Ignacio Zaragoza
(Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin; Bahía del Espíritu Santo, Texas, 1829-Puebla, 1862) Mexican military.With progressive ideas, he fought against the dictatorship of Santa Anna and supported Benito Juárez during the War of the Reform (1858-1960), contributing decisively to the final victory of the Liberals.Two years later, at the beginning of the French invasion of Mexico, he won a brilliant victory at the Battle of Puebla (May 5, 1862), for which he is honored as a national hero; sadly, an illness ended his life a few months later, at the age of thirty-three.
Ignacio Zaragoza
Ignacio Zaragoza studied in Matamoros and at the Monterrey seminary.The son of a military man, his military vocation manifested itself in adolescence: at seventeen he wanted to enlist in the army to participate in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), but his application was rejected.For some years he dedicated himself to commerce in Monterrey; in 1853 he joined, with the rank of first sergeant, in the newly created National Guard of Nuevo León.
Both armies headed back to Guadalajara; in Silao they faced the one of Miramón, which they managed to decimate.They besieged the city of Guadalajara, which was in the hands of General Leonardo Márquez, and took it in October 1860.Zaragoza was promoted to general and marched together with González Ortega towards Calpulalpan, where they obtained a resounding victory that practically meant the end of the War.of Reform, which thus ended with the triumph of the Liberals.
The new president, Benito Juárez, appointed Zaragoza Minister of War and Navy in 1861.That same year Juárez had to suspend the payment of the foreign debt; the war had left the already battered public coffers drained.The non-payment served as a pretext for the Second French intervention in Mexico (1862-1867).In December 1861, Zaragoza resigned his position to participate in the war against the French at the head of the newly formed army from the East.
Ignacio Zaragoza faced the invaders on the summits of Acultzingo; later he waited for them in Puebla, in the barracks of the Loreto and Guadalupe forts.On May 5, 1862, he obtained the most famous of his victories, that of the Battle of Puebla, for which he would be declared worthy of the homeland.In it, after rejecting the invaders three times and launching the cavalry to the auction, he defeated the forces of the Count of Lorencez, forcing the French to retreat.Zaragoza quickly moved to Mexico City and then returned to Puebla, where he died suddenly of typhoid fever on September 8, at just thirty-three years old.President Juárez arranged for the city of Puebla to be renamed Puebla de Zaragoza in his honor.
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