violation of the treaty was, that a letter had been received from Zaragoza indicating that the safety of some 400 sick French soldiers in that town was endangered, which was purely subterfuge.[1]
Almonte sent emissaries into the interior to undermine the loyalty of the troops and circulate revolutionary plans, and had himself proclaimed president by Taboada and others at a pronunciamiento in Córdoba.[2] Orizaba seconded the movement the next day; and then Almonte, who had accepted the role assigned him, his ministers Colonel Gonzalez, Manuel Castellanos, and Desiderio Samaniego, Padre Miranda, and Haro y Tamariz, repaired to that city. The plan was also adopted by the city of Vera Cruz, and by Alvarado, Isla del Cármen, and other places.[3] On the 27th, by order of Almonte and Lorencez, Taboada A left Córdoba for Orizaba with 300 Mexican cavalry, and the next day the French division, 6,000 strong, started on its march to Puebla. On the summit of Acultzingo was posted a republican force of 2,000 men, according to a liberal authority, or of 4,000, as
- ↑ Zaragoza wrote Lorencez that the French sick in the hospitals of Orizaba were under Mexican protection, and therefore needed no French guard. He discovered afterward that he had erroneously taken for a guard a number of convalescents, who were going with their arms from one hospital to another, and wrote again to correct his error, assuring Lorencez that the best care would be bestowed on his men. Diario Debates 3 Cong., ii. 37; Diaz, Porfirio, Biog., 23; Buenrostro, Hist. Prim. y Seg. Cong., 329-31. The French general answered him in a friendly manner, all the while resolved to reoccupy Orizaba, on the plea, as he wrote the plenipotentiaries, that three of his soldiers had been killed in the environs of the French camp. Niox, Expéd, du Mex., 137-40; Arrangoiz, Méj., iii. 69.
- ↑ The acta, dated April 19th, contained four articles. The first denied the authority of Juarez; the second recognized Almonte as supreme chief of the republic and of the forces supporting it; the third authorized him to arrange with the French officials for convoking an assembly to establish a government; the fourth expressed full trust in Almonte, whose services they declared most urgent. Id., iii. 69-70; Le Trait d'Union, Apr. 30, 1862; Méx., Mem. Hacienda, 1870, 543; La Voz de Méj., June 10, 1862; Niox, Expéd. du Mex., 132-5; Lefêvre, Mex. et L'Interv., 449. That acta showed the signatures of the prominent residents, among them those of a number of Spaniards and others, who afterward publicly made known that their signatures had been appended thereto without their knowledge. Their letters were given to the public in El Siglo XIX., and may also be seen in Lefêvre, Doc. Maximiliano, i. 233-5, and Lefêvre, Mex. et L'Interv., 452.
- ↑ Manuel M. Serrano was made governor of Vera Cruz and Woll comandante general. Marin became comandante general of Isla del Cármen.
