8. Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered a military burial for his amputated leg.
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was Mexican president 11 times in the violent period following Mexico’s independence from Spain. Essentially a military dictator, Santa Anna saw himself as the “Napoleon of the West,” leading his troops into battle himself much like his French hero. In 1838, this determination to lead from the front led to a French canon wounding the General in the leg so severely that doctors were forced to amputate. Santa Anna initially buried his lost leg at his home. However, when he resumed the Presidency in 1842, he had the limb exhumed. The appendage was paraded through Mexico City in a funeral coach before Santa Anna buried it with full military honors and a monument.