LOS CORRALES DE LA MISERERE
On receiving intelligence of the passage of the Riachuelo by the
invaders at the Paso Chico, from which a good road led to the Puente
Galvès, General Liniers at once counter-marched to his former position
and occupied the bridge, having previously sent off an aide-de-camp with
instructions to the Comandante de los Morenos to rejoin him there with
all possible speed.
Marcelino left Asneiros to bring on the negroes by the road on the left
bank of the river, and galloped off himself at once to confer with the
general. He informed him that the English had apparently given up all
idea of attacking the bridge, and had marched away by a road which led
from the Paso Chico to the Corrales de la Miserere.
General Liniers became alarmed for the safety of the city, and leaving
General Balviani's division to hold the Puente Galvès, marched back at
once with the rest of his troops, pressing on as fast as the wearied
state of the men would permit. The citizen soldiers, and not less so the
Spanish regulars, unused to long marches, were fatigued by their
unwonted exertions, and dispirited by the unexpected manoeuvres of the
enemy; they plodded along the muddy road in silence, hundreds of them
sank down by the wayside unable to proceed farther, and many of the
guns, sticking fast in a deep "pantano," were abandoned. On reaching the
suburbs of the city they wheeled to the left, and late in the afternoon
drew near to the Plaza Miserere. The Patricios, who had some guns with
them, followed by the "Morenos de Ponce," had considerably outmarched
the rest of the army, and at once took up a position to the east of this
Plaza, so as to defend all the western entrances to the city, the negro
corps being posted at the south-east corner of the Plaza in a small
quinta surrounded by an aloe hedge, in which there were many gaps.
Meantime the British vanguard, which marched upon the city by a more
circuitous and much worse road than that by which General Liniers had
retreated, had also encountered great difficulties. The river at the
Paso Chico was more than waist-deep, through this the men had waded,
carrying their cartridge-boxes and the ammunition for the guns upon
their shoulders. The 88th regiment, which formed a part of this
division, had been for nine months on board ship, so that the men were
in no condition to undertake a forced march along roads ankle-deep in
mud. General Crauford with the 95th regiment and the rifles pressed on
in front, but after marching about a league from the pass General Gower
found it was impossible to bring on his guns any farther, and
accordingly left them behind him under the care of General Lumley, with
three companies of infantry, and such of the men from the different
regiments as were unable to proceed.
The Plaza Miserere was a wide, open space of ground beyond the suburbs
of the city, and was distant about two and a half miles due west from
the Plaza Mayor. This space was at that time surrounded by detached
quintas, and was a centre from which many roads branched off in all
directions. It was used as a slaughtering ground by the butchers who
supplied the city, and at one side were large corrales where cattle were
penned previous to slaughter. These corrales, being formed of rough
posts strongly bound together by transverse beams tied to each post by
thongs of raw hide, formed an excellent stockade.
In spite of the detachment of a division to hold the Puente Galvès and
the numerous stragglers, Liniers had yet under his orders, when he
reached the Plaza Miserere, more than double the number of men
comprising the entire British vanguard, and spared no exertion to
reinspire his troops with confidence; but the greater part of them were
yet entangled in the narrow roads of the suburbs, when the advanced
guard of the invaders under the command of General Crauford debouched
upon the Plaza from the west, and took possession of the corrales.
Without waiting for orders from General Liniers, the artillery attached
to the Patricios, and some other pieces which had been planted among the
quintas on the south side the Plaza, at once opened a heavy but
ill-directed fire of grape and round shot upon the head of the British
column, and the Patricios advancing from the suburbs upon the open
ground also commenced firing.
The sound of the musketry operated with a magical effect upon the entire
force, the men shouted to be led at once against the enemy, and Liniers
gave the order for a general advance.
From every road on the south side the Plaza dense columns of troops
poured into the open space, replying to the slow fire of the British by
rapid volleys of musketry. General Gower had drawn back his left wing
upon the advance of the Patricios, then as General Liniers in person
headed an attack upon the corrales, two regiments poured in a volley,
and led by General Crauford charged the Patricios with the bayonet,
driving them in headlong confusion back into the western suburbs. The
advance of General Liniers had been checked by a heavy fire from the
corrales; he was now charged by the entire British force, in front and
on the right flank. Liniers galloped to and fro frantically calling upon
his men to keep their ranks; but all was in vain, retreat was
impossible, the roads were blocked up by the rearguards of the several
columns. Many of the men threw down their arms and fled to the nearest
quintas, the destruction of the entire force seemed inevitable, when
Marcelino Ponce de Leon, who had received no orders, conceived it his
duty to act without them.
The two regiments which had dispersed the Patricios were in front of
him, advancing with levelled bayonets upon the flank of the main body.
