Battle of Salta
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Salta took place on February 20, 1813 on the plains of Castañares, near the present-day Argentina
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 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:...

, 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...

, under the command of 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 for the second time the royalist
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...

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

, after their victory in the previous September at the Battle of Tucumán
Battle of Tucumán
The Battle of Tucumán was a battle fought on 24 and 25 September 1812 near the Argentine city of San Miguel de Tucumán, during the Argentine War of Independence. The Army of the North, commanded by General Manuel Belgrano, defeated the royalist troops commanded by General Pío de Tristán, who had a...

. The unconditional surrender of the royalist troops ensured Argentine control over most of the northern territories of the former Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...

.

Belgrano had taken advantage of the victory at Tucumán
Tucumán
San Miguel de Tucumán is the capital of the Tucumán Province, located in northern Argentina at from Buenos Aires. It is the fifth biggest city of Argentina after Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario and Mendoza, and it is also the most important city of Northern Argentina...

 to reinforce his army. In four months he improved the discipline of his troops, improved training and recruited sufficient men so as to duplicate their numbers. 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...

 abandoned by Tristán in the previous battle helped Belgrano to fill his lack of equipment. At the beginning of January, he started a slow march towards Salta. On February 11, on the margins of the Juramento river, the army swore an oath of loyalty to the Asamblea del Año XIII
Asamblea del Año XIII
The Assembly of Year XIII was a meeting called by the Second Triumvirate governing the young republic of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata on October 1812....

 which had started sessions in Buenos Aires a few days before, and to the national flag.

Tristán, in the meantime, had taken the time to fortify Portezuelo, the only access to the city through the hills from the southeast, a tactical advantage that supposedly would make the attempt impossible, except for the local area knowledge that the new conscripts brought to the rebels. Captain Apolinario Saravia, a local from Salta, offered to guide the army through a high path that led to Chachapoyas, which would allow them to connect with the north road that went to Jujuy, in an area where there were no similar fortifications. Under cover of rain the rebel army did a slow march through the rough terrain, hindered by the difficulty off moving equipment and artillery. On the 18th they reached a field where they encamped, while the captain, disguised as a native wrangler guided a mule train loaded with firewood to the city, with the intention of reconnoitering the positions taken by Tristán's army.

On the 19th thanks to the intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....

 from Saravia, the army marched on the morning with the intention of attacking the enemy troops the next morning at dawn. Tristán received news of the advance, and placed his troops to resist, placing a column of fusilier
Fusilier
Fusilier was originally the name of a soldier armed with a light flintlock musket called the fusil. The word was first used around 1680, and has later developed into a regimental designation.-History:...

s on the side of San Bernardo hill, reinforced his left flank, and placed the 10 artillery pieces he had. On the morning of the 20th ordered a march in formation, with the infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 on the center, one column of cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 on each flank and a strong reserve led by Martín Dorrego. The first encounter went for the defenders, as the left-flank cavalry had difficulties reaching the enemy shooters due to the high-steeped terrain. Before noon Belgrano ordered an attack by the reserves on those positions, while the artillery used grapeshot
Grapeshot
In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of shot that is not a one solid element, but a mass of small metal balls or slugs packed tightly into a canvas bag. It was used both in land and naval warfare. When assembled, the balls resembled a cluster of grapes, hence the name...

 on the enemy. Dorrego, at the head of the cavalry led an advance towards the fence that surrounded the city. The tactic was successful; columns of infantry under the command of Carlos Forest, Francisco Pico and José Superí broke the enemy lines and entered the city streets, closing the royalist retreat on the center. The retreat was hindered by the same fence they had erected as part of their fortifications. Finally they congregated on the main square, where Tristán decided to surrender, ordering the ringing of the church's bells. An envoy negotiated with general Belgrano that the next day the royalists would abandon the city on formation, with war honors, after relinquishing their weapons. Belgrano guaranteed their integrity and freedom in exchange for swearing not to raise arms against the rebels. Tristán later on would change sides and fight for the independentists in Bolivia. The prisoners captured before the surrender were later freed in exchange for the men that Goyeneche had captured in Upper Peru.

The 2,786 men remaining with Tristán surrendered the next day, giving up more than 2,000 musket
Musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....

s, sword
Sword
A sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration...

s, pistol
Pistol
When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The pistol...

s, carbine
Carbine
A carbine , from French carabine, is a longarm similar to but shorter than a rifle or musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full rifles, firing the same ammunition at a lower velocity due to a shorter barrel length....

s, 10 cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

s and their supplies. The generosity of Belgrano, who embraced Tristán and allowed him to keep his command symbols símbolos—they were personal friends, having been classmates at the University of Salamanca
University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the town of Salamanca, west of Madrid. It was founded in 1134 and given the Royal charter of foundation by King Alfonso IX in 1218. It is the oldest founded university in Spain and the third oldest European...

, been roommates in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 and loved the same woman—, would cause surprise in Buenos Aires, but the decisive victory silenced the critics and earned him a prize of 40,000 pesos granted by the Assembly. Belgrano declined, asking that the money be used instead to build schools in Tucumán, Salta, Jujuy and Tarija.

Governor Feliciano Chiclana
Feliciano Chiclana
Feliciano Antonio Chiclana, was an Argentine lawyer, soldier, and judge, He studied at the Colegio de San Carlos. In 1783 he attained a law degree from the Universidad de Chile....

 placed a wooden cross on the common grave where the 480 royalist and 13 independentist troops were buried with the inscription "A los vencedores y vencidos" (To the victors and the vanquished). Today the place is marked by the February 20th monument, designed by Torcuato Tasso and made of stone from a local quarry. The reliefs on the sides were designed by the famous sculptor and local salteña Lola Mora
Lola Mora
Lola Mora was a sculptor, born in a barn in the , though generally considered native to Trancas, province of Tucumán, where she was recorded and baptized. She is known today as a rebel and a pioneer of women in her artistic field...

.

Belgrano's army would continue to the North, to fight the forces of Joaquín de la Pezuela
Joaquín de la Pezuela
Joaquín de la Pezuela Griñán y Sánchez Muñoz de Velasco, 1st marquis of Viluma was a Spanish military officer and viceroy of Peru during the War of Independence.-Background:...

. Two successive defeats at Vilcapugio
Battle of Vilcapugio
The Battle of Vilcapugio was an action fought on October 1, 1813 during the second Campaign of Upper Peru in the Argentine War of Independence, where the republican forces led by General Manuel Belgrano were defeated by a pro-Spanish royalist army, led by Joaquin de la Pezuela.The campaign was...

 and Ayohuma
Battle of Ayohuma
The Battle of Ayohuma was an action fought on 14 November 1813, during the second Upper Peru Campaign of the Argentine War of Independence...

, would end the first campaign of the Army of the North.

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