Ignacio Allende

Ignacio María José de Allende y Unzaga (San Miguel de Allende, January 21, 1769-Chihuahua, June 26, 1811), known as Ignacio Allende, He was a soldier who participated during the independence of New Spain who stood out as one of the main leaders of the first stage of the Mexican War of Independence. He, along with Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, led the independence movement, noted for his expertise and military training. After a series of defeats, he briefly became the top leader of the insurgency, until he was captured on March 21, 1811, six months after the revolt began, taken prisoner to the city of Chihuahua, and later tried and executed on June 26 of the same year. He is considered in Mexico as one of the many Heroes of Independence.

Biography

Early Years

Ignacio Allende was born on January 21, 1769 into a wealthy Spanish family from San Miguel el Grande (now San Miguel de Allende), a town of Creoles and Spaniards. He was baptized as Ignacio José de Jesús María Pedro de Allende y Unzaga. His father was Domingo Narciso de Allende y Ayerdy, a wealthy merchant, and his mother was María Ana de Unzaga, a member of one of the leading families in the area. He entered the Colegio de San Francisco de Sales in his hometown, under the tutelage of his uncle José María Unsaga, where he met and befriended the brothers Juan and Ignacio Aldama. During his early youth he showed great fondness for farm work, bullfighting and charrería. He soon became known for his love affairs with various local girls, and he had a son at the age of 23, named Indalecio, with Antonia Herrera.

Allende's military career began in 1795, when he was integrated into the payroll of the Provincial Regiment of Dragoons of the Queen of the region as a lieutenant. During that time, he came to know Félix María Calleja, who at that time was the colonel of the 10th Brigade from San Luis Potosí, which included in his jurisdiction the area of San Miguel el Grande; for which he came to confer various commissions on him. On April 10, 1802, at the age of 33, Allende married María de la Luz Agustina de las Fuentes. However, the marriage only lasted six months because she died on October 20 of the same year.

Background to the War of Independence

The political crisis of 1808 and the conspiracy of Querétaro

Following the news of the Bayonne abdications, Viceroy José de Iturrigaray ordered the first military maneuvers of all troops in New Spain, for which Allende received several military commissions. First in Mexico City, then in Jalapa, and finally in El Palmar, in Sonora. Thanks to this, Allende came into contact with various groups of people with liberal ideas that make him sympathetic to the autonomist cause proposed by the City Council. of Mexico, by Francisco Primo de Verdad. In 1808, he returned to his homeland with the rank of Captain, but decided to take part in the failed Valladolid conspiracy, along with José María Obeso and Mariano Michelena. Allende managed to escape prison, but once again decided to join new secret juntas of the rebellion. On this occasion, they were organized by the corregidores of Querétaro, which were also attended by the parish priest of Dolores, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, as well as the soldiers Mariano Abasolo and Juan Aldama.

Start of the war (1810-1811)

First movements

Originally, the independence movement was going to be led by Allende and Aldama, but an untimely denunciation changed the plans and it was Miguel Hidalgo who finally had to start the fight on September 16, in the town of Dolores, after the proclamation of the famous cry. The former conspirators closed ranks in favor of the priest and after securing the town of Dolores and haranguing the population, they decided to march towards Guanajuato. Along the way, the growing insurgent army entered San Miguel el Grande in triumph, where Allende enlisted the support of its inhabitants and the vast majority of the members of the Queen's Regiment to join the movement. During his stay in his hometown, Allende repressed with particular harshness several members of the populace who threatened to loot businesses and cause excesses, which earned him the censure of the priest and the beginning of the first of several quarrels that would develop over time. throughout the contest. On September 21, in the city of Celaya, the two main leaders of the army, Hidalgo and Allende, were officially named Captain General and Lieutenant General, respectively, of the insurgent armies.

The insurgent army arrived in Guanajuato on September 28; and after 5 hours of combat in the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, the insurgents took over the square and began the systematic looting of the mining city, as well as a subsequent massacre of its inhabitants (particularly those of Spanish descent). Before those dramatic events, disagreements between Allende and Hidalgo arose again, due to the latter's inability to contain the excesses committed by the insurgent troops. Days later, on October 24, in the town of León, the new insurgent government of Guanajuato proclaimed Hidalgo Generalissimo of American Arms, and Allende as Captain General.

