Miguel Gregorio de la Luz Atenógenes Miramón y Tarelo, known as Miguel Miramón (29 September 1831 – 19 June 1867), was a Mexican conservative general who disputed the Mexican presidency with Benito Juárez at the age of 27 during the Reform War, serving between February 1859 and December 1860. He was the first Mexican president to be born after the Mexican War of Independence.
A cadet in military school at the beginning of the Mexican–American War, Miramón saw action at the Battle of Molino del Rey and the Battle of Chapultepec during the American invasion of Mexico City. After the triumph of the liberal Plan of Ayutla in 1855, Miramón participated in a series of conservative counter coups until his efforts merged with the wider Reform War led by conservative president Félix María Zuloaga. The first year of the war was marked by a series of conservative victories achieved by Miramón, leading the press to dub him "Young Maccabee". After a moderate faction of conservatives overthrew Zuloaga in an effort to reach a compromise with liberals, a conservative junta of representatives elected Miramón as president. Miramón led the conservatives for the rest of the war, leading two sieges against the liberal capital of Veracruz, where Benito Juárez maintained his role as president of the Second Federal Republic. The second siege failed after Miramón's naval forces were intercepted by the United States Navy; and liberal victories accumulated hereafter, ending the war in 1860. Miramón escaped the country and went into exile in Europe, where he was received at the Spanish court.
He returned to Mexico in 1862 during the early stages of the Second French intervention, offering his assistance to the Second Mexican Empire. Emperor Maximilian was a liberal and in order to diffuse conservative opposition to the Empire, he sent Miramón to Prussia, ostensibly to study military tactics. As the Empire began to falter, Miramón returned to Mexico, and joined Maximilian until the fall of the Second Mexican Empire in May 1867. The restored Mexican government had Miramón, Maximilian and Tomás Mejía court martialed and sentenced to death. They were shot on 19 June 1867.
Miramón was born in Mexico City on 29 September 1831, into a very traditional family of partial French heritage. His grandfather was from the province of Béarn. He was the son of Colonel Bernardo de Miramón and his wife Carmen Tarelo. He was one of twelve children and enrolled in the military college on 10 February 1846. The Mexican–American War broke out a few months later. As the Americans entered Mexico City, Miramón himself would join the fighting and during the first weeks of September in 1847, he saw action at the Battle of Molino del Rey and the Battle of Chapultepec, being wounded and being taken prisoner during the latter. He was released in June 1848 after the war had ended.
In military school he went through the regular grades of promotion, from corporal to lieutenant of artillery. In 1852 he served in Jalisco, and in 1853 was in some actions under generals Mariano Salas and Rosas Landa in the department of Mexico. After that he saw much active service, and rose rapidly through the ranks, being made a brevet lieutenant colonel on 6 July 1855, and on the 30th of the same month a fully commissioned lieutenant colonel.
During the period of La Reforma, Miramón participated in the various conservative counter revolutions after the triumph of the liberal Plan of Ayutla in 1855. He joined Antonio de Haro y Tamariz at Zacapoaxtla in 1856, fighting at the head of the 10th and 11th battalions at the Loma de Montero. He saw action at the goteras de Puebla on 10 March, but went into hiding when the city fell.
In October 1856, he was second in command of a conservative revolt proclaimed at Puebla. With a thousand soldiers, he defended the city for 43 days against an army of 6,000 men, causing great damage to the liberal forces. When the city finally fell Miramón refused to surrender and instead at the head of 150 men fled and took the city of Toluca on 18 January 1857, seizing some artillery and then heading to the town of Temascaltepec where he was wounded and defeated. He was imprisoned, but escaped in September, soon after joining the reactionary forces in the South. As second in command, he captured the city of Cuernavaca and in January 1858 to Mexico City where the Plan of Tacubaya led by Félix María Zuloaga had overthrown the liberal government of Ignacio Comonfort, also inaugurating what came to be known as the Reform War.
Miramón played a key role in the initial offensive, and the series of conservative victories that occurred during 1858. On 10 March 1858, Miramón was a commander at the Battle of Salamanca, which opened up the interior of the country to the conservatives.
On 24 July, Miramón and Tomas Mejía captured Guanajuato, and they captured San Luis Potosí 12 September. The liberal commander of the north, Santiago Vidaurri was then defeated by them at the Battle of Ahualulco on 29 September. By October the conservatives were at the height of their strength.
On 20 December 1858, about a year since he first came to power, Zuloaga had to face a pronunciamiento against himself led by a moderate faction of the conservatives who wished to compromise with the liberal government. Miguel María de Echegaray pronounced at Ayotla with a plan to summon a congress to frame a constitution suitable for the nation. Zuloaga passed measures to put down the revolt, assuming personal command of the forces at the capital, and forbidding all interaction with the rebels. He passed a manifesto condemning Echeagaray who was stripped of his post in the army. Manuel Doblado was also arrested.
A modified form of the Ayotla Plan was proclaimed by Manuel Robles Pezuela on 23 December, and found some military support in the capital. Zuloaga offered to resign if the objection was to him personally, but would not assent if the plan was meant to overthrow his conservative principles. Miramón was offered command of the plan, but he rejected it.
The Plan of Ayotla was actually an offshoot of the aforementioned fusionist party, a moderate faction, which did not seek to abandon conservative principles, but did seek an end to the war by seeking compromise with the liberals. Manuel Robles Pezuela arrived at the national palace on the morning of 24 December, when he assumed the presidency.
Robles Pezuela sent commissioners out to gain adherence to his plan, and began to assemble a junta of representatives ignoring, however the conservative hero Miguel Miramón, upsetting conservative hardliners. Robles, however eventually conceded in granting Miramón representation.
The Junta assembled on 30 December 1858, and proceeded to elect a president. Miramón won with 50 votes against Robles's 46, though the latter was authorized to act as provisional president until Miramón arrived in the capital.
Meanwhile, Zuloaga still claiming the presidency, agreed to officially pass on the presidency to Miramón on 31 January 1859. To keep him from changing his mind, Miramón had him sent to the interior.
Miramón's most important military priority was now the capture of Veracruz. He left the capital on 16 February, leading his troops in person along with his minister of war. Meanwhile, Aguascalientes and Guanajuato had fallen to the liberals. Liberal troops in the West were led by Santos Degollado and headquartered in Morelia, which now served as a liberal arsenal. The conservatives meanwhile, feeling the effects of the malarial climate, abandoned the siege of Veracruz by 29 March. Degollado made another attempt on Mexico City in early April and was utterly routed at the Battle of Tacubaya by Leonardo Márquez, who captured a large amount of war material, and who also in this battle gained infamy for including medics among those executed in the aftermath of the battle.
On 6 April, the Juárez government was recognized by the United States, and on 12 July, the liberal government nationalized the property of the church, and suppressed the monasteries, the sale of which provided the liberal war effort with new funds, though not as much as had been hoped for since speculators were waiting for more stable times to make purchases.