De Regules to Señor Don Benito Juarez, March 7, 1866

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Sir: By virtue of instructions from the government, through its commissioner, Don Pablo Haro, I was appointed chief of the republican army of the centre on the 27th day of last February. Feeling myself unqualified to fill the position in which I had been placed, without deserving it, I accepted it only to do my duty to the supreme government.

My first efforts will be to organize forces and regulate taxes, believing these to be my most important duties at first, because the want of arms is general in the State, and, in fact, all munitions of war are scarce. I believe the task will be hard, but I am determined to begin with the towns in Guanajuato, and in the first and second districts of Mexico; and for that purpose I have applied to many friends in those places who have always been faithful to the cause of liberty. I have urged them to help us, and I think they will, for the greatest crime a republican can commit is to kneel to a feeble tyrant, so easy to be overturned; and I told them so. The invitation I made them involves a kind of accusation, but they are good patriots.

I am sure that while the enemy’s attention is attracted to places already in insurrection, I will be able to hoist the standard of liberty in my district, and maintain a defensive till other States can organize to aid me.

The people of Michoacan have suffered immensely; they have not ceased to fight the invader since he first desecrated their soil, using every lawful means. This shows they are not wanting in patriotism, even in their greatest troubles, and, with a little aid, they would soon replant the banner of liberty in the heroic land. If the government will furnish them with arms and pecuniary resources, this will be accomplished in less than two months, I can assure you.

On the 20th of February last my first division and part of the second had an encounter with the column of the traitor Ramon Mendez, of 2,500 men. The fight occurred on the Magdalen Heights, near this city. Our force was 1,500 men, poorly armed and equipped, and without artillery; while the enemy had all the conveniences of warfare. They lost one cannon, all their ammunition, baggage, a large sum of money, and half of their forces. Our loss also was considerable. I am now hunting our scattered men and picking up the arms, &c., left by the enemy. They took a few prisoners from us, but we captured a large number of their infantry, with good muskets and bayonets.

On the 23d of April last I applied to the government for honorary decorations for my brave chiefs, officers, and soldiers who took the town of Codallos, defended by 350 Belgians and 50 traitors. It was not simply on account of the fact of taking the place that I asked the reward of honor, but on account of the peculiar circumstances under which it was done. From the 8th of April to the 11th my forces marched sixty leagues to assault Codallos, at six o’clock in the morning of that day. We fought six hours and exhausted all the ammunition; not a cartridge was left, but my braves charged bayonet, and gained a complete victory. The chiefs and officers who fell on that day deserve the attention of the government, and I will send a list of their names to the proper department that they may be remembered.

If the government is pleased to accord to my soldiers the reward I ask, I hope you will communicate its orders to me, and accept my sincere gratitude, with protests of respect and consideration.