How did the soldiers of the French Expeditionary Force in Mexico experience the Battle of May 5, 1862, near Puebla? What is the perspective of the defeated?
The main part of the battle, which erupted before noon, lasted approximately four hours. During that time, around 254 men died: 83 Mexicans and 171 French. An average of more than 60 combatants per hour: one dead every minute, for four hours… There were also many wounded, 436 in total: 132 Mexicans and 304 French. An average of about 110 soldiers per hour: two wounded every minute, for four hours… Battles were bloody in those times, with Napoleonic tactics of frontal assaults between the lines.
A feeling of bitterness prevailed among the French in the aftermath of the battle. “General Lorencez felt intense regret for the failure he had suffered,” recalled General Gustave Niox, then an officer in the Expeditionary Corps, later in life. He blamed the French representative in Mexico, Mr. Dubois de Saligny, who, he said, had misled him regarding the favorable sentiments toward the Intervention in the city of Puebla. “Soldiers and sailors! Your march to Mexico has stopped,” Lorencez proclaimed in a proclamation. “You had been told a hundred times that the city of Puebla was eager for your presence and that its inhabitants would rush to meet you and shower you with flowers. Confident in these deceptive certainties, we presented ourselves in Puebla.” His officers echoed these words. “We were deceived about the true state of mind,” one of them wrote. “It would have been better never to have come.”
For a moment, Lorencez considered restarting the attack from another point, but in the end, he decided to retreat toward Orizaba. He didn’t want to expose his small army to another defeat. On May 10, he left Amozoc for Tepeaca, intending to continue on to Acatzingo, Quecholac, and Palmar. His men marched with their heads bowed. Artillery Captain Paul Guinard wrote on May 22, from Orizaba: “When we left France, everyone talked about our expedition as if it were a game. Just a stroll, nothing more, right? As simple as going to Saint-Cloud on a Sunday.” Captain Guinard would die a year later, on May 16, 1863, the day before the surrender of Puebla. His comrades entered the city the next day, while he was being buried.
Everything was beginning to be viewed with less naiveté by the French. It was now clear that, to succeed, the Intervention in Mexico required multiplying the Expeditionary Force’s strength and resources. That was the decision Emperor Napoleon III made in the summer of 1862, along with the decision to relieve General Lorencez of his command. He was displeased with Lorencez’s handling of the Battle of May 5th, furious about the consequences it had on his plans. The defeat in Puebla would, in fact, delay the French arrival in the capital of the Republic by a year. At that moment, the nation had the time it needed to prepare its resistance. The French had suffered a real defeat on the outskirts of Puebla.
Source: milenio
