Happy Cinco de Mayo! On this day, 160 years ago, 6000 French troops set out to attack Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in east-central Mexico. Benito Juarez rounded up a rag-tag force of 2000 loyal men from the north, many of them indigenous Mexicans, and sent them to Puebla. Though vastly outnumbered and poorly supplied, the Mexican army held off the attack from daybreak to early evening, after which the French finally retreated. Five years later, France withdrew from Mexico.