Shouting to his men to follow him, he dashed through the quinta fence,
then forming them hurriedly he opened fire upon the flank of the
advancing British. The two regiments halted, wheeled, poured in a volley
at close quarters, and charged. Marcelino's horse fell under him, the
negroes set up a shout of dismay; their ranks were shattered, their
leader was apparently killed, down on them bore swiftly along a line of
glittering steel, threatening to envelop them on both flanks, they
turned and fled. In vain Asneiros struck at them with his sword, in vain
Evaristo, who had rejoined his brother at the Paso Chico, threw himself
in their way, shouting:
"Morenos! cowards! will you leave my brother to be killed by these
English?"
They were panic-struck, and fought fiercely with each other for the gaps
in the fence which would admit them to the shelter of the quinta.
Asneiros, calling two subalterns to aid him, seized the largest of these
gaps, and the three with their swords kept back a number of the
fugitives.
Meantime Marcelino had sprung to his feet, half dazed but unwounded; the
English were close upon him, for a moment he stared wildly round him,
then Evaristo galloped up to him.
"Mount behind me, Marcelino," he shouted, shaking his left foot from the
stirrup.
The next minute the pony with a double load was galloping away for the
quinta, where Evaristo sprang to the ground and Marcelino, galloping
after the fugitives, succeeded in rallying some threescore men, whom he
led back to the fence and joined to those whom Asneiros had stopped and
had already drawn up under shelter of the aloe hedge. The English had
halted, and were apparently about to renew their attack upon General
Liniers, when the negroes opened fire upon them from the hedge. With a
loud cheer 800 red and green coated soldiery rushed upon the frail
barrier which hid the remnant of the "Morenos de Ponce," burst a way for
themselves through it, or ran in by the undefended gaps. There was a
minute of wild confusion, the negroes firing at random upon an enemy who
outnumbered them five to one, and who attacked them from all sides.
Marcelino, now on foot, and his officers tried to draw them away from
the hedge, and to fall back upon some outhouses in the rear of the
quinta, but the movements of the English were too rapid, the retreat
soon changed into headlong flight; about forty of the negroes, being cut
off and surrounded, threw down their arms and were made prisoners. At
the far side of the quinta, Marcelino made another attempt to rally his
men, but was at once charged by a party of the enemy.
"Surrender!" shouted the officer who led them.
Marcelino had lost his sword when his horse was killed under him, he
stooped and seized the musket of a negro who had fallen at his feet
mortally wounded, and beating aside the bayonets of those nearest to
him, tried to force his way through them; the next moment he was beaten
down by the butt-ends of their muskets and trampled under their feet as
they rushed on in pursuit.
When Marcelino had rallied his men in the quinta, he had called his
brother to him, and telling him to remount his pony, had given him into
the care of his servant Manuel, telling the latter to go off with him at
once straight for the city. The negro took the pony by the bridle and
led him away, but on reaching the cross-road behind the quinta by an
open gateway, Evaristo refused to go any farther, and drawing tight his
rein sat there in the saddle watching the last struggle of the "Morenos
de Ponce."
"Vamos!" said Manuel, as the fugitive negroes came running past them.
"No! no!" said Evaristo, still tightly holding his pony by the head.
"Oh! my brother, even yet I can save you!" he cried, as he saw
Marcelino's last desperate effort, then twitching the rein from Manuel's
hand, he urged his pony back through the gateway, and was close to his
brother when he fell, trampled to the earth under the feet of the
furious soldiery. But Manuel on foot had kept pace with him, and now
springing up behind him wrenched the reins from him, and holding him
fast in his arms, turned the pony's head and galloped off, and neither
spoke nor slacked his pace until he had reached the house of Don
Gregorio Lopez, where he set the boy down, half dead with sorrow and
excitement, and went back himself in search of his master, whom he had
small hope of ever seeing again alive.
The "Morenos de Ponce" were utterly routed and dispersed; Marcelino had
sacrificed himself and his men, but he had saved the army of General
Liniers from destruction. A deadly fire from the Corrales de la Miserere
had checked the advance of the main body of the army, the charge of the
British infantry had driven it back in hopeless confusion into the roads
by which it had debouched upon the Plaza; had the flank movement of the
two regiments under General Crauford been uninterrupted, the retreat of
the greater part of the army would have been cut off. As it was, General
Liniers lost eleven guns, and was driven from amongst the quintas into
the open camp, far away to the left of the road by which he had
advanced. Night closed in and prevented further pursuit by the
victorious enemy. Almost broken-hearted by the misfortune which had
befallen him, and desperate at the ruin of all his high hopes, the
Reconquistador threw himself upon the ground and for hours spoke to no
one. About 1000 men lay round him in every attitude of exhaustion and
despair; of the rest of his army he knew nothing, it was dispersed in
all directions.
The army to which Buenos Aires had entrusted her honour and her defence
had melted away at the first brush with the enemy. Buenos Aires had no
longer an army and the enemy was at her gates.