Ignacio Zaragoza
Mexican political and military leader (1829–1862)
Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín (March 24, 1829 – September 8, 1862) was a Mexican military officer and politician. He is best known for leading a Mexican army of 3,791 men which defeated a 5,730-strong force of French troops at the battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 during the second French intervention in Mexico. The Mexican victory is celebrated annually as Cinco de Mayo.
Early life
Zaragoza was born in the Mexican province of Texas, in the village of Bahía del Espíritu Santo, in the state of Coahuila y Tejas (now Goliad, Texas, in the United States) on March 24, 1829. He was the son of Miguel G. Zaragoza and María de Jesús Seguín, who was a niece of Erasmo Seguín and cousin of Juan Seguín. His father met his mother while on duty and stationed at Bexar in 1825. This was not a particularly wealthy upbringing for Zaragoza. The Zaragoza family moved to Matamoros in 1834 and then to Monterrey in 1844, where young Ignacio entered a seminary. By 1846, Zaragoza grew tired of his seminary life, instead wishing to pursue his military endeavors as a cadet for the Mexican army in the Mexican American War.
Military career
At this point in history, Mexico had already declared war on the United States for admitting Texas as a State, which had earlier achieved her independence from Mexico.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q558759. VIAF identifies the subject as 13416747. The Library of Congress control number is n80162744. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1829, 1862, 1825 and 1834.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ignacio Zaragoza” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.