Battle of Cepeda (1820)

The battle of Cepeda was a military confrontation that occurred on February 1, 1820, in the context of the Argentine civil wars. It was the first of two carried out in the Buenos Aires canyon of the Cepeda stream (a tributary of the Arroyo del Medio stream that divides the provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe), about 5 km east of the town of Mariano Benítez (north of the province of Buenos Aires).

In it, the Unitarians and the Federals clashed. The first headed by the Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, José Rondeau, and the second by the leaders and governors of Santa Fe, Estanislao López, and Entre Ríos, Francisco Ramírez; the latter were also lieutenants of José Gervasio Artigas and were supported by the exiled Chilean leader, José Miguel Carrera.

It was a very brief fight, which is why it was dubbed the Ten Minute Battle, and it ended in a complete Federal victory. Among its consequences were the dissolution of the Directory and the National Congress, and the beginning of the Anarchy of the Year XX, where the provincial autonomies arose. Since then, the country has been made up of thirteen autonomous provinces.

Background

There was great discontent in the interior provinces with Buenos Aires and its port, which had governed the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata that emerged from the May Revolution, without taking their will into account. The main demand of the Federal Party leaders was that each province govern itself, and together they form a federation.

Finally, the insurrections against the government of the Directorio (central government) of Buenos Aires began in 1814, under the command of the leader of the Banda Oriental, José Gervasio Artigas. These rebellions spread to several provinces to form the Federal League, although it never came to be understood as a central government. By 1816, the coastal provinces of Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, Corrientes and Misiones joined the Banda Oriental, acting independently of the Directory. For several years Santa Fe and Entre Ríos suffered several invasions from the Buenos Aires government, but the situation did not change. These revolts interrupted the Directory's plans regarding the Argentine war of independence against the royalists by taking away important forces from both the Auxiliary Army of Peru and the Army of the Andes.

The king of Portugal, who resided in Brazil, took advantage of the internal conflicts to annex the Banda Oriental (present-day Uruguay) to his territory, invading it at the beginning of 1817 and occupying its capital, Montevideo. The Buenos Aires government made no serious effort to defend Artigas, who accused them of supporting the Luso-Brazilian invasion.

On May 25, 1819, the National Congress, meeting in Buenos Aires, sanctioned the Argentine Constitution of 1819 that granted broad powers to the central government and restricted the autonomy of the provinces to make decisions about their own affairs. In response, Artigas and the other caudillos agreed to stop negotiating with the Directory and attack the capital. By order of the eastern leader, the Entre Ríos forces moved to Santa Fe, and from there they marched on Buenos Aires. During the time elapsed between the sanction of the Constitution and the battle of Cepeda, the provinces of Tucumán and Cuyo were separated from the central government, and Salta was a kind of independent ally of the Directory.

Confronting forces

Feds

The federal army was made up of 600 to 700 Enterrians under the command of Ramírez, 500 to 600 Santa Fe de López (formed on the basis of his Guardia de Dragones) and 300 to 400 Correntinos and Guaraníes, the latter were organized into a squadron under the command of the Irish captain Pedro Campbell. Ramírez's contingent included an escort of foreign adventurers such as José Miguel Carrera. Manuel Aldao, former chief of arms of Santa Fe. Both Chaco tribes, since 1816, in exchange for warriors obtained permission to found a colony near the Purificación camp. However, Ricardo Levene raises the figure to 3,000. Instead, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna reduces them to 1,000.

Unitary

The unitary army included the Aguerridos battalion and 3rd of the Civic Tercios, the latter made up mainly of blacks. His cavalry were originally the Dragones de la Patria, softy and volunteers from the border who were joined during the march by militias from the province in Arroyo del Medio, brought by General Rodríguez and Colonel Perdriel; they also had an artillery battery. Bartolomé Miter estimates them at 1,000 cavalry and 800 to 900 infantry.

In contrast, Vicuña Mackenna raises them to 3,000.

Battle

On January 8, 1820, the Arequito mutiny took place, in which the Army of the North, called by the Supreme Director José Rondeau to help him, revolted so as not to be forced to fight in a civil war. Regardless, Rondeau engaged the Federals with the garrison of the capital. Apparently, he had the advantage in his favor that the federal army was composed entirely of cavalry.

The Buenos Aires forces moved quickly and invaded the province of Santa Fe before the federales reached Buenos Aires. Rondeau occupied the southern edge of the marsh known as Cañada de Cepeda , and waited there for his enemies. Rondeau formed his army in a classic arrangement, with the cavalry on the flanks and the infantry and artillery in the center; protecting his back was the long formation of wagons. A very difficult position to break if the enemy attacked from the front. But in the middle of the plain, the federals were not obliged to do so, precisely because their troops were purely cavalry.

On the federal side, López was the governor of the province in which the fighting was taking place, but he apparently left command of battle operations to Ramírez. The man from Santa Fe was an expert in guerrilla actions, but the man from Entre Ríos had shown himself to be very capable in battle.

At 8:30 a.m., the federal chiefs galloped across the Cañada de Cepeda, surrounded the device and got behind it. They immediately attacked the cavalry, while the infantry tried to peek between the wagons and the guns were still pointed the other way. The battle lasted approximately ten minutes, and the flight of the unitary cavalry dragged Rondeau away. The infantrymen formed two defensive squares and rejected several charges for three hours. The rest of the army (almost a thousand men) had to withdraw towards San Nicolás de los Arroyos (on the banks of the Paraná River, 60 km away) and embark back to Buenos Aires, led by General Juan Ramón Balcarce.

Consequences

Immediately after the battle, the entire north of the territory of Buenos Aires was invaded by the caudillos, who arrived in a few days in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Once the victory of the federals was known, the chief of the Buenos Aires field army, Miguel Estanislao Soler, along with all the other officers that comprised it, demanded the dissolution of the National Congress and the deposition of the Supreme Director as the only way to achieve peace..

Congress met for the last time under the presidency of Dr. José Miguel Díaz Vélez and decided to dissolve it, stating its representatives that: «...they yield to the injunction issued to them, understanding that in this the signatories of the same They act authoritatively. For his part, on February 11, Rondeau resigned from his position before the Buenos Aires City Council, indicating that he did so: "Wishing to tend to the good of my fellow citizens as soon as I am on my side and not wanting to be an obstacle to the return of peace." To reign in the country, I deposit the supreme direction of the State that I have carried out up to now in the hands of Your Excellency». In this way the national authorities were dissolved. The Cabildo exercised the government of Buenos Aires until a Governor and Captain General were appointed.

The succession of power in Buenos Aires was framed by provisional governments. The first autonomous governor, Manuel de Sarratea, ascended to power with the protection of the federales, signed the Treaty of Pilar with them. By the same, the province recognized to the others the right to give themselves their own government and considered extinct the National Congress. But anarchy continued in the capital until in September when Martín Rodríguez was appointed governor. The stability and progress of his government was achieved at the cost of isolating the province from the rest of the country.

Meanwhile, the provinces governed themselves as autonomous entities in the manner of a confederation, beyond the powerful influences of some caudillos, who ruled over coalitions of several provinces. Despite several ephemeral efforts to reunify the country, among which the presidency of Bernardino Rivadavia from 1826 to 1827 stands out, Argentina was not unified again until after the fall of the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas., and the rapid approval of the Argentine Constitution of 1853. Buenos Aires was only definitively united in 1861.