becoming a lieutenant while serving with the legion in Algeria. He had distinguished himself in the campaigns in Italy and the Crimea as well as serving with the French forces supporting the government in the Carlist rebellion in Spain where he picked up the Spanish language. He was also experienced at dealing with insurgencies and handling protocol with natives because of his time in Africa. He had also won praise for his contributions to the victories at San Lorenzo and Puebla. He was popular and well respected but problems did develop between Bazaine and Emperor Maximilian. Even some on the French side feared that he was "going native" and might have had aspirations toward local power after he married an obscenely young girl from the Mexican aristocracy (with family ties to Juarez to boot!). Bazaine was quickly promoted to Marshal of France and he set out on a campaign to crush all remaining resistance under Juarez who was driven from San Luis Potosi to Saltillo, four hundred miles further north. With every French victory more Mexicans defected to what appeared to be the winning side and soon Juarez was reduced to little more than a fugitive on the run in the barren deserts of northern Mexico. By the spring of 1864 the French controlled most of Mexico and had a force of 38,000 men plus about 1,800 Mexican auxillaries.

However, the situation was not as good as it seemed on paper or as sunny as the reports Marshal Bazaine was sending home to his Emperor in Paris. The French could not effectively garrison every area and the Juaristas were quick to flee before them only to return as soon as the French marched away. After suffering so many defeats Juarez adopted a policy of guerilla warfare and Mexican republican forces were reduced to behaving more like bandits than regular soldiers, avoiding confrontations with the French unless the odds seemed extremely stacked in their favor. Their activities mostly revolved around raiding small French outposts and ambushing French wagon trains. The French also suffered from having small arms that were quite behind the times. At first this was not of very great consequence since the Mexican liberals were even more poorly armed. However, after 1865, the United States was able to send over large numbers of the latest weaponry to their republican allies in Mexico including Henry repeating rifles and Parrot rifled canon. French artillery was very good but none was left behind for the benefit of the Mexican Imperial Army once the French forces began pulling out.

By the fall of 1864 the French army reached the northern border with Texas and was able to benefit from the lucrative trade with the embattled Confederate States in the civil war north of the Rio Grande. Also, in the far south, Bazaine defeated and forced the surrender of 8,000 republican troops under Porfirio Diaz in Oaxaca in early 1865. It was the last major republican force still in the field though it had little to no contact with Juarez himself. The fugitive president was, by that time, living constantly on the run in the northern reaches of Chihuahua just south of the Arizona border. Still, bandits were running rampant (all suddenly claiming to be pillaging in the name of Benito Juarez) and French politicians were calling for more troops to come home. In fact, they had been asking the question as to when this would happen almost as soon as the imperial army marched into Mexico City.

Bazaine also had to juggle with Emperor Maximilian and some bad relationships such as with his subordinate General Felix Douay. The Mexican Emperor resented the power the French in the country as well as what he saw as their efforts to strengthen themselves at his expense. As an example, one dust up involved the case of Colonel Charles Dupin, commander of the fearsome contra-guerillas. Maximilian objected to the colonel and his brutal tactics and obtained his transfer back to France. However, once there, Dupin was able to convince Napoleon III that with a relatively few troops and a free hand he could clean out the bandits in northeast Mexico. Napoleon was convinced and sent Dupin back which Maximilian believed (mistakenly) to be the work of Bazaine and an affront to his authority. It did not help that Dupin considered Maximilian a vacillating weakling and was not bashful about saying so. General Douay also argued that Bazaine did not understand the country and was not doing enough to reduce republican harassment in the country. Marshal Bazaine himself also complained about Maximilian trying to rule with clemency. He stopped the French from executing anyone without his approval. The result was that the guilty party was invariably sent to prison instead by the soft-hearted Hapsburg and after bribing a guard the man was free and back fighting for Juarez the next day. Even such famous and notorious a figure as Porfirio Diaz escaped in such a way. Bazaine grumbled that Maximilian would not succeed in ruling with kindness and that his soft-touch approach was costing the lives of French soldiers.

