This product is sold in two unpainted metal parts, rider and horse.
Additional Images.
1. Colonel Porfirio Diaz, 1861.
2-3. Paintings of the battles of Miahuatlán and La Carbonera.
4. The whole French Intervention in Mexico Republican and Imperial Armies range.
GENERAL DIAZ WINS TWO GREAT VICTORIES
The Battle of
Miahuatlán (3 October 1866) and
was followed by the Battle of La Carbonera (18 October 1866). Both were fought between elements
of the Mexican Republican Army under General Porfirio Díaz and Mexican
Imperial troops under General Carlos Oronoz.
- Díaz's forces at Miahuatlán took a defensive
position facing northwest, where he was found and attacked by 1,100 Imperial
troops under General Oronoz assisted by a French officer, Enrique Testard. The
attackers bombarded the Republican positions from long range, then closed on
them with a skirmish line followed by three columns. Díaz skilfully held off
the attackers, then sent his cavalry across the Miahuatlán river to
unexpectedly attack the right rear of the Imperial troops. Facing certain
defeat, General Oronoz fled the battle. His forces lost 70 dead and 400
prisoners, against Republican losses of 59 killed and 14 wounded.
- The victory was due to Díaz's imaginative use
of terrain and deception. He placed riflemen in the Nogales Ravine, and a group
of armed peasants in a maguey (type of plant) field opposite them, hidden from
view. Díaz then made himself conspicuous on the crest of a hill behind them.
His cavalry retreated towards Díaz pursued by the imperial forces, who were
caught in a lethal cross-fire from the concealed Republican troops. While Díaz
launched a frontal assault led by Manuel
González on the Imperial forces, the surprise cavalry attack from
rear decided the day
- As a result of the battle, Díaz's forces were
replenished with about 1,000 captured rifles, two field pieces and over 50
mules loaded with ammunition. He was able to continue his advance with little
opposition, reaching Oaxaca on 8 October 1866. In his memoirs, Díaz described
the battle as the most strategic and brilliantly fought action during the
Second French intervention in Mexico.
- Following the Battle of Miahuatlán Díaz besieged the city
of Oaxaca defended by Oronoz. The siege lasted about eleven days until
Díaz learned that a column of 1,500 Mexican, French and Austrian soldiers were
approaching from the north. Díaz broke off the siege and marched to fight the
relieving Imperial Army.
- Díaz placed his younger brother Felix in
command of the Ixtlan National Guard, which fought in the vanguard. Figueroa's
brigade was deployed on the right, the Chiautla and Cazadores battalions under
Colonel Juan Espinosa in the centre and González's brigade on the left. The
cavalry was held in reserve in the rear, along with the Tlaxiaco Militia and
some artillery.
- The two forces made contact around noon on 18
October. After organising on a nearby hill, the Imperial forces attacked in two
columns despite being outnumbered by two to one. The attacks were repulsed, and
the two armies closed into general combat. After a relatively short struggle,
the Imperial right was outflanked and their army disintegrated. By late
afternoon, the enemy had been routed. Republican casualties were 78 killed and
153 wounded. Díaz took 500 Austrian prisoners in this battle. The battle was decisive, opening the way to Puebla and Mexico
City.