page_title: Battle of Tacámbaro
section_title: The battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Tacámbaro / The battle
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of members of the Belgian Foreign Legion
context_page_description: The Battle of Tacámbaro was a battle of the French Intervention in Mexico which took place on 11 April 1865 in the state of Michoacán in western Mexico. The battle, named after the town in which it was fought, pitted 300 members of the Belgian Legion supporting the Mexican Empire against approximately 3,000 Mexican republicans.
context_section_description: On 3 April 1865, 250–300 Belgians occupied Tacámbaro. Shortly thereafter, Senora Regules, the wife of the Republican General Nicolas Regules, was found rendering medical aid to two guerillas.  She was arrested for aiding Republican troops and escorted with her two children by Major Tydgat and Dr. Lejeune, the Belgian detachments commander and doctor, to the Belgian headquarters. This action was intended to secure the cooperation of General Regules but instead enraged the local population.
  On 11 April 1865, General Regules attacked the Belgians with between 3,000 and 3,500 Republican soldiers.  Surrounded from all sides, the Belgians held out for five hours, hoping for reinforcements which arrived four days too late.  They were finally forced to surrender. While the number of casualties is disputed, it is believed that between fifty and one hundred Belgians were killed and around 200 were taken prisoner.
  During the battle, eight of the unit's officers were killed, including the badly wounded Major Tydgat and his adjutant Captain Ernest Chazal (son of the Belgium's minister of defense, Félix Chazal).
caption: An 1865 photograph of Belgian Legion soldiers
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