The Battle of Tucumán was a battle

Battle

Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. In a battle, each combatant will seek to defeat the others, with defeat determined by the conditions of a military campaign...

 fought on 24 and 25 September 1812 near the Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 city of San Miguel de Tucumán, during the Argentine War of Independence

Argentine War of Independence

The Argentine War of Independence was fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine patriotic forces under Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli and José de San Martín against royalist forces loyal to the Spanish crown...

. The Army of the North

Army of the North

The Army of the North , contemporaneously called Army of Peru, was one of the armies deployed by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in the Spanish American wars of independence. Its objective was freeing the Argentine Northwest and the Upper Peru from the royalist troops of the Spanish...

, commanded by General Manuel Belgrano

Manuel Belgrano

Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano , usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano, was an Argentine economist, lawyer, politician, and military leader. He took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and created the Flag of Argentina...

, defeated the royalist troops

Royalist (Spanish American Revolutions)

The royalists were the American and European supporters of the various governing bodies of the Spanish Monarchy, during the Spanish American wars of independence, which lasted from 1808 until the king's death in 1833...

 commanded by General Pío de Tristán

Pío de Tristán

Juan Pío de Tristán was a Peruvian general and politician...

, who had a two-to-one advantage in numbers, halting the royalist advance on Argentina's Northwest. Together with the Battle of Salta

Battle of Salta

The Battle of Salta took place on February 20, 1813 on the plains of Castañares, near the present-day Argentina city of Salta, during the Argentine War of Independence. The Army of the North, under the command of general Manuel Belgrano, defeated for the second time the royalist troops of general...

, on 20 February 1813, the victory at Tucumán allowed the Argentine troops to reaffirm the borders under their control.

Prelude

The Upper Peru

Upper Peru

Upper Peru was the region in the Viceroyalty of Peru, and after 1776, the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, comprising the governorships of Potosí, La Paz, Cochabamba, Los Chiquitos, Moxos and Charcas...

 region (present-day Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

), was again under royalist control after the rebel defeat at Huaqui

Battle of Huaqui

The Battle of Huaqui , was a battle between the Primera Junta's revolutionary troops and the royalist troops of the Viceroyalty of Peru on the border between Upper Peru, , and the Viceroyalty of Peru on June 20, 1811.- Prelude :The army commanded by Juan...

, where the inexperienced commander Juan José Castelli

Juan José Castelli

Juan José Castelli was an Argentine lawyer. He was one of the leaders of the May Revolution, which started the Argentine War of Independence...

 could not confront Tristán's troops.

The orders from the First Triumvirate

First Triumvirate (Argentina)

The First Triumvirate was the executive body of government that replaced the Junta Grande in the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata...

 had placed Belgrano in command of the Army of the North on 27 February 1812, headquartered in Jujuy

San Salvador de Jujuy

San Salvador de Jujuy , commonly known as Jujuy and locally often referred to as San Salvador, is the capital city of Jujuy Province in northwest Argentina. It lies near the southern end of the Humahuaca Canyon where wooded hills meet the lowlands....

. From there Belgrano attempted to raise the morale of the troops after the defeat at Huaqui. Under that effort on 25 May he raised in Jujuy the new flag he had created a few months back, and had it blessed in Jujuy's Cathedral by Father Juan Ignacio de Gorriti.

He soon realized that he did not have enough strength to defend the city, and on 23 August he ordered a massive retreat

Withdrawal (military)

A withdrawal is a type of military operation, generally meaning retreating forces back while maintaining contact with the enemy. A withdrawal may be undertaken as part of a general retreat, to consolidate forces, to occupy ground that is more easily defended, or to lead the enemy into an ambush...

 of all the civilian population to the interior of Tucumán Province

Tucumán Province

Tucumán is the most densely populated, and the smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the capital is San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighboring provinces are, clockwise from the north: Salta, Santiago del Estero and...

 in what was later known as the Éxodo Jujeño. Civilians and military men retreated, destroying anything that could be of value to the royalists. When the Spaniards entered the city, they found it empty: Tristán wrote to Goyeneche: "Belgrano cannot be forgiven..." tells a historian.

On orders from the Triumvirate, the Army of the North had to create a stronghold in Córdoba

Córdoba, Argentina

Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...

. Instead, Belgrano had the idea of stopping farther north in Tucumán, where the local population was eager to support the army. The 3 September victory at the Battle of Las Piedras between his rearguard and two advance royalist columns confirmed his ideas. He captured the column commander, Colonel Huici and about twenty soldiers. He sent Juan Ramón Balcarce

Juan Ramón Balcarce

Juan Ramón González de Balcarce was an Argentine military leader and politician.Juan was the older brother of Antonio González de Balcarce and of Marcos González de Balcarce. He fought against the British in 1807, and in the 1812 military campaign in Peru under General Manuel Belgrano. He was...

 towards the city, ordering him to recruit and train a cavalry troop from the local militia, and deliver letters to the rich and powerful Aráoz family of one of his officers, Lieutenant Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid

Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid

Comandante General Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid was an Argentine military leader and, briefly, governor of several provinces like Córdoba, Mendoza and his native province of Tucumán.Lamadrid fought beside General Belgrano and General San Martín during the Argentine War of Independence, as a prominent...

