Americans have been fascinated with the French Foreign Legion, known for the courage of its rough and tough Legionnaires. But did you know a Mexican force defeated the vaunted French Legionnaires in the battle celebrated as Cinco de Mayo?
Yes, on May 5, 1862, a few hundred veteran Mexican soldiers fresh from a civil war between Mexican Conservatives and Liberals, soundly defeated 4,000 French soldiers and marines reinforced by 2,000 Mexican royalists who wanted to set up a new empire.
And just a year later, on April 30, 1863, the Mexicans delivered another defeat to what was thought to be the best army in Europe.
French, Spanish and British troops had landed in January 1862 and occupied the port of Vera Cruz. They installed customs officers to collect cash to pay off Mexican government debts to private banks in Europe.
President Benito Juarez had ordered debt payments temporarily stopped so he could rebuild the Mexican treasury that civil war had depleted.
The British and Spanish made quick deals and left. The French stayed. Napoleon III had decided to conquer Mexico to add to the growing French colonial empire in Africa, the Far East and scattered colonies in the South Pacific.
And he had another motive. He detested American democracy and wanted to destroy it. He wanted to use Mexico as a base to break the Union Navy’s blockade of the Confederacy and support the slave owners with cannons, gunpowder and rifles while being paid with cotton.
The European tradition of winning wars by capturing a country’s capital was on Napoleon’s mind when he ordered his commander Charles de Lorencez to take Mexico City.
The march started in Vera Cruz and went north towards Puebla de Los Angeles, where the French would turn left and march through mountains as high as 17,000 feet. It was the same route taken by the conquistador Hernando Cortez when he destroyed the Aztec Empire in 1519-20.
At Puebla, two Spanish-built fortresses, Loreto and Guadalupe, commanded the single way through the mountains that an army could use.
The Mexicans brought cannon and set them up in the two forts aiming down into the valley, where the French would march. Indians with bows and arrows arrived, some with a cattle herd. They prepared as best they could when torrential rains flooded the French encampment. The Indians herded their cattle back and forth on the valley floor adding more mud to what the French would find during the attack.
When the attack came, the Mexicans covered every inch of the valley with cannon fire. At one point, the Mexican lines started to bend, but colonel and future President Porfirio Diaz ignored his orders to “hold” and led his regiment in a massive attack driving the French back. When the fight was over, the French retreated to Vera Cruz to wait for 35,000 more troops.
The battle on Cinco de Mayo was over. The Mexicans won. Yes, the French would come back in a year with thousands of troops and win the second battle and take Mexico City. But with the help of a regiment of former Union soldiers, the Mexicans held back the French for awhile.
On April 30, 1863, a force of 65 Legionnaires were marching along a road west of Vera Cruz when they were spotted by Mexican cavalry. The French found a walled hacienda and prepared to fight. They were surrounded.
The battle went on for 12 hours. The French refused to surrender three times. Only three Legionnaires survived.
France celebrates April 30 because of the courage shown by the Legionnaires. Mexico celebrates the great victory at Puebla on May 5. As Americans drink beer in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, they should be thankful that Mexico helped save the Union by preventing the French from assisting the Confederacy.
As Union General U. S. Grant observed in 1865: “The Civil War would not be over until the French were out of Mexico.”
Raoul Lowery Contreras is a Marine Corps veteran, political consultant, prolific author and host of the Contreras Report on YouTube and Facebook.