Time was also working against the French as ever since mid-1864 when things seemed more or less under control the outcry in France had been growing for the troops to come home. There was also the typical problems of any overseas power trying to deal with a guerilla insurgency. There were fewer smashing victories to proclaim in the newspapers yet there was a steady stream of casualties from disease, bandit ambushes and losses from desertion. As time went on the morale of the French troops slowly dropped as they were marched back and forth across Mexico over very inhospital terrain quite often and with no end in sight. All of that being said, it is often overlooked just how much the French military accomplished and especially how much good they did while deployed in Mexico. The movies might show nothing but French firing squads but even people who were opposed to the French intervention had to admit that even the most backward villages deep in the wilds of Mexico received hitherto unknown gifts of law, order, government efficiency and civic progress thanks to the French forces. They erected telegraph lines between Queretaro and Veracruz (and kept them running), built a railroad along the gulf coast and established a reliable postal service for the first time.

It is sadly true that many of these advances receded as Emperor Maximilian took firmer control of the government and was eager to place more responsibility in the hands of the native Mexicans. He had the best intentions in doing so, but the corruption and selfishness of the Mexican governing class was a major reason for the country being in so dilapidated a condition in the first place and few, if any, saw fit to change their ways. They were aided by the fact that Maximilian tended to always believe the best about everyone and trusted that everything his Mexican subjects did was with the best intentions.The tensions between the French and the Mexican government  were also exacerbated by the arrival of the foreign volunteers from Austria and Belgium. Maximilian wanted them under his own control, Bazaine wanted them under his and the Austrians wanted an independent command of their own. The Austrians who had so recently been thwarted in Italy by the French did not exactly work well with their allies and the French tended to have their traditional contempt for the Belgians and after the heroic but disastrous first battle of Tacambaro the French were howled at from the Belgian press to Empress Carlota for what seemed like the needless sacrifice of their countrymen.            The French forces were also demoralized by the sense that war with Prussia was approaching. No one wanted to stay in the remote wilds of Mexico while their beloved France was under threat from the Germans. Morale dropped and even the famed Foreign Legion, which certainly fought hard and had the highest casualty rate of any French unit, was plagued with desertion. On one march along the Texas border the Legion lost 93 men in one day to desertion. The final straw came with the Union victory in the war north of the Rio Grande at which time the Confederacy was no longer able to block the US from helping "their man" in Mexico defeat Maximilian. Support poured in to the Juaristas, tens of thousands of US troops were dispatched to the border and threatened invasion while in Paris diplomatic pressure was put on Napoleon III to 'get out or else'. With nothing but trouble and opposition at home, Prussia threatening war in the near future, debts mounting instead of being paid and with the Church and conservatives in Mexico still hostile or ambivalent to the impartial rule of Maximilian the threat of war with the U.S. was all Napoleon needed to declare "mission accomplished" in Mexico and order his troops to pull out.            Some of the French troops were faithful to the end and stayed on in Mexico to see the enterprise through. These men were offered considerable incentives to stay and join the Imperial Mexican Army. Sadly, however, for a force that had fought so well the French evacuation of Mexico was an orderly but shameful affair. They left in good order and peacefully for the most part as the Juaristas were content to let them go and pounce on the weakened Maximilian afterwards. However, knowing it was over for them French troops stood by as Mexican Imperial forces were decimated at the battle of Santa Gertrudis even though they were near enough to help. They were ordered to leave nothing behind for the benefit of their Mexican allies, taking all of their artillery with them or even destroying it. Some more gentlemanly officers sold their horses to the Mexicans on their own but by the time the French left it was the Juaristas who had Maximilian at every disadvantage. In a very short time after their last troops boarded ship for France all that they had fought for was destroyed at the epic siege of Queretaro where the fall of the Second Mexican Empire preceeded the fall of the Second French Empire of Napoleon III.