.

The decision: consolidate or give battle

Balcarce's mission, along with the rumours that his army was retreating to Córdoba, caused consternation in the city. The Cabildo

Buenos Aires Cabildo

The Buenos Aires Cabildo is the public building in Buenos Aires that was used as seat of the ayuntamiento during the colonial times and the government house of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata...

 bells rang and the legislature, in public session decided to send three representatives — officers Bernabé Aráoz and Rudecindo Alvarado and the priest doctor Pedro Miguel Aráoz

Pedro Miguel Aráoz

Pedro Miguel Aráoz was an Argentine statesman and priest. He was a representative to the Congress of Tucumán which on 9 July 1816 declared the Independence of Argentina....

 — to Belgrano

Manuel Belgrano

Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano , usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano, was an Argentine economist, lawyer, politician, and military leader. He took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and created the Flag of Argentina...

, to ask that he face the Spanish at Tucumán. Arriving in Tucumán on 13 September, Belgrano met Balcarce with 400 men — without uniforms and with only lances for weapons, but well organized — and the city ready to support them. Belgrano, historians say, did not need more than that pretext to disobey the Triumvirate's retreat orders and stay. He said he would stay if they supplied him with 1,500 cavalry troops, and if they gave him 20,000 silver pesos for the troops, amounts that the legislature decide to grant. Therefore he ignored the Triumvirate's orders of retreat and instead entrenched in Tucumán.

At the same time, the royalist army had difficulty advancing, not finding in the scorched earth

Scorched earth

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...

 tactics supplies or places to stay and rest. Local irregulars

Irregular military

Irregular military refers to any non-standard military. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used....

 organized by the militias were harassing them constantly. On 23 September, Tristán received the news that the rebel army was in the city and ready to do battle.

Combat

In the morning of the 24th, Tristán ordered a march towards the city. Sources say that instead of taking the straight road in, he rounded the central plaza from the South, attempting to prevent a possible rebel movement towards the South. Others say that in the village of Los Pocitos he found burning fields ordered by Dragoons Lieutenant Lamadrid, who counted on the fierceness of the fire and the wind to disorganize the Spanish column.

In the meantime, taking advantage of the confusion created by the fire, Belgrano, who had placed his troops in the very early morning at the North side of the town, had changed his front facing West, counting on having a clear image of Tristán's troop movements. Once he saw them, the quick advance over Tristán's flank barely gave him time to reorganize his front and mount the artillery formation.

Belgrano had organized his cavalry in two wings; the right, commanded by Balcarce, was the bigger of the two, as it included the local gaucho troops recently recruited.

The infantry was divided in three columns, commanded by Colonel José Superí on the left, captain Ignacio Warnes

Ignacio Warnes

José Ignacio Warnes y García de Zúñiga was an Argentine soldier who fought in the Argentine War of Independence. Son of the mayor of the city of Buenos Aires Manuel Antonio Warnes y Durango and Ana Jacoba García de Zúñiga y Lizola...

 at the center, and Captain Carlos Forest on the right, plus a section of Dragoons, supported the cavalry. A fourth reserve column commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel Dorrego

Manuel Dorrego

Manuel Dorrego was an Argentine statesman and soldier. He was governor of Buenos Aires in 1820, and then again from 1827 to 1828....

; and Baron Eduardo Kaunitz of Holmberg (who commanded the artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

), was placed between the infantry columns, but was too divided to be effective.

The artillery initiated the battle, bombarding the Cotabambas and Abancay battalions, who responded with a bayonet

Bayonet

A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...

 charge. Belgrano ordered a response by having Warnes charge with his infantry, along with the cavalry reserve of Captain Antonio Rodríguez, while Balcarce's cavalry charged over Tristán's left flank. The charge had a formidable effect. With lances pointed, and making loud sounds and shouts, they made the royalist cavalry of Tarija disband at their charge, retreating over their own infantry and disorganizing it to the point that, almost without resistance, the rebel cavalry reached the enemy's rearguard.

It is impossible to know what effect charging from there in a pincer movement

Pincer movement

The pincer movement or double envelopment is a military maneuver. The flanks of the opponent are attacked simultaneously in a pinching motion after the opponent has advanced towards the center of an army which is responding by moving its outside forces to the enemy's flanks, in order to surround it...

 would have had with a rebel force composed of country folk without military discipline. A good portion of the gaucho cavalry broke formation to capture the mules loaded with supplies, including coins and precious metals from the royalist army. They therefore negated their use of supplies

Material

Material is anything made of matter, constituted of one or more substances. Wood, cement, hydrogen, air and water are all examples of materials. Sometimes the term "material" is used more narrowly to refer to substances or components with certain physical properties that are used as inputs to...

 and ammunition. Only the Dragoons and regular cavalry under Balcarce stayed in formation at the front, but the loss of their supplies and baggage was enough to disorganize the royalist wing.

