Хуан Непомусено Альмонте: Мексикалық генерал, дипломат және регент

Mexican general, diplomat and regent

Juan Nepomuceno Almonte Ramírez (May 15, 1803 – March 21, 1869) was a Mexican soldier, commander, minister of war, congressman, diplomat, presidential candidate, and regent. The natural son of Catholic cleric José María Morelos, a leading commander during the Mexican War of Independence, Almonte played an important role as a conservative in the Mexican Republic. He served as Minister of War during multiple administrations as well as in various diplomatic posts in the United States and in Europe. In 1840 he led government forces in an attempt to rescue president Anastasio Bustamante after the president was taken hostage by rebels in the National Palace. Almonte was minister to the United States in the years leading up to the Mexican American War and lobbied against its interference in Texas, which Mexico considered a rebellious province. Almonte was a leading figure in conservative efforts to re establish monarchy in Mexico, supporting the French imperial forces during the Second French Intervention in Mexico and the establishment Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian I of Mexico. Almonte was serving as a diplomat in France when France withdrew military support of the Empire, which fell in 1867. He died two years later in 1869.

Almonte was born in the town of Nocupétaro in the state of Michoacán, the out of wedlock son of José María Morelos, a Roman Catholic priest who led the insurgents in the Mexican War of Independence from 1811 to 1815, and Brígida Almonte. His mother, Brígida Almonte, was said to be of pure Amerindian ancestry. In 1815 Morelos sent Almonte to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was educated and learned fluent English. While in New Orleans, Almonte worked as a clerk for hardware merchant Puech & Bein. His time in the United States was cut short when his father was executed on December 22, 1815, in the village of San Cristóbal Ecatepec. Between 1822 and 1824, Almonte was on the staff of insurgent rebel leader José Félix Trespalacios in Texas and then was sent as a part of the Mexican delegation to London. Almonte assisted Ambassador José Mariano Michelena in negotiating a commercial and amity treaty with England. This was Mexico's first treaty as a new nation. During the Mexican War of Independence, Almonte had been a noted partisan of Vicente Guerrero which would later cause him to go into hiding in 1830 after the liberal Guerrero, who had reached the presidency in 1828, was overthrown, and the conservative government of Anastasio Bustamante began persecuting his followers. During the presidency of Bustamante, Almonte was also associated with the liberals Isidro Rafael Gondra, Anastasio Zerecero, and José María Alpuche. He edited the progressive newspaper Atleta (The Athlete), which was forced to shutdown due to government fines. and they had a daughter named María de Guadalupe Anastacia Aleja Brígida Saturnina.

In 1834 Vice President Valentín Gómez Farías appointed Almonte and Col. José María Díaz Noriega to make an inspection tour of Texas and write a status report on what they witnessed. In late January 1836 Almonte was appointed aide de camp to Antonio López de Santa Anna and accompanied him to Texas in an attempt to quell the rebellion there. Santa Anna led his army directly for San Antonio de Bexar, where a small group of Texians was garrisoned at the former Alamo Mission. As the Mexican army occupied the city, Texian co commander James Bowie sent Green B. Jameson to speak with Santa Anna. Instead, Jameson met with Almonte. According to Almonte, the Texians asked for an honorable surrender but were informed that any surrender must be unconditional. In his March 6 journal entry after the battle, Mexican Almonte listed the Texian casualty toll as 250, with the survivors being five women, one Mexican soldier and one slave. Almonte did not record the names of either the defenders or the survivors, and his count was based solely on who was there during the final assault. Almonte is said to have had the role in saving Susannah Dickinson. According to some interviews she gave, a Mexican officer intervened to spare her and her daughter's life. This officer was presumed to be either an English mercenary named Black, or Almonte. Then, she said she was taken before Santa Anna, who was talked out of imprisoning her by Almonte. On April 21, 1836, Almonte, at the head of part of the Guerrero battalion, surrendered to Texian Thomas J. Rusk at the Battle of San Jacinto. Almonte led the last organized resistance of the panicked army. On the following day Santa Anna also was taken prisoner. Almonte stayed with Santa Anna during his imprisonment acting as interpreter and negotiator. Almonte accompanied Santa Anna during his incarceration on Galveston Island. Then they were taken up the Brazos river to the Phelps plantation, about 30 miles from Velasco, and kept there during the summer and autumn of 1836. While staying there the rumors spread that there were plans to rescue the prisoners. When an escape plot was later discovered, Almonte and Santa Anna were each forced to wear a heavy ball and chain for 52 and 53 days respectively. Finally, through the efforts of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston, Almonte, accompanied by Texas Vice president Lorenzo de Zavala and Bailey Hardeman was sent along with Santa Anna to Washington, D. C., where they had several meetings with U. S. President Andrew Jackson. After eight days in Washington, they left the U. S. on January 31, 1837. The party returned to Mexico in February. By then, Santa Anna had been replaced as President of Mexico and went into retirement. Almonte, though, continued his diplomatic and military career and eventually rose to the rank of major general. He published a book on geography in late 1837.

By 1839, Almonte's in spite of having been a notable progressive was now serving as Minister of War under a conservative government during the Centralist Republic of Mexico. Still retaining the liberal belief in federalism, Almonte put forth his support for the restoration of the federal system, as opposed to the conservative dictatorship advocated by the rebels Mariano Paredes and Santa Anna, but the effort was futile, and the triumphant rebels would put into effect the conservative and centralist Bases of Tacubaya. Comonfort was overthrown by conservatives in 1858, triggering the Reform War, and Almonte remained with the new government, being transferred to Paris as Minister to France. On September 27, 1859, he arranged and signed the Mon Almonte Treaty with Spain which arranged certain indemnities to be paid to Spain for previous damages to its citizens on Mexican territory. They were eventually joined by conservative Mexican generals who had never been entirely defeated in the War of Reform. On May 2 the French army and the Mexican troops under Antonio Taboada reached Amozoc, and on the 4th pitched their camp within the sight of Puebla. Almonte advised Lorencez to attack an orchard of the convento del Carmen opposite the fortified heights of Guadalupe and Loreto, which was not done. He had also previously advised Lorencez to simply bypass Puebla and march on to the capital. Lorencez would proceed to attempt and take the fortified hills overlooking Puebla only to be repulsed. After Charles de Lorencez's small expeditionary force was repulsed at the Battle of Puebla, reinforcements were sent and placed under the command of Élie Forey. The capital was taken by June, 1863 and the French now sought to establish a friendly Mexican government. Forey appointed a committee of thirty five Mexicans, the Junta Superior who then elected three Mexican citizens to serve as the government's executive which included Almonte. In turn this triumvirate then selected two hundred fifteen Mexican citizens to form together with the Junta Superior, an Assembly of Notables. The Assembly met on July, 1863 and resolved to invite Ferdinand Maximilian to be Emperor of Mexico. The executive triumvirate was formally changed into the Regency of the Mexican Empire. An official delegation left Mexico and arrived in Europe on October. Maximilian formally accepted the crown on 10 April 1864, and set sail for Mexico, arriving in Veracruz on 28 May and reaching the capital on 12 June. Franco Mexican troops struggled to pacify the entire country, and the challenge was increased once the United States Civil War ended, and the American government began giving aid to the liberals and placing diplomatic pressure on France to leave the continent. France began to withdraw troops in 1866. Almonte during this time was in France holding a diplomatic role. He would die in Paris in 1869, two years after the fall of the Empire.

The town of Almonte, Ontario, was named for General Almonte when Canada as well as Mexico were concerned with United States expansionism. The town of Almont, Michigan, is also named after him.