The news of the capture of Puebla was received in France with great rejoicing.[1] Very different was the effect in Mexico of the fall of this city and the dissolution of the army of the east, which the government announced in feeling terms to the country. The survivors of the campaign were awarded privileges and honors.[2] The French commander-in-chief appointed Colonel Brincourt chief commandant of Puebla, and directed him to reorganize the local administration, Saligny and Almonte designating the persons to whom the administrative offices were to be intrusted. Pursuant to the suggestions of the former, and of Budin, chief of finances, he adopted a number of important political measures.[3]
- ↑ Niox, Exped. du Mex., 283-4.
- ↑ The families of the prisoners were afforded relief, or at least it was decreed to them. Méx., Col. Leyes, 1863-7, i. 32-3, 37; Dublan and Lozano, Leg. Mex., ix. 614-20, 628-31;Diario Debates, 3d Cong., ii. 34; Ortega, Parte Gen., 249-52. Jesus Gonzalez Ortega, Parte General que da al Supremo Gobierno de la Nacion, respecto de la defensa de la plaza de Zaragoza, Méx., 1871, 8vo, 252 pp. This is a full and detailed report made from Zacatecas on the 16th of September, 1863, to the minister of war of Mexico, by the general-in-chief of the late eastern army and comandante general of the state of Puebla, of the operations of the siege and defence of the city of Puebla-Zaragoza, beleaguered by the French army under General Forey, from the 3d of Feb. to the surrender of the place on the 19th of May, and subsequent acts connected with the disposal of the Mexican prisoners by the French commander-in-chief. It is a clear exposition of these events, stated apparently with a view to furnish the facts without reservation or exaggeration.
- ↑ A journal was established in French and Spanish, entitled Moniteur Franco-Mexicain, Bulletin des actes officiels de l'Intervention. The land customhouses were restored. A decree of May 21st, to sequester the property of all persons bearing arms against the intervention, did not meet the views of the conservatives, and caused in its application many embarrassments, and was later disapproved by the French government, and consequently annulled. Another of May 22d prescribed the revision of sales of mortmain estates, that is to say, of the ayuntamiento and several benevolent establishments, Sales ordered by Juarez' government, of which a large number were said to be tainted with fraud. May 27th, the exportation of coin, and of gold and silver in any form, was forbidden. On the day of the feast of corpus christi, Forey, for effect, caused his troops to march in the procession. The organization of courts was decreed and their emoluments were fixed. Mex., Boletin
terns. Niox, Expéd. du Mex., 282-3. On the 15th of Oct., 1863, and 15th of Apr., 1864, the prisoners were offered a return to Mexico if they would submit to the government set up in Mexico by the French intervention. Some accepted the offer and were sent back. The rest, 126, of whom Gen. Epitacio Huerta was the highest in rank, were retained till after Maximilian's acceptance of the Mexican crown, when they were released; but no provision was made for their support or transportation. They suffered greatly, but managed to find their way back to Mexico. Lejévre, Doc. Maximiliano, i. 323, 338-41; Huerta, Apuntes, 1-92.