On the other side of the front the results were very different where Belgrano was fighting. The royalist's cavalry and infantry advance was unstoppable, with Colonel Superí being taken as prisoner. Even though the strength of the central column allowed the rebels to regain terrain and release Superí, the unequal advances fractured the front, creating a confused battle. The commanders had trouble seeing what was happening and often the decisions were taken by the local unit officers in the heat of battle. At that time a swarm of locust

Locust

Locusts are the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. These are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory...

s appeared on the fields, which obscured the battlefield and confused the soldiers.

Tristán attempted to retreat to organize his troops, abandoning his artillery, and in the course found Dorrego's column, virtually unprotected. Along with a troop of infantry of Eustoquio Díaz Vélez, they recovered thirty nine wagon

Wagon

A wagon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals; it was formerly often called a wain, and if low and sideless may be called a dray, trolley or float....

s loaded with arms and ammunition which were taken to the city, along with the cannon they could push. The rebels also took many prisoners and the flags of the Cotabambas, Abancay and Real de Lima regiment

Regiment

A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...

s.

Belgrano, at the time not knowing the result, was attempting to reorganize his troops when he found Colonel José Moldes, who was his main observer. Both then found Paz, and through him what remained of the cavalry. Balcarce joined them a while later, being the first to be bold and qualify the battle as a victory, judging by the body-covered field and Spanish equipment remains, even though they did not yet know the fate of the main infantry regiments and what was happening inside the city. It took General Belgrano the rest of the afternoon to reorganize the troops.

At the same time, Tristán was evaluating the loss of his ammunition, most of his artillery and supplies; he ordered the rest of his army, which had lost more than a thousand men between dead and wounded, to form and advance on the city and demand their surrender under threat of burning it. Díaz Vélez and Dorrego, strong in the city by now, responded by threatening to kill the prisoners, including four colonels, if Tristán set fire to the city.

The Spaniard spent the night outside, in doubt over the course to follow; the following morning he found Belgrano's troops at his rear, who demanded his surrender through Colonel Moldes. The royalist commander responded that "the King's soldiers do not surrender", so Tristán retreated towards Salta, while being followed and harassed by 600 men commanded by Díaz Vélez.

Results

"Even though the victory at Tucumán", writes Mitre

Bartolomé Mitre

Bartolomé Mitre Martínez was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.-Life and times:...

, "was the result of unforeseen circumstances", it earns Belgrano "the glory of having won a battle against all probability and against the wishes of his own government."

The materiel abandoned by the Spaniards —13 cannons, 358 muskets, 39 wagons, 70 ammunition boxes and 87 tents— would serve the Army of the North in the subsequent campaign. 450 royalists lost their lives in combat and 690, between officers and soldiers, were captured as prisoners. On their side, the defenders only had 80 dead and 200 wounded.

On 27 October they celebrated a thanksgiving mass; in the procession that carried the statue of the Virgen de las Mercedes (Our Lady of Mercy), Belgrano deposited his command baton, proclaiming the saint as General of his Army.

Moldes and Holmberg would leave the army, but Belgrano would gain Juan Antonio Álvarez de Arenales, with whom he would start on 12 January the march towards Salta

Salta

Salta is a city in northwestern Argentina and the capital city of the Salta Province. Along with its metropolitan area, it has a population of 464,678 inhabitants as of the , making it Argentina's eighth largest city.-Overview:...

, where the royalists had entrenched.

The victory consolidated the work of the revolution and momentarily ended the danger of a disaster for the rebel forces. If the patriot army would have retreated as ordered, the North Provinces would have been lost to the enemy whom, controlling a vast territory, would have reached Córdoba, where it would have been easier to receive the help from the royalists at the Banda Oriental (today's Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

) and the Portuguese troops from Brazil.

The victory also had important political consequences, as Belgrano — who had allies in the Logia Lautaro

Logia Lautaro

The Lautaro Lodge was a revolutionary secret lodge active in Latin American politics in the 19th Century. It was initially known as the Lodge of Rational Knights .Its initial purposes were to apply the goals of the Spanish Enlightenment, and when Spain began the Absolutist Restauration they...

 — had defeated the invader against orders from his government and vindicated the requests of the opposicion, when they asked for help to be sent to the Army of the North. In Buenos Aires, three days after the victory was known, the First Triumvirate was overthrown in the 8 October Revolution.

The Second Triumvirate

Second Triumvirate (Argentina)

The Second Triumvirate was the governing body of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata that followed the First Triumvirate in 1812, shortly after the May Revolution, and lasted 2 years....

allowed the army soldiers to wear a medal with the inscription: "La Patria a su defensor en Tucumán" ("The Motherland to the defenders of Tucumán"); and also ordered that the names of the soldiers be inscribed in the book of honor of the respective Cabildos of Buenos Aires and Tucumán. Belgrano was offered a promotion to Captain General, but he declined the honor.

External links

Portal Informativo de Salta LaGuía2000