Ignacio Pesqueira García (1820–1886) was a 19th-century Mexican general and politician. He was the Governor of Sonora over six times, with two of the six terms being an insurgent governor during the Second French intervention in Mexico.
Childhood Ignacio Pesqueira was born to Mrs. Petra García de Pesqueira of Arizpe, Sonora. While a child, he was sent to Spain to stay with family in Seville, Spain where he attended school. Shortly after the death of Fernando VII, he participated in the First Carlist War along with his classmates, and actively supported the democratic movements that began in Andalusia. He later went to France to pursue a commercial career in Paris. He returned from Europe at the early age of 18, finding Mexico divided between the Conservatives and Liberals.
Beginnings in his Careers Beginning of his Military Career Pesqueira began his military career in the Texas Revolution under General José de Urrea and participated in campaigns against the indigenous people of the north of Mexico, where he attracted the attention of the state government. In 1851, he was wounded by the Apaches while at Pozo Hediondo. He was later appointed Colonel Inspector of the National Guards on the Border.
Beginning of his Political Career Known for the liberalism of his principles and his pure patriotism, he was elected as the Deputy to the State Legislature. When the Ayutla Revolution broke out in 1854 at Guerrero and against the dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna, he again joined the liberal army.
First Governorship In 1856, an armed uprising was carried out commanded by Don Manuel Dávila in Ures against José de Aguilar Domínguez while Pesqueira was the Colonel Inspector of the National Guards as well as First Member and President of the Government Council. He was given these offices by the Organic Statute of Sonora in force in 1856. When the forces commanded by Manuel Dávila, supported by supporters of Manuel María Gándara's Gandarista party, they appointed Ramón Encinas as governor. Pesqueira then assumed the Governorship and gathered forces to fight the usurpers, being able then in that same year to return the governorship to José de Aguilar Domínguez.El gobernador Pesqueira, reseña histórica del estado de Sonora por don Ramón Corral (de 1856 a 1877), p. 3-4
Crabb Massacre Henry A. Crabb organized and carried out an expedition to Altar at the invitation of Pesqueira himself. Although the expedition was unsuccessful, there were accusations that Pesqueira motivated Crabb to come to Sonora, to support him against Gándara's supporters. When Pesqueira was criticized for trying to use US citizens in military actions, Pesqueira ordered their expulsion, the Americans refused and they were defeated at Caborca. By order of Pesqueira himself, 87 prisoners including Crabb were executed by firing squad, in an incident known as the Crabb massacre.
Plan of Tacubaya and the Reform War He held the position of president of the Government Council, after occupying the state capital, fighting General Francisco Borunda in Guaymas as well as appeasing the Yaquis and fighting at the Filibuster War. He returned the governorship of Sonora to José de Aguilar Domínguez who rejected it because of his illnesses. In the renewal of State Powers, Pesqueira was elected proprietary governor in 1857 to the great joy of his supporters.El gobernador Pesqueira, reseña histórica del estado de Sonora por don Ramón Corral (de 1856 a 1877), p. 6
After Ignacio Comonfort announced the Plan of Tacubaya, trying to cancel the 1857 Mexican Constitution, he adopted the ideals of Benito Juárez who at that time was the incarnation of Law and the legitimate president of the country. Pesqueira spontaneously and decisively joined him in defending the Constitution, vigorously attacked by the old army in consortium with the clerical side.
This allowed him to be recognized as a defender of the ideas of the 1857 Constitution and kept him as governor of Sonora during the Reform War. In addition to having suppressed a rebellion by Manuel María Gándara, he controlled the attacks of the rebellious tribes of Yaquis and Mayos and the . In 1858, José María Yáñez, Governor of Sinaloa, proclaimed his adherence to the Plan of Tacubaya and Pesqueira began a front between Sonora against Sinaloa.El gobernador Pesqueira, reseña histórica del estado de Sonora por don Ramón Corral (de 1856 a 1877), p. 10-12
War against Sinaloa On April 3, 1859, together with Plácido Vega Daza, he captured the port of Mazatlán after a battle that was bloody and hard-fought. Pesqueira attended with his investiture as Constitutional Governor of Sonora, and he was given the title of Provisional Governor of Sinaloa and General in Chief of the forces of both states and the Baja California Territory. His plan was to continue to Jalisco, but he gave up since his presence was required in Sonora.
Guaymas Incident Before continuing in the Reform War, in 1858, after a diplomatic conflict that varied in scale, the then American consul in Guaymas, Don Roberto Rose, had to leave the port, illegally appointing a vice-consul Fawelly Allden while the Sonoran authorities weren't informed about this. The commander of the , of the United States Navy, Commander W. O. Porter, demanded that the vice-consul be recognized but Pesqueira disagreed and demanded that Charles Pomeroy Stone be re-admitted to finish the demarcation of the lands of Guaymas, as well as the release of his Commander in Chief Richard S. Ewell. He also demanded the return of a mule that had been stolen from him and that if he didn't follow through all these demands, he would land troops in Guaymas. As Ignacio Pesqueira and a handful of men began to mobilize and the Americans vice-versa, a letter from Richard S. Ewell and a last-minute decision settled matters between both countries.
