Viva Juarez!: Volume 2 The Battles

This Second Volume of "Viva Juarez" is entirely devoted to a wide variety of battles of the French Intervention in Mexico and Napoleon III's attempt to create a puppet empire in Mexico while including as many details as possible. Whereas the First Volume is devoted to the Armies that fought in Mexico (their uniforms, weapons, and organization), the Second covers some thirty-one actions of a wide range of sizes. Battles described range in size from almost 50,000 combatants to only a few hundred. Sieges lasting from months to only a few days appear, but most actions are open field engagements, with others actively fought in the streets of cities and villages. Not every action included determined the ultimate outcome of the war, but those decisive actions which did appear here, too. For while a work of history, with much that is new to the subject not previously available in English, it is also intended for the historical miniatures wargame community. Frequently, they base their interests the amount of "hard data" on the armies engaged, and if the battlefields can be effectively represented on the tabletop. Readers will be able to find all this-and more-in this volume.The matter of Orders of Battle (OB's) has been addressed through the work the of Andrew Preziosi, a name well respected in wargame and historical circles. His detailed lists of OB's for the French Intervention in Mexico are included, adding considerable depth to the final results.Battle histories without maps are exercises in obscurity. The realities of the ground, location of roads, watercourses, etc, explain why units moved where they did and what obstacles they faced. The battlefield and other maps provided have come from museums in Mexico and resources from around the world. Most have been enhanced with color and/or text for easier comprehension. Further, the great majority are reproduced at full page size to allow close study of the terrain and troop deployments. "Viva Juarez!" provides the best available information for wargamers to refight these historical battles with miniatures using whichever rules they prefer. All engagements appear in chronological order, each with a description of the action, OB's, and at least one battlefield map. Other regional and state maps also appear to help orient the reader to where events occurred in Mexico. In order to help the reader keep the dramatis personae clear, a set of short biographies of many key personages is also provided to help distinguish their affiliations and achievements.Though aimed at the historical miniatures wargamer, the text is presented as straight and gripping history, accessible to any reader interested in the plans and actions of the generals, with an emphasis on the conditions the combatant soldiers faced in terrain that varied from parched desert to humid jungle. As single or paired volumes, "Viva Juarez!" has become the "go to" resource for this most dramatic of mid-Nineteenth Century Wars in the Americas.