Word: lorencez
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...civil war, could not interfere, Napoleon set out on an adventure that he expected would bring him fresh laurels (he had defeated Austria only three years before) and would put his protege, the Austrian Archduke Maximilian, on the throne of Mexico. His General Charles-Ferdinand de Lorencez landed at the port of Vera Cruz in March 1862, and began the rigorous march to Mexico City...
Mexico's Master. Lorencez saw nothing but ragged Mexican, scouts ducking over the brown hills ahead. "We are so superior to the Mexicans in race, in organization, in discipline, in morality, and in elevation of feeling," he wrote the French War Minister, "that I beg Your Excellency to be so good as to inform the Emperor that, at the head of 6,000 soldiers, I am already master of Mexico...
When he found the army of General Zaragoza drawn up at Puebla, Lorencez did not even bother to maneuver for position. The Mexican priests assured him that the city hated the Juarez government more than any city in the land, and would greet his troops with flowers. Lorencez popped away briefly with his ten cannon, then ordered his men to take the fortified convent of Guadalupe...
...Zouaves charged smartly up the slope, the barefooted Indians mowed them down with 1812 muskets. Then machete-waving cavalrymen, led by a young Mixtec Indian named Porfirio Diaz, rushed in from the flanks, and the veterans of Sevastopol and Solferino knew that they were beaten. Leaving 1,000 dead, Lorencez began his retreat toward the Gulf...
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