Indigenous uprisings By 1860, he was once again in Sonora as he was forced by political and military events that demanded his presence, since his enemies had launched the indigenous tribes made up of the Yaquis, Mayos, Apaches, and Opatas into revolt and robbery. After appeasing the Apaches in the north of the state, he needed help in the south so he personally sought to appease the Yaquis who had taken up arms again, at a point called "Las Guásimas" in Guaymas. They escaped from being captured by their rivals, being saved by the old soldier Don José Montijo, who climbed him on his horse already wounded and with many difficulties. After that incident, he couldn't end the same with the Yaqui revolution because there were remnants of the Opata uprisings of Refugio Tánori, which he had to fight.
At the beginning of 1861, tired of the revolts, he traveled again to Guaymas to the town of Tórim which was the epicenter of the Yaqui uprising, asking José Escalante y Moreno to take charge of the government. He then carried out several assaults and had quite a few successes, being able to suppress the Yaqui uprisings to a certain extent.
Estébez's attack on Sonora In 1861 Colonel Estébez from El Fuerte, Sinaloa attacked the city of Álamos proclaiming the Plan of Tacubaya again, although this movement was not supported by the government of Sinaloa. Pesqueira was expecting him to enter the city of Hermosillo and after a battle in the city, Pesqueira defeats and ends any further invasions of Sonora in the war.
Second French Intervention in Mexico Sonora, despite the immense distance from the theater where the initial events of the Second French intervention in Mexico took place, didn't want to participate without the honor of being represented in the Mexican Republican Army that was preparing to fight. Pesqueira organized a contingent of a thousand men between two divisions, embarking in Guaymas in July 1862 to continue towards Mazatlán and from there join forces with the governor of Sinaloa bound for Mexico City.
Disaster of La Pasión In 1865, during the French Intervention and the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire, after the end of March of that year, the French troops under the command of General Armand Alexandre de Castagny attacked the port of Guaymas and the Republican soldiers commanded by the General Ignacio Pesqueira and General Patoni had to withdraw to a place known as the Valley of La Pasión, north of San José de Guaymas. There, one of the strangest actions of the confrontation between French and Mexicans took place.
Indeed, in May 1865, a party of only fifty French horsemen under the command of Colonel Isidoro Teódulo Garnier unexpectedly attacked the Mexican camp in which there were more than a thousand Republican soldiers under the command of Pesqueira and García Morales, sowing confusion and even the panic among those Sonoran troops that began a shameful rout. This action is known in the history of Sonora as "The Disaster of La Pasión".
Pro-Imperial Mexican Uprisings The Disaster of La Pasión caused the uprisings to begin throughout the state in favor of the Empire with the indigenous rising up first and followed by uprisings in main cities. Pesqueira managed to gather troops in Hermosillo but without financing, he had to go further into the state He then relocated to Ures, being attacked and defeated by pro-Imperialist forces and having to move to Tubac, Arizona.
The Return to Sonora and the Fight Against the Empire At the beginning of 1866, General Don Ángel Martínez took the city of Álamos. This army, together with the news of some victories by García Morales, favored Pesqueira's return from exile. By the middle of 1866, Martínez, Pesqueira and García Morales, had had some victories in the state. Once restored, he returns to the fight and on September 4, 1866, defeated Edvard Emile Langberg at the Battle of Guadalupe and put an end to foreign intervention in Sonora.
1867 Governorship President Benito Juárez issued on August 24, 1867, for the call for elections of public officials in the country and by virtue of it. On September 27, Governor Pesqueira called for elections of State Powers, which took place in October.
The third constitutional Congress of the state was installed on November 28 and declared Pesqueira governor of Sonora and substitute for General Jesús García Morales. By virtue of this declaration, the first granted the protest on December 1 and continued in the exercise of power, already covered by the constitutional character.
Revolution de los Ríos Pesqueira resigned as governor to deal with another uprising of the Yaqui and Mayo peoples who, at the end of 1867, dissatisfied with the federal victory against the French, took up arms thinking that the Mexican Empire would return. The uprising of the Yaqui and Mayo tribes took their rebellion very seriously as the rebels in Bácum killed the Military Commander that the government had appointed to ensure civility. The Yaquis penetrated the Mayo River. In December, they attacked and knifed a garrison that was in Santa Cruz, murdering the indigenous chief Matías and fourteen others of his tribe.
After some victories, in May 1868 the Revolution de los Ríos was believed to have ended, and the Military Commander, General Jesús García Morales, ordered the forces that were campaigning to withdraw in June. However, as soon as they had withdrawn, the Mayos, on July 5, attacked the town of Etchojoa, killing 18 people as well as the Apaches continued fighting in Northern Sonora.
The Retreat By 1868, Pesqueira, already tired and wanting to attend to his personal business, retired from politics and left Manuel Monteverde Díaz in command, although on December 20 of that same year he had to take over the governorship again after several floods and disasters occurred in Álamos.
State elections of 1869