The Battle of Puebla took place on 5 May, Cinco de Mayo, 1862, near Puebla de los Ángeles, during the Second French intervention in Mexico. French troops under the command of Charles de Lorencez repeatedly failed to storm the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe situated on top of the hills overlooking the city of Puebla, and eventually retreated to Orizaba in order to await reinforcements. Lorencez was dismissed from his command, and French troops under Élie Frédéric Forey would eventually take the city, but the Mexican victory at Puebla against a better equipped force provided patriotic inspiration to the Mexicans.
François Achille Bazaine was an officer of the French army. Rising from the ranks, during four decades of distinguished service under Louis-Philippe and then Napoleon III, he held every rank in the army from fusilier to Marshal of France, the latter in 1863.
The siege of Metz was a battle fought during the Franco-Prussian War from August 19 to October 27, 1870 and ended in a decisive Allied German victory.
Following the Battle of Chapultepec, Santa Anna withdrew his forces from Mexico City, leading a portion in an attempt to take Puebla and cut off Scott's supply route from Veracruz. The Siege of Puebla began the same day Mexico City fell to Winfield Scott and lasted for 28 days before a relief force fought its way into the city.
The Grass Fight was a small battle during the Texas Revolution, fought between the Mexican Army and the Texian Army. The battle took place on November 26, 1835, just south of San Antonio de Béxar in the Mexican region of Texas. The Texas Revolution had officially begun on October 2 and by the end of the month the Texians had initiated a siege of Béxar, home of the largest Mexican garrison in the province. Bored with the inactivity, many of the Texian soldiers returned home; a smaller number of adventurers from the United States arrived to replace them. After the Texian Army rejected commander-in-chief Stephen F. Austin's call to launch an assault on Béxar on November 22, Austin resigned from the army. The men elected Edward Burleson their new commander-in-chief.
The second French intervention in Mexico, also known as the Second Franco-Mexican War (1861–1867), was an invasion of the Second Federal Republic of Mexico, launched in late 1862 by the Second French Empire of Napoleon III at the invitation of Mexican conservatives. It was intended to overthrow the federated republic Mexico, which had defeated a challenge by Mexican conservatives in a civil war, who sought to establish a monarchy in Mexico with aid of Napoleon III of France. Although the French invasion displaced the republican government of Benito Juárez from the Mexican capital and the French backed the candidacy of Archduke Maximilian of Austria as emperor of Mexico in the Second Mexican Empire, the monarchy collapsed following the withdrawal of French troops. The Mexican republic was restored in 1867 following the defeat of imperial forces. Maximilian and two close generals were executed by firing squad on 19 June 1867, ending this period of Mexican history.
The siege of Strasbourg took place during the Franco-Prussian War, and resulted in the French surrender of the fortress on 28 September 1870.
Élie Frédéric Forey was a Marshal of France.
The siege of Breslau, also known as the Battle of Breslau, was a three-month-long siege of the city of Breslau in Lower Silesia, Germany, lasting to the end of World War II in Europe. From 13 February 1945 to 6 May 1945, German troops in Breslau were besieged by the Soviet forces which encircled the city as part of the Lower Silesian Offensive Operation. The German garrison's surrender on 6 May was followed by the surrender of all German forces two days after the battle.
Charles Ferdinand Latrille, Comte de Lorencez was a French Army general under Napoleon III during the 19th century. He was a relative of the Empress Carlota of Mexico, who was the only daughter of King Leopold I, King of the Belgians and wife of Maximilian I of Mexico. He was most notable for losing the Battle of Puebla in the early stages of the Second French intervention in Mexico although he would continue to have military command during France's war with Prussia.
In the siege of San Sebastián, part of the Peninsular War, Allied forces under the command of Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington failed to capture the city in a siege. However in a second siege the Allied forces under Thomas Graham captured the city of San Sebastián in northern Basque Country from its French garrison under Louis Emmanuel Rey. During the final assault, the British and Portuguese troops rampaged through the town and razed it to the ground.
The siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, had the Viscount Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army besiege the city's French garrison under General of Brigade Jean Léonard Barrié. After two breaches were blasted in the walls by British heavy artillery, the fortress was successfully stormed on the evening of 19 January 1812. After breaking into the city, British troops went on a rampage for several hours before order was restored. Wellington's army suffered casualties of about 1,700 men, including two generals killed. Strategically, the fall of the fortress opened the northern gateway into French-dominated Spain from British-held Portugal. An earlier siege of the city occurred in 1810 in which the French captured it from Spanish forces.
The Jackson expedition, preceding and also known as the siege of Jackson immediately followed the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Union Army Major General Ulysses S. Grant commanding the Union Army of the Tennessee on July 4, 1863. The Confederate Army of Mississippi at Vicksburg, under the command of Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton, had been isolated in the Vicksburg defenses by Grant's forces since May 18, 1863. The Confederates were under constant artillery bombardment, had to fight off a series of Union army attacks and could not receive supplies of food and ammunition during the siege.
The Commemorative medal of the Mexico Expedition was a French commemorative campaign medal established by decree of French emperor Napoleon III on 29 August 1863 to recognize military service during the 1862-1863 French intervention in Mexico.
The Battle of 2 de Abril was fought on April 2, 1867, in and around the city of Puebla, Puebla. It was one of the major military actions in the Franco-Mexican War between elements of the Mexican Army of the Republic commanded by General Porfirio Díaz and troops in the service of the Mexican Empire composed of Mexican imperialist soldiers.
The Battle of Acapulco were a series of battles during the Second French intervention in Mexico. Acapulco was a key port of the Pacific trade routes and thus changed hands several times in the course of the Franco-Mexican war. In this period the population of the city had decreased from 6000 to 2000.
Affair at Galaxara Pass, November 24, 1847, was a U.S. Army victory of Gen. Joseph Lane, over the Mexican Army Light Corps, an irregular force under Gen. Joaquín Rea. The Light Corps had been the principal force harassing the U.S. Army line of communications on the National Road during Scott's campaign against Mexico City during the Mexican–American War. Following Lane's relief of the Siege of Puebla he moved against the Light Corps to end that threat.
The siege of the Salamanca forts saw an 800-man Imperial French garrison directed by Lieutenant Colonel Duchemin defend three fortified convents in the city of Salamanca against the 48,000-strong Allied army led by Arthur Wellesley, Lord Wellington. During this time, the French commander Marshal Auguste de Marmont led a 40,000-man French army in an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the garrison. An Allied failure to bring sufficient artillery ammunition caused the siege to be prolonged. The garrison repulsed a premature British attempt to storm the fortified convents on 23 June, but finally surrendered four days later after an artillery bombardment breached one fort and set another one on fire. During his maneuvering, Marmont formed the idea that Wellington was only willing to act on the defensive. This mistaken notion would contribute to Marmont's defeat at the Battle of Salamanca a month later.
Luigi Ghilardi, also known as Luis Ghilardi, was an Italian general who fought in many different conflicts during the 19th century, and who advocated for republican ideals. His parents were Nicolás Ghilardi and Isabel Lucchesi. As a young man he enlisted to fight in liberal movements in Europe. In 1840 he married Francisca Anguera with whom he had a daughter named Ana. He participated in the First Italian War of Independence. Later he visited Mexico where he fought alongside the liberals in the Ayutla Revolution. He returned to Italy and tried to join the army, failing to do so he returned to Mexico where he fought against the French Intervention. He was later captured by the French and executed.
France 
Mexican Empire 
Mexican Republic 