Photo Credit: Jewish Press
Napoleon’s proposal was rejected because, with French troops on Mexican soil, his entire pitch was seen as a scheme to gain access to cotton-rich lands in the Gulf of Mexico. Moreover, the point had already became essentially moot when Confederate Army Commander Robert E. Lee’s September 17, 1862 Antietam invasion resulted in a defeat for the Confederacy. As a result, it became obvious to England and Europe that no conclusive Confederate triumph could be anticipated, and Napoleon’s Armistice plan was, in the contemporary vernacular, “dead on arrival.”
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