Battle of Chacabuco
The battle of Chacabuco was a decisive contest for the independence of Chile in which the Army of the Andes fought, made up of troops from the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and Chilean exiles in Mendoza, and the Royalist Army, resulting in a firm victory for the independence side commanded by General José de San Martín. The battle took place on February 12, 1817, at the Chacabuco (Hill) hacienda, 55 km north of the city of Santiago.
Background
After the Rancagua disaster, which caused the end of the Patria Vieja, the Chilean exiles moved to Cuyo, where they placed themselves under the orders of General José de San Martín, governor of the province, who had developed a plan to defeat the royalists by attacking the Viceroyalty of Peru by sea from Chile. The royalist occupation of Chile forced him to first liberate that country.
Chileans Bernardo O'Higgins and Ramón Freire helped organize and train the so-called Army of the Andes.
San Martín freed the black slaves whenever they enlisted in the troops, and incorporated the Chilean patriots who followed O'Higgins (since there was no properly Chilean army, becoming an integral part of the liberation army) and those Carrera soldiers who were willing to serve under their banners.
Between Chileans and Argentines, the army had around 4,000 perfectly armed and disciplined men.
After crossing the Andes, the patriotic forces led by San Martín marched down the western slope of the massif, taking with them artillery pieces, food, and clothing.
Due to the dispersion of his forces (estimated in April 1817 at 4,317 men), Francisco Casimiro Marcó del Pont found it very difficult to gather an army, which would eventually number 1,500 men. Their morale was not the best, since they were poorly paid and the ranks they had earned in the reconquest campaign under the command of Mariano Osorio had not been recognized.
Order of Battle
Patriot Forces
 Army of the Andes Army General Staff
 José de San Martín. Field assistants:
|
O'Higgins Division Commander
 Bernardo O'Higgins. Infantry
Cavalry3 squadrons from Granaderos to Caballo
Artillery
|
Soler Division Commander
 Miguel Estanislao Soler. Infantry
Cavalry
Artillery
|
Realistic Forces
Royal Army of Chile _-_Common_Version_of_the_Colours.svg) Commander-in-Chief
 Rafael Maroto. Officer
Units and Commanders
|
Battle
After meeting on February 9 at the Campamento de Curimón, the columns that crossed the Andes by "camino de Los Patos" along with those who crossed the "Uspallata road", it was decided to attack at dawn on the 12th. In order to use a pincer tactic from the front and rear, the available troops were divided in two:
- 1.a Division or right wing the command of Miguel Estanislao Soler who had to attack in the west, was composed of battalions No. 1 of Hunters and No11, the companies of Granaderos and Hunters of the Battalions No. 7 and No. 8, the squadron No. 4 of Granaderos, the squadron escort of the general in chief and 7 artillery pieces of 4" with 80 fittings. Ascend the total of this column to 2000 men.
- 2.a Division or left the command of Bernardo O'Higgins was to attack on the east; it was formed by the rifle companies of battalions 7 and 8, the remaining squadrons 1.o, 2.o and 3.o of Granaderos on horseback and 2 pieces of artillery (which would lose in the parade) of 4" with the rest of the artillery battalion. Ascend the total of this column to 1500 men.
While Soler surrounded the royalists along the Montenegro road, smoother but much longer, O'Higgins did it along Cuesta Vieja, shorter but steeper and much more dangerous, heading in two columns, and facing the royalist advance until he found himself face to face with the bulk of the royalist army, for which he decided to advance towards the Los Halcones hill and deploy his forces there, while dispatching a messenger to report the situation to General San Martin.
The royalist forces, inferior in number, were made up of the Talavera battalion, of peninsular soldiers, plus two others coming mainly from Chiloé and Valdivia. Initially, Maroto, aware of the weakness of his troops, had managed to get the governor to support the idea of withdrawing to the Maule and joining his forces with those of Concepción to present battle against San Martín. But Marco del Pont quickly changed his mind and ordered him to prevent the Republicans from advancing on Santiago. The royalist general chose the slope of Chacabuco as a defensive position, hoping to stop the patriots while reinforcements arrived from the south. However, in a reconnaissance carried out on the 12th, Maroto noted that the slope was occupied by the patriots, and unable After taking it, he had to choose between retreating to Colina or defending the positions where his army was, in front of Cerro de Victoria, near the Hacienda de Chacabuco. He opted for the latter, which allowed San Martín to surround him with his most numerous forces.
