Miguel Gregorio de la Luz Atenógenes Miramón y Tarelo, known as Miguel Miramón (29 September 1831 – 19 June 1867), was a Mexican conservative general who disputed the Mexican presidency with Benito Juárez at the age of 27 during the Reform War, serving between February 1859 and December 1860. He was the first Mexican president to be born after the Mexican War of Independence.
A cadet in military school at the beginning of the Mexican–American War, Miramón saw action at the Battle of Molino del Rey and the Battle of Chapultepec during the American invasion of Mexico City. After the triumph of the liberal Plan of Ayutla in 1855, Miramón participated in a series of conservative counter coups until his efforts merged with the wider Reform War led by conservative president Félix María Zuloaga. The first year of the war was marked by a series of conservative victories achieved by Miramón, leading the press to dub him "Young Maccabee". After a moderate faction of conservatives overthrew Zuloaga in an effort to reach a compromise with liberals, a conservative junta of representatives elected Miramón as president. Miramón led the conservatives for the rest of the war, leading two sieges against the liberal capital of Veracruz, where Benito Juárez maintained his role as president of the Second Federal Republic. The second siege failed after the United States Navy intercepted Miramón's naval forces, and liberal victories accumulated hereafter, ending the war in 1860. Miramón escaped the country and went into exile in Europe, where he was received at the Spanish court.