the 1st Infantry Division of expeditionary corps to Mexico on 1 July 1862, his action was decisive during the siege of Puebla in 1863. He commanded with great distinction the First Division under General (afterwards Marshal) Forey in the Mexican expedition in 1862, where he pursued the war with great vigour and success, driving President Benito Juárez to the frontier. His decisive action was instrumental in the taking of the city of Puebla in 1863. As a consequence, he was cited and designated at the head of the expeditionary corps by replacing Élie Frédéric Forey. Amongst the citations he received for the battle of San Lorenzo was the title of Grand Cross of France's Legion of Honour. Bazaine, who had started as a Legionnaire, was elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France and Senator of the Second French Empire by Imperial decree on 5 September 1864. He commanded in person the siege of Oaxaca in February 1865, following which, the Emperor complimented him while decorating him with the Médaille militaire, on 28 April 1865. Here as in 1870, two of Bazaine's nephews, Adolphe and Albert Bazaine-Hayter served with their uncle as his aide-de-camp. Bazaine's African experience as a soldier and as an administrator stood him in good stead in dealing with the guerrilleros of the Juárez party, but he was less successful in his relations with Maximilian, with whose court the French headquarters was in constant strife. His first wife died while he was in Mexico. On 28 May 1865, While still in Mexico, Bazaine got engaged and married to Maria-Josefa Pedraza de la Peña y Barragán, a women who the media describe as belonging to "a respectable Mexican family, well connected with the Spanish aristocracy and had numerous friends in high places". Maximilian I of Mexico offered him the palace of Buena Vista. Opinion is divided on his actions. Some argued that he aimed to depose Maximilian and get the throne of Mexico for himself, or that he aspired to play the part of a Bernadotte. In a New York Times opinion piece:- His conduct in Mexico had been so unprincipled, so rascally in every respect, that it had been even a question at one time of trying him by court-martial. In a contrary New York Times opinion piece:- Marshal Bazaine has long rested under a cloud in his country on account of his connection with the invasion