Antonio López de Santa Anna, acting without…

Antonio López de Santa Anna, acting without explicit government authority, had come out of retirement from his hacienda near Xalapa and surveyed Veracruz.

He had asked the government to use his services, and had immediately been ordered to fight the French by any means necessary.

Leadings Mexican forces against the French, he had beenwounded in the leg by French grapeshot in a skirmish with their rear guard.

His leg had had to be amputated but Santa Anna, exploiting his wounds with eloquent propaganda, had catapulted back to power.

Eventually, with the diplomatic intervention of Great Britain, President Bustamante promises to pay the six hundred thousand pesos and the French forces withdraw on March 9, 1839.