Movements and development
San Martín's plan was for O'Higgins to attack from the east, Soler from the west and San Martín head on. Arrival of the battle O'Higgins despairs when he does not receive orders from San Martín and begins the attack; when San Martín realizes this he sends a messenger for Soler to start the attack. There was no time until Soler attacked and San Martín decided to go in front along with O'Higgins, until then a division of Soler's forwards arrived, completely encircling the left flank and back, and destroying the rear. royalist, thus consolidating an overwhelming victory in favor of the patriots. The battle ended at 2:00 p.m. Maroto's surprising advance completely changed the landscape. Now O'Higgins, without Soler's help, would have to fight with the totality of the royalist forces or regress to certain catastrophe. O'Higgins, upon receiving no response to this situation at 11:45 and contravening the orders of San Martín not to commit fire, advised by Crámer, (Napoleon's former officer), ordered the infantry to bayonet charge, organizing two attack columns, following the Napoleonic model and launching them on the enemy right wing (Talavera Battalion) supported by the cavalry of Colonel José Matías Zapiola, but the grenadiers ran into the deep bed of Las Margaritas, which they had not seen, being unable to pass in attack formation and fell back after a volley of enemy fire, without suffering many casualties, to the Cerro de los Halcones, where they reorganized. Again O'Higgins and Cramer launched the assault, now directing the cavalry against the right flank and the infantry against the center. A cavalry platoon broke the realistic line between the extreme left of Talavera and the right of the bulk of the Chiloé battalion, overwhelming the artillerymen. The infantry, already almost victorious, came to the aid of the cavalry. Zapiola, after breaking the square formed by the Talaveras, surpassed the royalist right wing and a second charge on the enemy infantry and cavalry caused the dispersion. The remains of the royalist army fled in disarray towards the houses of Chacabuco a few kilometers away, leaving a third of their troops in the field. In the middle of the battle, San Martín calls Osorio, the Royalist General, to take out his wounded from the battle, thus giving San Martín an example of campaigning with the lowest possible cost of blood.
In twenty-four days we have campaigned; we passed the highest mountain range of the globe, finished with the tyrants and gave freedom to Chile.José de San Martín
Battle report of José de San Martín
Shortly after the battle ended, General San Martín addressed the official report to the Argentine Supreme Director Juan Martín de Pueyrredón:
His Excellency:A division of a thousand eight hundred men of the Chilean army has just been destroyed in the Chacabuco's plains by the army of my command in the afternoon of today. Six hundred prisoners among them thirty officers, four hundred and fifty dead and a flag that I have the honor to direct is the result of this happy day with more than a thousand rifles and two cannons. The premura of time does not allow me to extend myself in details, which I will send as short as in the meantime, I must say to V.E., that there are no expressions like pondering Bravura of these troops: our loss does not reach a hundred men.
His supreme director of the State.
I am highly recognized for the brilliant conduct, value and knowledge of lords brigadieres don Miguel Soler and don Bernardo O’Higgins.
God save V.E. many years. Chacabuco's headquarters on the battlefield, and February 12, 1817.José de San Martín
There were 12 dead patriots and 120 wounded, while the royalists suffered 500 dead, leaving 32 officers and 600 soldiers prisoners. The flag of the Chiloé Regiment was captured, along with approximately a thousand rifles, two artillery pieces, six swords, 16 boxes of ammunition, two barrels of gunpowder, four bundles of clothing, about thirty luggage and correspondence. However, San Martín made the mistake of not pursuing the defeated royalists, giving 1,600 soldiers the opportunity to re-embark to Peru, who would be the base of Mariano Osorio's expedition in the following one. Otherwise, several historians estimate Chacabuco would have been the decisive battle for independence and the expedition to Peru would not have been delayed three years.
On February 16, the victory was announced in Mendoza and on February 24 at 9:00 a.m. he arrived in Buenos Aires in a document sent on behalf of the governor of Cuyo Toribio de Luzuriaga. On February 26, Sergeant Major Manuel Escalada arrived in Buenos Aires carrying the official report of San Martín and the flag taken from the royalists. One day before Escalada's arrival, the director Pueyrredón - having informed of the army's victory through Luzuriaga - sent San Martín the following communication:
“Gloria al restaurador de Chile! Yes, my dear friend, fortune has favored the heroic efforts of you and America will never forget the brave company of you about Chile, defeating nature in its greatest difficulties. You overcome and I rejoice with you and embrace you with all tenderness of my recognized soul to your services. Yesterday was a day of madness for this great town. I have no time to express to you the terms with which the feeling of public rejoicing has been explained for the victory of Chacabuco, whose news came to nine in the morning by fold dispatched with Luzuriaga. It was 11 o'clock at night and there was still a deaf noise of living in the whole city. The fortress and six ships from our navy saved three times. Scald that leads the folds has not arrived and has its impatient delay because I want to impose on some details of the action. What I know about Luzuriaga is that you with two squadrons of grenadiers had to get into enemy lines. Of this unfaithful, or that the thing was in a hurry, or that you did not have the chief of cavalry of confidence, because in any other case I would accuse you of the risk in which it was put. You tell me with the frankness that owes what was in this; while I remain in the most serious care with the news that also gives me Luzuriaga, that as a result of the personal fatigue that you took in the action was very afflicted from your chest. For God's sake, take care of yourself, because your life and your health are of extraordinary interest to the country and your friends.”
