General Sherman, returning home in 1866 from a diplomatic mission to Veracruz, on why he didn't go inland to Chihuahua to meet its president, Benito Juarez: "I have not the remotest idea of riding on mule back a thousand miles in Mexico to find its chief magistrate."pic.twitter.com/HGIutuEXco
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Juarez in 1866 was still at war with the French & their Austrian-imported Mexican emperor, Maximilian; as Sherman noted, Juarez was in Chihuahua "for no other possible purpose than to be where the devil himself cannot get at him."
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This turned out to be wise on Juarez' part; as soon as he moved further inland once his side started recapturing territory, the Mexican conservatives staged a daring raid from which he only narrowly escaped capture on horseback.
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The Mexican conservatives' plan was sound, but they had believed their own propaganda that Juarez did not know how to ride a horse (a serious defect in manhood, for a mid-19th century Mexican).
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Chernow covers some of this in his Grant bio. Jasper Ridley's book on Maximilian & Juarez is what I'm drawing on here.
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