On Monday, May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), 1862, the Mexican Army, led by Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza (1829-62), defeated a French invading force at the Battle of Puebla, Mexico near Puebla de Zaragoza.
An estimated 6,000-6,500 French troops led by Gen. Charles de Lorencez (1814-92) were repeatedly rebuffed by about 4,500 Mexican soldiers as the French stormed Fort Loreto and Fort Guadalupe overlooking Puebla. Zaragoza lost an estimated 90 men in the battle; Lorencez lost about 1,000 and was relieved of his command. Zaragoza died four months later in Puebla of typhoid fever at age 33.
The French eventually captured the city during the Siege of Puebla, March 16-May 17, 1863, in their advance toward Mexico City as French Emperor Napoleon III continued efforts to conquer Mexico during the Second Franco-Mexican War, 1861-67. (The First Franco-Mexican War, known as the Pastry War, was fought 1838-39. The three-month war began after a French pastry chef claimed Mexican soldiers looted his shop on the outskirts of Mexico City. The British brokered a peace that resulted in Mexico paying 600,000 pesos to the French, which the French claimed in damages to shops owned by French nationals in Mexico City.)
Mexican forces under the command of Gen. Porfirio Díaz recaptured Puebla from the French in the Battle of 2 de Abril (1867).
The invasion of Mexico was part of the Second French Empire, 1852-70, and the Second Mexican Empire. Maximilian I was emperor of Mexico 1864-67. A political faction in Mexico, defeated in the 1858-61 War of Reform, invited the French to invade and overthrow the Mexican republic. The French were defeated in 1867 -- Maximilian and two of his generals were executed by firing squad – and Benito Juárez continued as the constitutionally elected president until his death in 1872.
Puebla is Mexico’s fourth largest city, with almost 1.7 million residents in 2020 and a metropolitan area of 3.2 million. Located in southern central Mexico, Puebla is 95 miles southeast of Mexico City, between the Mexican capital and the major port city of Veracruz. Puebla was founded in 1531 by the Spanish.