Consequences
It was such a feeling that this misfortune produced among the scattered royal troops, that the next day the capital was abandoned without more thought than that of going to Valparaiso, each as it could, and embarking towards Lima, increasing the disorder and terror of the families who rushed to win a ship because they believed themselves compromised. Consequently, General Marcó of the Pont, many chiefs and officers, the main authorities and most of the troops fell into the power of the victors, who without further resistance invaded the entire country to the ends of the faithful province of Concepción de Penco. The impartiality demands that the early organization of an army in Mendoza with the difficulties offered by the country, the plan of the invasion of Chile and its understood execution recommend the merit of San Martín...Spanish General Andrés García Camba
The assembly met under the presidency of Governor Don Francisco Ruiz-Tagle, temporarily elected by the people at the time of the escape of Marcó del Pont, those present declared by acclamation that the unanimous will was to appoint Don José de San Martín Governor of Chile with all-encompassing power, and so they recorded in the minutes that were drawn up and all signed before a notary public. The general, faithful to his instructions and his political plan, refused to accept the command that was offered to him, and convened through the Cabildo a new popular assembly attended by 210 notable residents. The auditor of the Army of the Andes, Dr. Bernardo de Vera y Pintado, publicly reiterated San Martín's resignation, and General O'Higgins, Supreme Director of the State of Chile, was immediately acclaimed, declaring Vera that the election was to his liking. of General San Martin. The new Director appointed Mr. Miguel Zañartu, a complete character and determined supporter of the Chilean-Argentine alliance, as Minister of the Interior, and in the Department of War and Navy Lieutenant Colonel Mr. José Ignacio Zenteno, Secretary of San Martín. His first act of government, on February 17, 1817, was to address the people in a proclamation with an honorary allusion to General San Martín:
"Citizens: elevated by your generosity to the supreme command that I could never consider myself worthy is one of my first obligations to remind you of the most sacred to be fixed in your heart. Our friends the children of the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata of that nation that has proclaimed its independence as the precious fruit of its constancy and patriotism have just regained the freedom usurped by the tyrants. These have vanished from their shame to the first impetus of a virtuous army and led by the master hand of a courageous general and determined to the death or extinction of the usurpers. Chile's condition has changed in the face of the great work of a moment when the preference is disputed the disinterest merit of the liberators and the admiration of the triumph. What should be our gratitude to this unthinkable and prepared sacrifice with the last efforts of the brotherly peoples? You wanted to manifest it by depositing your direction in the hero. Oh, if the circumstances that prevented him from accepting would have been able to contend with your desires, I would dare swear to the permanent happiness of Chile. But I am covered with blush when you have replaced my weakness to the strong hand that has saved you. Instruct from the background that you yourselves have formed for this election and you will join my feelings. Those of unity and concord should inflate the spirit of the Chileans. An eternal oblivion of those petty personalities who alone are enough to ruin the peoples. I demand from you that mutual trust without which the government is the impotence of authority or is forced to degenerate into despotism. Do not lose the laurels acquired with so many sacrifices. Resolve not to exist before being oppressed again from the Spanish barbarian who perishes the last citizen in the defense of the precious soil in which he saw the first light an eternal recognition to his liberators a love to the homeland that is the distinctive of every American an active fox for justice and honor an irreconcilable hatred for the machiners of our slavery here the feelings of your free director and those that must be your character. Cooperate and you will be the example of gratitude the terror of tyranny and the envy of peace"Santiago, February 17, 1817.
Bernardo O'Higgins
Miguel Zañartú, Secretary.
Thanks to the Battle of Chacabuco, in which the patriots were victorious, they were able to enter Santiago de Chile on February 14. Ending the period of the Reconquest or "Restoration" and beginning the period of the New Homeland.