Jose de la Serna
José de la Serna y Martínez de Hinojosa, 1st Count of the Andes (Jerez de la Frontera, May 1, 1770 - Cádiz, July 6, 1832), was a nobleman, military and Spanish viceregal administrator who held the office of viceroy of Peru in the terminal phase of the Spanish Empire in South America.
Military career
Son of Álvaro José de la Serna y Figueroa and Nicolasa Martínez de Hinojosa y Trujillo. He trained as a cadet in 1782 at the Segovia Artillery Academy, and was promoted to second lieutenant in 1787, and being a partner of Luis Daoiz managed to receive an artillery officer, he participated in the year 1790 in the defense of the siege of Ceuta, participating in the departures that destroyed all the resources of the besieging army of the Emperor of Morocco, forcing him to raise the siege on the city.
He participated in the War of Roussillon and Catalonia against the National Convention (French Revolution) of the first French republic, and also embarked on different naval campaigns between 1789 and 1802, he continued his services in the squadron of José de Mazarredo against the English army, and in the expedition on Brest in 1799. In 1805 he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Graduated sergeant major of the second Artillery Regiment, with whose unit he attended the defense of Valencia, and later that of Zaragoza, where he arrived in the first days of August 1808, commanding the companies of square artillerymen belonging to the divisions sent by the Supreme Board of Valencia to help the Aragonese.
He participated in the defense of Zaragoza, specifically in the defense of the Convent of San José, in the outskirts of the city, and in the defense of Puerta Quemada and was taken prisoner in this second siege of Zaragoza, forcibly taken to France, from where he undertakes a reckless escape from his prison, managing to flee through Austria to Thessaloniki and embark to Spain to rejoin the fight against Napoleon Bonaparte. Promoted to colonel of the artillery corps in 1812, he obtained command of the third Regiment, and at the end of the Spanish War of Independence, in which he achieved naming, deserved the high rank of brigadier in the army.
Spanish-American War of Independence
Campaigns of Upper Peru
After having fought in the Spanish war of independence against the Napoleonic occupation, since 1815 he was assigned to serve as an officer in the Viceroyalty of Peru and assigned to the theater of operations in Upper Peru.
Since 1816, he undertook a series of military campaigns to pacify different high-Peruvian territories occupied by insurgent guerrillas, called republiquetas, each of whom exercised domination in their area responding to the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata for which they They were outside the domain of the monarchy.
In the same vein, he proceeded further south to occupy Jujuy and Salta, trying to advance to Tucumán, hampered by the fierce resistance put up by the gauchos of Güemes on the northern border, despite having defeated their commander in La Puna, the Marquis of Yavi, on November 15, 1816.
His troops then were made up of more than seven thousand soldiers organized into fourteen line corps divided into two arms, cavalry and infantry. They were made up of the King's Hussars, Fernando VII's Union Dragoons, two Grenadier battalions from Alejandro's Imperials, the Guard Grenadier battalion and the Horse Hunters battalion. He counted for such an invasion with a thousand fresh unmounted horses, another thousand mules and the support of an artillery force of twenty guns. [citation needed ]
In the year 1817, Viceroy Joaquín de la Pezuela entrusted De la Serna with the mission of undertaking another advance to Tucumán with the resources available in Upper Peru to attract the attention of the powerful army that was preparing in Mendoza to invade the General Captaincy of Chile. José de La Serna opposed this measure, and drew attention to the absolute lack of cavalry in the army, which would not allow it to preserve its communications or its logistics, in addition to expressing its disagreement with the rationale of the campaign for the enormous distances that separated Upper Peru from the army of General José de San Martín located in Mendoza. However, under manifestoes to raise the royal standard in Buenos Aires, he obeyed the order, undertaking what was ordered by Viceroy Pezuela with the unsuccessful result that he had anticipated.
San Martin in Peru
During the government of Viceroy Joaquín de la Pezuela, on September 8, 1820, General José de San Martín disembarked in the bay of Paracas, coming from the south, with his Liberating Expedition, and established his headquarters in the town of Pisco, where he had the sympathy of the patriotic locals.
The Viceroy, in compliance with the dictates of Spain, promotes a meeting with San Martín in Miraflores, where representatives of both leaders met from September 25, 1820. The conference failed due to the antagonistic positions of the interlocutors: the patriots asked for their Independence to be recognized, while Spain asked for submission to the King and to the Liberal Constitution of 1812.
After the negotiations failed, San Martín sent General Álvarez de Arenales, from his headquarters in Pisco, to the Second Campaign from Arenales to the mountains of Peru, to fight the Spanish, add followers and encircle the city of Lima. It was on this trip to Arenales that two entire royalist companies went over to the patriot side and remained under the command of Arenales. He was not very successful in his campaign, and the result was the withdrawal from Lima of the royal army of Peru, under the command of José de la Serna, to its headquarters in Cuzco.
Command of La Serna in Peru
The patriotic successes, the inactivity of the Lima army, and the capitulation project of Pezuela caused the Spanish side to question the performance of Viceroy Pezuela, against whom the Spanish chiefs gave an ultimatum in Aznapuquio, after which the direction of the war is entrusted to the highest ranking general, José de la Serna e Hinojosa.
On January 29, 1821, due to Aznapuquio's pronouncement against Pezuela, La Serna took command as captain general and superior political chief, which was approved by the liberal government. Later, La Serna would also receive confirmation of his appointment as viceroy by the absolutist government of Fernando VII on August 9, 1824, three days after the battle of Junín.
On June 2, at the Punchauca hacienda, the commissioner for the courts, General José de San Martín, and the new Captain General José de la Serna met. San Martín asked for the recognition of the Independence of Peru, and De la Serna for the indivisibility of the Spanish crown, so that the Punchauca conference failed.
On June 5, 1821, Captain General José de la Serna announced to the people of Lima that he was abandoning the capital, leaving the then royalist general José de La Mar with a force that took refuge in Callao, under the protection of the Fortress of the real felipe. He left the city with all his army on July 6, to establish his government in Cuzco.
General San Martín then entered Lima on July 10, where he was received with jubilation by his followers and by the suspicion of Spanish supporters. On July 15, the Declaration of the Independence of the Peruvian state was signed in the Lima town hall, which was presided over by Mayor Isidro de Cortázar y Abarca.
De la Serna did not have much time to govern but rather to fight. He managed to bring the first printing press to Cuzco and began to print from there the famous newspaper El Depositario , in which the caustic writer Gaspar García y Rico collaborated equally. Waiting for reinforcements that never arrived in Peru, he managed to sustain himself for three more years, still remaining in the province of Cusco in 1824, and after suffering the rebellion and betrayal of General Pedro Antonio Olañeta, he was defeated and captured by General Antonio José de Sucre with his patriot army in the Battle of Ayacucho. La Serna suffered seven serious injuries in the battle; and under the capitulation of Ayacucho, he was freed and allowed to return to Spain.
Tour of Spain
After recovering from his wounds, he embarked in January 1825 from the port of Quilca on the French frigate Ernestine and, disembarking in Bordeaux, he finally returned to Spain, where, overcoming the military tribunals clarifications required by himself in relation to his command in Peru, King Fernando VII recognized his heroism (before documents such as a congratulations from Bolívar) and was rewarded with honors, thanking him with the title of Count of the Andes. He died in Cádiz, in July 1832, at the age of 62, leaving no descendants, surrounded by the duel of comrades from the artillery corps and those who served with him under the royalist banners.
Contenido relacionado
Moorish
Zacarias (father)
Kurt Pahlen