Miguel Miramón

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 became president of Mexico at the age of twenty seven 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 would lead 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 the United States Navy intercepted Miramón's naval forces, and liberal victories accumulated hereafter, ending the war in 1860. Miramón escaped the country and went into exile in Europe, being 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 Tomas Mejía court martialed and sentenced to death. They were shot on June 19, 1867.