How long was battle of puebla

He learned to speak Spanish, studied the law, and took up a number of local and regional government posts while working to improve the rights of indigenous Mexicans. In the ensuing debt crisis and foreign French invasion, the Battle of Puebla was an unexpected victory.

Following the expulsion of the French in , he was elected to the presidency two more times. Ignacio Zaragoza. The president ordered the fortification of the city of Puebla, anticipating a French march on Mexico City.

As predicted, the French troops were advancing on Puebla by late April —on the way to the coveted capital. The differences between the two armies were glaring. The French army regarded itself as the best in the world, having remained undefeated since the Battle of Waterloo, nearly half a century before.

The well-dressed French soldiers were also well armed with pistols, carbines, bayonets, and cannons, and had the invaluable support of the Zouaves, elite French military troops feared all over Europe for their ferocity, The Mexican side, meanwhile, was hampered by lack of combat experience.

The few weapons they had were old, and their troops were underfed. To make matters worse, the country was polarized, with the conservative faction preferring a foreign intervention to being an independent republic. A great deal, therefore, was at stake, and, at first, the Mexicans looked doomed. On April 28, the Sixth Battalion of the National Guard of the State of Puebla, formed by 4, precariously armed Mexicans, had their first encounter against superior French troops at the Cumbres de Acultzingo.

On the night of May 3, General Zaragoza arrived in Puebla. Sources vary on the exact number of men under his command, with estimates ranging from 2, to 5, men. Because he was outnumbered and outgunned, it was crucial that Zaragoza formulate a strong defense to hold the city.

Puebla was surrounded by several stone forts, most notably Loreto and Guadalupe, which both stood atop a hill on the northern side of the city. The soldiers fortified Puebla by digging trenches, building breastworks, and repairing the forts as best they could.

Zaragoza then placed his men in strategic points throughout Puebla. Roughly a thousand would defend the northern side and its forts, with the remaining troops kept in reserve to counterattack any direct assault. The plan was set, and now all Zaragoza and his men had to do was wait for the French to arrive. Just after 9 a. Zaragoza and his men sat tight, while Lorencez began his attack. The plan may have seemed sound on paper, but in practice it failed to make much impact.

The French began shelling Fort Guadalupe at a. Discouraged, Lorencez moved his artillery closer, but the angle of the new position made targeting more difficult. By midday more than half their ammunition was gone, with little impact on the forts.

It was time to change tactics. Lorencez ordered his soldiers to attack. The brilliant defenses set up by Zaragoza kept the French at bay. As the soldiers advanced, Mexican guns in the forts fired on them from above. On the ground the ragtag fighters held true, some armed only with machetes and metal-tipped wooden spears.

Three times, Lorencez sent in waves of his soldiers, and three times they were turned back. Around 2 p. It was as if Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain, was displaying his fury against the French soldiers. With the ground made slick by rain and mounting casualties, Lorencez was forced to retreat. Zaragoza and his men had won the day. The other miscalculation was to position his cannons over a mile from the fortifications, much too far away for the projectiles to strike with full force.

When Napoleon III heard of his incompetence, he immediately relieved him of his command. But just after 4 p. Their columns attacking the Loreto and Guadalupe hills have been repelled and we were probably attacked by four thousand men.

All their push was towards the hill. Then their columns retreated and our forces advanced towards them. A heavy storm then started. He said nothing, however, of the final result. Newspapers from Texas and California also acknowledged their histories and announced the celebrations by the s. Texas cemented his memory as an iconic transborder and transnational hero against foreign aggression by establishing the General Zaragoza State Historic Site near Goliad.

Because it affirms enduring and shared values such as advancing the just defense of the homeland and the necessary cause for marginalized and maligned people. These tenets are still upheld today. Recognizing and practicing this kind of valued behavior also grants a good measure of humanity to the descendants of the heroes of Puebla, including the Mexican immigrants among us who have historically labored long and hard for low pay and little positive recognition.

History, after all, is not just a record of things past, it is also the binding arc of humanity and the ennobling opportunity to recognize the equal worth of others and to act on their behalf.

The conflict began in , when Benito Juarez, then the president of Mexico, stopped paying interest on the money he owed several countries, including France. In response, the French army invaded Mexico and tried to take over the country. The French's first attempt was successful: The city of Campeche was overtaken on February 27, The French hadn't lost a battle in 50 years.

Today, celebrations in Mexico are most widespread in the state of Puebla itself.