Mariano Escobedo to The surrender took place on the 15th. A letter from San Luis, dated the 18th, says, “No one has yet been shot, and it is generally thought that none will be, in consequence of a request that has been made by the United States.” The whole number of prisoners taken with Maximilian was about 7,000 men, May 15, 1867

Escobedo’s proclamation.

Mariano Escobedo, general of division of the republic of Mexico and in chief of the army of the north, and commanding the troops operating upon Queretaro.

Soldiers: To your valor, constancy, and sufferings the republic is indebted for one of its triumphs, the grandest obtained in the long struggle which the nation has had with the invaders and their accomplice. The rebel city of Queretaro, the strongest fort of the empire, after a heroic resistance of two months, worthy of a better cause, has succumbed. Fernando Maximilian, the so-called emperor, Miramon, Mejia, Castillo, and a large number of generals, chiefs, and officers, with all the garrison, are our prisoners. I would fail to do my duty as a soldier, and be a traitor to my conscience as a free man and a loyal Mexican, if I remained silent upon the heroic deeds and more heroic sacrifices. With the faith of the soldier who defends the independence of his country, without food and often without a single cartridge, you have challenged death, fighting unceasingly against a large number of troops, composed of traitors and foreigners, who were provided with all the elements of war, perfectly fortified and commanded by the best generals of the old army, who unfortunately failed to do their duty by allying themselves with the invaders, and sustaining to the last hour the foreigner that another foreigner, the Emperor of the French, wished to place upon a throne erected with the bayonets of his soldiers. But these, alas! exist no more. The rest have fled to France to hide their shame, loaded with the curses of the whole country, and carrying the sad news that more than half their comrades have paid with their blood the caprice of their master.

Companions in arms, it is of no importance that ambitious men have, at the price of their conscience, misrepresented your deeds. The truthful history will place each one in his respective place, and neither the enemies of the republic, nor those who have remained quiet at homes in the cities occupied by the invaders, contemplating their disgrace with indifference, will exalt themselves over those who, like you, have fought constantly and without rest for the sacred principles of independence and liberty.

Soldiers, in the name of the republic and the supreme government, I congratulate you with all the effusion of my soul, and consequent with the programme which has been traced to me, we will continue until we have secured peace and order, and with it the future destiny of our country.

Long live the republic! Long live the national independence!