Editing Porfirio Díaz (section)

===Battle of Puebla===
[[Image:Puebla map.png|thumb|300px|The terrain at the [[Battle of Puebla]] (1862). Díaz and his troops were located south, guarding a road leading into the city.]]
At the opening of the Second French Intervention, in which France would attempt to overthrow the [[Second Federal Republic of Mexico|Mexican Republic]] and replace it with a client monarchy, Díaz had advanced to the rank of general and was in command of an infantry brigade.<ref name="brit"/><ref>Garza, James A., "Porfirio Díaz" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico'', Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 406.</ref> He was present at the first engagement of the war when he lost three-fourths of his men after the French attacked his brigade in the state of [[Veracruz]]. He retreated and joined up with the forces of [[Ignacio Zaragoza]] to continue harassing the enemy in the vicinity of [[Orizaba]].{{Sfn|Bancroft|1885|p=45}} Díaz and Zaragoza were forced to retreat before ending up in the city of [[Puebla (city)|Puebla]] by 3 May.{{Sfn|Bancroft|1885|p=47}}

On the morning of 5 May, Díaz was in command of the ''Oaxaca battalion'', guarding one of the roads leading into Puebla.{{Sfn|Bancroft|1885|p=47}} Commander of the French forces, [[Charles de Lorencez]] ordered his troops to ascend a hill overlooking the town for a direct attack upon the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. The ascent failed, and the French were repulsed by attacks of Mexican cavalry and infantry.{{Sfn|Bancroft|1885|p=49}} During the battle, Díaz was not present at the hill but rather on the plains to the right of the Mexican front, where he repulsed another French attack. General Díaz pursued the French on their retreat to the Hacienda San Jose Renteria until recalled by Zaragoza.{{Sfn|Bancroft|1885|p=50}}

The French attributed their defeat at Puebla to a lack of [[Conservative Party (Mexico)|Conservative Party]] support.{{Sfn|Bancroft|1885|p=51}} The Mexican monarchist expatriates who had given the idea of a Mexican monarchy to [[Napoleon III]] had also been working independently of any Mexican authority or political party.{{Sfn|Bancroft|1888|pp=94–95}} When the French invaders arrived in Mexico they found the Conservatives reluctant to help the French in establishing a monarchy and proclaiming their loyalty to the type of [[Centralist Republic of Mexico|centralist republic]] they had once established in Mexico.{{Sfn|Bancroft|1888|pp=93–94}} However, the Conservatives were increasingly won over to collaborate with the French as a means of receiving the military aid that would return them to power.{{Sfn|Bancroft|1888|p=93}} Díaz would once again have to fight many of the men he once faced in the [[Reform War]] such as [[Leonardo Márquez]] and the ex-Conservative president [[Miguel Miramon]]. Eventually, Porfirio Díaz as well would be personally asked to join the French, an offer which he would refuse.{{Sfn|Bancroft|1888|p=163}}{{Sfn|Hannay|1917|pp=82–84}}