Their plan was to offer their services to Emperor Maximilian as a 'foreign legion.' Maximilian declined to accept the ex-Confederates into his armed forces, but he did grant them land for an American colony in Mexico near Veracruz. Organized as a great troop train of 1,000 men, Edwards and the other cavalry made a defiant portrait as they rode south with the Union Army hot on their heels. Once again Edwards's network and what remained of the Confederate Secret Service managed a remarkable feat in disguising the troop and providing it with supplies in its long march. Additionally, they had already managed to negotiate the purchase of hundreds of thousands of acres around Veracruz Mexico to which the Shelby and other Confederate army exiles would regroup.