sion, in 1847 General Don Antonio L�pez de Santa Anna attempted to defeat the opposing forces at a site near Xalapa in the Battle of Cerro Gordo with an army of more than 12,000 soldiers. Mexican troops suffered many casualties, killing around 1,000 and seriously injuring 3,000 and on 18 April 1847, a bloody defeat resulted in the invaders occupying the city the following day.
Patriotism against the invaders prevailed, and Xalape�os such as Ambrosio Alcalde and Antonio Garc�a fought bravely in the defense of the city of Veracruz, but were taken prisoner by the enemy. Released, after promising not to again take arms against the North American invaders, they rejoined the fight against them only to be recaptured this time near Teocelo. They were subsequently taken to Xalapa to be sentenced to death and executed on 24 November 1847. Today these two men are remembered as martyrs for preferring to die than see the enemy take their country. A monument, taking the form of an obelisk marks the event between San Jose Church and Alcalde Market, named after Ambrosio Alcalde. The North Americans were eventually driven out. Xalapa was once again attacked in November 1862 during the French invasion, when they temporarily took control of the state capital.
On 27 November 1867 the corpse of the emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, who had been executed in Quer�taro, arrived at Xalapa, being deposited firstly in the neighborhood of San Jose and attended to by the priest Jos� Mar�a y Daza, before being transferred to Veracruz the following day and then shipped back to Austria to be buried. In 1885 General Juan de la Luz Enr�quez, increased the power of Xalapa by moving some legislative authority from Orizaba to Xalapa, in accordance with the decree issued in June 1884 by the provisional Governor Jose Manuel Jauregui. General Enr�quez, in coordination with the Swiss teacher Enrique C. R�bsamen, then founded the Normal School in Xalapa, the first school of this type in the
