Almonte
JUAN NEPOMUCENO (al-môn'tė), a Mexican general, born in 1804. As a boy he took part in the war for independence. In 1824, he went to London as attaché to the Mexican embassy, and, after his return, became a member of Congress. In 1832 he was appointed chargé d'affaires at London, then in Peru. He entered the army and served under Santa Anna in Texas in 1836. After that he became Minister of War under Bustamente, and, in 1841, was sent to Washington. In 1845 he became Minister of War, and was a second time sent as minister to the United States, soon afterward. He took part in the battles of Buena Vista and Cerro Gordo in 1847. In 1853 he was again sent to Washington, and, in 1857, to Paris. In 1861, when Juarez attained power, he deposed Almonte, who, led by ALOE to Mexico. In 1862 he joined the French troops of occupation at Vera Cruz; but, as the Mexicans saw in him only a tool of the French plans, they renounced the idea of making him French dictator.
The French general, himself, deprived him of power, but when, on the 10th of June, 1863, he reached the City of Mexico with the French, he was placed by the conquerors at the head of the Regency of the Mexican Empire. The Emperor Maximilian appointed him fieldmarshal, but, after Maximilian's death, he fled to Europe, and died in Paris, March 22, 1869.