Ignacio Comonfort Papers
Scope and Contents
Correspondence, orders and appointments, inventories and lists, financial documents, literary productions, legal documents, printed material, and miscellanea from Comonfort's political and military career. Among correspondence are found materials relating to the Mexican Legation in Spain (filed as G480 Ms.), drafts and copies from the military campaign of 1863 (G502 Ms., G503 Ms.), and letters exchanged by Comonfort with his daughters. Some inventories from the customs offices of Mazatlan and Acapulco are present in the collection (see G470 Ms. for the 1854 Acapulco inventory), as is a list of officers and soldiers who composed the army at Puebla in 1856 (G477 Ms.). Also included are documents relating to Comonfort's Masonic membership. Printed material includes a few proclamations from Comonfort's presidency. Comonfort Family papers include correspondence, documents pertaining to the exhumation and reinterment of Ignacio Comonfort, financial and legal documents (including the disposition of Comonfort's estate), certificates of birth and marriage, and printed material. Comonfort's appointment of Agapito Pozo as Promotor Fiscal del Tribunal de Circuito de Celaya is filed as G472 Ms.
The documents are in Spanish.
Dates
- Creation: 1821-1918
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1847-1863
Language of Materials
Spanish or Castilian.
Access Restrictions
Unrestricted.
Use Restrictions
Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Biographical Note
President of Mexico, general. Born 1812, died 1863. Positions held include: Artillery captain (1833); infantry colonel in the militia; colonel in the 1847 campaign of the Valle de Mexico; Administrador de la Aduana Maritima de Acapulco (1852); Administrador de la Aduana Maritima de Mazatlan; General de Brigada del Ejército Mexicano (1854); General en Gefe del Ejército Restaurador de la Libertad (1855); General de División de Ejército Mexicano (1855); Ministro de Guerra (Oct. 10-Dec. 10, 1855). Comonfort became Presidente Sustituto de la República (Dec. 11, 1855) when Presidente Interino Juan Alvarez left power, and was elected president of Mexico on July 13, 1857. His tenure as president included his 1856 victory at Puebla, for which he was declared a national hero on July 30, 1856, and the passage of the controversial Ley Lerdo. He was active in the creation of the 1857 Constitution of Mexico. Comonfort resigned the presidency on Jan. 21, 1858; in 1863 he was made General-in-Chief of the Army organized to resist the French Intervention. On Nov. 13, 1863, he was killed in a guerilla attack near San Juan de la Vega.
- 1833
- Capitán de la compañia de artilleria de la Guardia Nacional
- July 29, 1834
- Coronel de Infanteria de la milicia nacional de esta Capital
- June 1844
- “... concede retiro con solo goce de fuero y uso de Uniforme en la clase de Coronel de Infanteria de milicia activa al Teniente Coronel retirado de la propia arma Cuidano Ignacio Comonfort”
- Feb. 25, 1845
- Prefecto del Distrito de Tlapa
- August 29, 1846
- Prefecto Interino del Distrito de Cuautitlan
- Nov. 3, 1846
- Prefecto Proprietario del Distrito del Oeste de México
- Feb. 13, 1847
- Coronel del 2o Batallon del Estado, titulado “Guerrero,” de la Prefectura del Oeste de Méjico
- 1847
- Adjutant of the Army during the campaña del Valle de Méjico
- 1851
- Seems to have been acting as Administrador de la Aduana Maritima de Acapulco (per investigative reports; but his statement says he entered office Nov. 1852)
- Nov. 1852
- Administrador de la Aduana Maritima de Acapulco
- April 25, 1853
- nominated as Administrador de la Aduana Maritima de Mazatlan
- June 10, 1853
- confirmed as Administrador de la Aduana Maritima de Acapulco
- March 1854
- Investigated by Juzgado de Hacienda (de Acapulco) and found innocent of any wrongdoing during his service as Administrador de la Aduana Maritima de Acapulco. (Final signature dated March 1854).