The Battle of Monte de las Cruces and the withdrawal from Mexico City

Allende also participated in the Battle of Monte de las Cruces, where the insurgents fought a royalist force of around 2,000 troops against more than 80,000 men. Shortly before starting the combat, the man from San Miguel, faithful to his military instruction, had proposed that only the most experienced troops participate in the combat; but the parish priest of Dolores had stubbornly refused to do so, determined that the Indians should take part in the action. The organization of the order of battle was carried out by Allende and with the support of Aldama and Mariano Jiménez, a mining engineer who joined the movement after the capture of Guanajuato.

The insurgent victory at Monte de las Cruces, however, was a Pyrrhic victory. Despite the difference in the number of troops, the royalists had managed to inflict several casualties on the rebel forces. In addition to the fact that in the course of the night there were more desertions. Due to this, and before the news that the combined forces of Félix María Calleja and Manuel de Flon were approaching at full speed towards Mexico City to help Viceroy Venegas, Hidalgo decided not to seize the capital of the viceroyalty and gave the order to return back to the city of Valladolid. This caused even more tension between Hidalgo and Allende.

The battle of Aculco and return to Guanajuato

While on their way back, on November 7, the royalist and insurgent troops met by accident and fought in the brief battle of Aculco, where the forces of the brigadier from Medina inflicted a terrible defeat on the insurgent army that caused almost all of them to die. they will flee in disarray. With the few troops that he had managed to gather, Allende separated from Hidalgo and marched back to Guanajuato, with the aim of reinforcing the plaza before the possible arrival of the royalists. The same thing that happened on November 25, when, despite Allende's efforts, and after having sustained six hours of hard combat, the mining city was reconquered by the viceregal forces.

Shortly before the capture of Guanajuato by the royalists, Allende had written to Hidalgo from the town of Salvatierra, proposing a plan that would allow them to jointly coordinate the insurgency; Hidalgo from Valladolid, and Allende from Guanajuato. But he had not received any response from the priest, increasing his frustration with the leader of the insurgency. Days later, he had found out about the invitation that Hidalgo had received to go to the city of Guadalajara, which caused the military man great discomfort; The same that he communicated to Hidalgo by means of two letters that he sent, in which he reproached the parish priest for his eagerness to move to the capital of the kingdom of Nueva Galicia without even considering the proposal that he had previously sent him, going so far as to affirm that The reason why the priest had accepted the invitation was to head towards the port of San Blas, take a boat and escape. In the same way, Allende tried in vain to make Hidalgo give up his decision, arguing that this could cause irreparable losses for the movement, since if they lost Guanajuato, they ran the risk of ruining Valladolid as well (which Hidalgo left at the mercy of the royalists after leaving for Guadalajara), Zacatecas (from where the caudillo Rafael Iriarte operated), and Guadalajara itself.

Stay in Guadalajara

When Calleja seized Guanajuato, Allende had no choice but to leave the city on November 25 and meet with the parish priest. He knew, despite his disagreements with Hidalgo, that Guadalajara offered a unique opportunity to begin to reorganize in order to plan a new campaign that would eventually allow them to capture Mexico City. During his stay in the city, Allende, along with Aldama, divided their time between organizing an insurgent government and disciplining the growing troops.

Within the city of Guadalajara, another new episode of tension was brewing between Hidalgo and Allende, when the latter found out about the massacres of Spaniards that were being carried out by order of the Generalissimo in the ravines located behind the hospital in Guadalajara. Belén. Knowing what was happening, Allende contemplated the possibility, together with other insurgents, including his son Indalecio and the priest Francisco Severo Maldonado, of poisoning Hidalgo in order to end the massacres; however, Severo Maldonado made him give up that idea.

One of the two insignias twins of Ignacio Allende, that of the Mexican eagle, captured by Felix Maria Calleja, during the Battle of Puente de Calderón, in the War of Independence. It was given to King Fernando VII as a war trophy in 1814 and repatriated on the occasion of the 2010 Bicentennial of Independence celebrations.

