A wild man and his wild life

Napoleon III needed someone to help him pacify the troublesome Mexicans, and specifically the Juaristas, who were running rings around his formal army.  After careful thought, Napoleon III tapped 

Colonel Charles Louis Désiré Du Pin (1814-1868): soon to be known at the Red Devil!

Du Pin, his sombrero, and his cigar

For Du Pin, this opportunity came at the perfect time.  His wild living on booze, women and general carousing had become so expensive that he was scandalously required to put up for sale Chinese art treasures that he had personally looted from the Imperial Palace in Peking.

Debts paid, it was on to Mexico!

 Du Pin's enemy, partisans of Juarez, many of them local part timers rather than professional soldiers,  could be brutal and were making serious trouble for the Imperial forces.  Du Pin was not fazed.   Standing slightly outside the official army, he put out a call for volunteers .  He dressed for the part, with a dramatic sombrero, a bright red coat, yellow riding boots,  a chest of medals, pistol in his belt and a cigar between his teeth – J.E.B. Stuart had nothing on Du Pin – all very distinct, and apparently impressive to the dregs of the world who happened to be in Mexico at the time.    He enlisted 800 or so and managed to whip them into shape.  After training, he led them north into the Tierra Caliente, the hard, hot country, in search of Juaristas.

Du Pin was now in his element. Indifferent to standard operating procedure,  adored by his dubious band of brothers,  answering to no one but the commander in chief, more than willing to fight the enemy on their own terms, he was soon terrorizing the countryside.  Civilians suspected of enemy sympathies were hanged,  prisoners shot,  Juarist villages burned.

Du Pin was not alone in his excesses, but he was among the most notorious.  His reputation was such that he could enter towns and more or less ensure outward compliance by giving his set speech:

“I am Colonel Du Pin!  Obey me or die.  All resistance is futile.  You are acquainted with Du Pin?  Let me tell  you who I am.  I protect the good, but I have no patience for the bad.  I kill men, I rape women, I murder children, I destroy my enemies with fire, iron and blood – Mark well what I say to you!”

Eventually the stories reaching the Royal Palace got gruesome enough that Maximilian (for whom Du Pin showed no respect and whose humanity he held in contempt) sent him back to France with a list of his excesses.   Once again, Max under-estimated his opponent.  Du Pin was shameless before the tribunal, and succeeded in overawing them.  When asked why he had prisoners hanged by the neck, he said it was preferable to some he could mention who hanged men by their feet, and let thirst and the brutal Mexican sun kill them off slowly.

 Du Pin died in 1868, exhausted by hard living. Very hard living.