- April 19-25, 1854
- Battle of Acapulco
- July 21, 1854
- General de Brigada del Ejército Mexicano
- Dec. 7, 1854
- Returned to Acapulco from exile in U.S.
- [1854]
- General in Chief of Michaocán
- July 15, 1855
- General en Gefe del Ejército Restaurador de la Libertad
- August 27, 1855
- General de División del Ejército Mexicano
- Oct. 10-Dec. 10, 1855
- Minister of War
- Nov. 16, 1855
- “... nombra General de Brigada del Ejército mexicano en revalidación, al Ciudano Coronel Ignacio Comonfort”; “revalidando el despacho de este empleo que le expedí como General en Gefe del Ejército restaurador de la Libertad, en 15Julio -1854.”
- Nov. 19, 1855
- Awarded Cruz del Valle de Méjico for service in 1847
- Nov. 30, 1855
- General de División del Ejército mexicano, “revalendandole el que le conferí como General en Gefe de Ejército Libertador”
- Dec. 11, 1855
- Presidente Sustituto de la Republica
- March 1856
- Victory at Puebla; General de División y en Gefe del Ejército de operaciones sobre Puebla
- April 14, 1856
- Awarded la Patriótica Condecoracion de la Paz
- July 30, 1856
- Decreed Benemérito de la Patria for March 1856 success at Puebla
- July 13, 1857
- Elected president of Mexico
- Jan. 21, 1858
- Resigned presidency
- 1858-1861
- Exile in the U.S.
- 1861
- Returned to Mexico
- 1863
- General-in-Chief of the Army organized to resist the French Intervention
- Nov. 13, 1863
- Killed in guerrilla attack near San Juan de la Vega, on the road from Querétaro to San Luis Potosí
Full Extent
2.5 linear feet
Abstract
Papers of Ignacio Comonfort, Mexican Army general and President of Mexico, 1855-1858, include military and official documents, correspondence, and family records.
Arrangement
The papers are organized in two subgroups:
- Juan Ignacio Comonfort
- Comonfort family
Series are according to format of material.
Acquisitions Information
The Ignacio Comonfort Papers, which form part of the Genaro García Collection, were purchased by the University of Texas in 1921 from the heirs of Genaro García.
Alternate Form Available
The papers are also available on microfilm.
Publications
- García, Genaro, 1867-1920 Documentos inéditos ó muy raros para la historia de México (volume 23) Mexico City: Vda. de C. Bouret, 1909.
Processing Information
The papers were described by the Benson Latin American Collection's Mexican Archives Project in December 1993.
Prepared by the Mexican Archives Project, November 1994.
Topical
- Comonfort, Ignacio, 1812-1863--Archives
- Mexico--Foreign relations--1821-1861--Sources
- Mexico--History, Military--Sources
- Mexico--History--1821-1861--Sources
- Mexico--History--European intervention, 1861-1867--Sources
- Mexico--Politics and government--1821-1861--Sources
- Mexico--Politics and government--1861-1867--Sources
- Presidents--Mexico
- Puebla (Mexico)--History--Sources
- Title
- Ignacio Comonfort:
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Subtitle
- An Inventory of His Papers at the Benson Latin American Collection
- Author
- Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection
- Date
- 2001
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- August 2, 2002: Edited with XMetaL3 by Bob Stewart according to instructions in Editing TARO EAD XML Finding Aids with XMetaL.
- Tue Jul 22 14:57:49 CDT 2003: urn:taro:utexas.blac.00011 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (20030505).
- 2020 March: Date normalization by Janette Nunez.
- 2021 April: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez to fix compliance check errors to prepare for the migration to new TARO website.
- 2021 November: Edited by Devon Murphy to update control access terms and formatting based on the TARO Control Access List.
- 2025 July: Revised by Ryan Sullivant to fix validation errors prior to ingestion into ArchivesSpace.
Repository Details
Part of the Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Repository
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578
bensonspecialcollections@austin.utexas.edu