Calderon Bridge

Receiving constant news about the movements of Calleja, who was approaching Guadalajara following the route from León to San Juan de los Lagos, an event that would take place on January 6, the insurgent high command held a war meeting on January 10 to agree on the most appropriate strategy to combat the royalists. Once again, as happened on the eve of Monte de las Cruces, the board was polarized into two opposing opinions. On the one hand, there were the proposals of Allende, Aldama and the rest of the career military, who proposed to withdraw from Guadalajara and hand over the plaza to Calleja, while instead of risking the entire troop in a single action, it was better divide it into six or more factions that would harass the enemy and withdraw to Querétaro or capture Zacatecas. While Hidalgo, confident in numerical superiority, and taking advantage of the great influence he exercised over the rest of the insurgent commanders, proposed going out and fighting against the royalists, mistakenly trusting that he would have the help of the insurgent leader, Rafael Iriarte, who had been entrusted with sending his troops from Zacatecas for his help. Once again, Allende had no choice but to comply with the orders of the Generalissimo and set the date of departure from the city for January 14, 1811.

After learning that Calleja's troops had defeated an insurgent outpost in Urepétiro, located about 19 kilometers from Zamora, the insurgents hurried their way until they reached Zapotlanejo on January 15, to arrive and break camp on the near Puente de Calderón on the 16th. One day before the combat, Allende –despite the reservations he had regarding the current state of the insurgent troops under his command– was left as general commander of the entire army and was in charge of to organize the positions that the troops would take for combat and the leaders that would be in command of each of them: José Antonio "el Amo" Torres was left in charge of a large battery of 67 guns of various calibers; 12 infantry columns in charge of guarding the battery were left under the command of Aldama; the insurgent cavalry, in charge of Abasolo; and an insurgent force positioned in front of the bridge, led by Miguel Gómez Portugal.

At the height of the combat, Allende ordered all 67 artillery pieces to be fired, which caused a fire that covered a good part of the land due to the dry grass, causing the smoke to cut off the visibility of the insurgent forces because of the wind that was blowing in their direction. The arson reached the boxes and cartridges of gunpowder that the insurgent forces carried with them, releasing explosions that killed and wounded many, which unleashed a general rout that the royalists took advantage of to finally defeat the insurgents, after almost 6 hours of combat.

Last days, arrest and death

After the defeat in the battle of Calderón Bridge, the insurgents fled towards Aguascalientes. On January 24, at the Hacienda del Pabellón, Allende, together with other high commands of the insurgency, demanded the resignation of Hidalgo as head of the movement and that the man from San Miguel remain as its new leader. After moments of tension, Ignacio López Rayón, Hidalgo's secretary, proposed as a solution that the parish priest retain political command, while Allende would have military command. However, in practice, the priest's leadership was only symbolic and Allende became de facto the sole leader of the insurgency, while Hidalgo was gradually and discreetly reduced to prisoner by his own collaborators.

While in Zacatecas, with a decimated army, he decided to march north toward the United States, to get more money, weapons, and troops; but not before naming Rayón, on March 16, 1811, in the city of Saltillo, as the new head of the insurgent army. Upon arriving in Acatita de Baján, on March 21, he was betrayed by Ignacio Elizondo, ambushed, and together with the leaders of the army, arrested and taken to the city of Chihuahua, where he was tried and shot on June 26. His corpse was decapitated and his head hung from one of the corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, the place where the first insurgent victory took place, as a lesson to the population, and where he would remain for a total of 10 years; from October 14, 1811, until March 28, 1821, when, after the triumph of the Iguala Plan, it was taken down, together with the heads of Hidalgo, Aldama and Jiménez, by order of Anastasio Bustamante and sent to the City of Mexico, where they were buried with honors on the Altar of the Kings, in the Metropolitan Cathedral. 115 years after the beginning of the War of Independence, on September 16, 1925, during the government of Plutarco Elías Calles, the remains of Allende, as well as that of many other leaders of Independence, were deposited in a crypt inside the Column of Independence, where they remain to this day.