A work of extraordinary and soul-stirring interest has lately appeared on
the Revolutions of South America. It is entitled "Memoirs of General
Miller, in the Service of the Republic of Peru," and is compiled from
private letters, journals, and recollections, by the brother of the
general. From this portion of the work we gather that William Miller, the
companion in arms of San Martin and Bolivar, was born in Kent, in 1795. He
served with the British army in Spain and America, from 1811 till the
peace of 1815. In 1816 and 1817, he devoted some attention to mercantile
affairs; but being of an ardent spirit he finally resolved to engage as a
candidate for military honour in the struggle in South America. Colombia
was overrun with adventurers; and Miller directed his course to the river
La Plata. He left England in August, 1817, when he was under twenty-two
years of age, and landed at Buenos Ayres in the September following. In a
month after, he received a captain's commission in the army of the Andes.
In the beginning of 1818, captain Miller set out for the army of San
Martin, and crossed the Andes by the pass of Uspallata. He soon joined his
companions in arms. His first military enterprise was unsuccessful, but a
notice of it will give our readers a faint idea of the perils of a
campaign in the mountainous regions of South America. Miller, it appears,
was on his march towards the capital of Chile; the artillery consisted of
ten six-pounders, to this branch of the service his attention was, of
course, devoted. The incident occurred in crossing the Maypo, a torrent
which rushes from a gorge of the Andes.
The only bridge over it is made of what may be called hide cables. It is
about two hundred and fifty feet long, and just wide enough to admit a
carriage. It is upon the principle of suspension, and constructed where
the banks of the river are so bold as to furnish natural piers. The figure
of the bridge is nearly that of an inverted arch. Formed of elastic
materials, it rocks a good deal when passengers go over it. The infantry,
however, passed upon the present occasion without the smallest difficulty.
The cavalry also passed without any accident by going a few at a time, and
each man leading his horse. When the artillery came up, doubts were
entertained of the possibility of getting it over. The general had placed
himself on an eminence, to see his army file to the opposite side of the
river. A consultation was held upon the practicability of passing the
guns. Captain Miller volunteered to conduct the first gun. The limber was
taken off, and drag ropes were fastened to the washers, to prevent the gun
from descending too rapidly. The trail, carried foremost, was held up by
two gunners, but, notwithstanding every precaution, the bridge swung from
side to side, and the carriage acquired so much velocity, that the gunners
who held up the trail, assisted by captain Miller, lost their equilibrium,
and the gun upset. The carriage, becoming entangled in the thong
balustrade, was prevented from falling into the river, but the platform of
the bridge acquired an inclination almost perpendicular, and all upon it
were obliged to cling to whatever they could catch hold of to save
themselves from being precipitated into the torrent, which rolled and
foamed sixty feet below. For some little time none dared go to the relief
of the party thus suspended, because it was supposed that the bridge would
snap asunder, and it was expected that in a few moments all would drop
into the abyss beneath. As nothing material gave way, the alarm on shore
subsided, and two or three men ventured on the bridge to give assistance.
The gun was dismounted with great difficulty, the carriage dismantled, and
conveyed piecemeal to the opposite shore. The rest of the artillery then
made a detour, and crossed at a ford four or five leagues lower down the
river.
Miller soon became advanced to the rank of brevet-major: in November,
1818, he joined Lord Cochrane, who took the command of the naval forces of
Chile, and was accompanied by major Miller, as commander of the marines,
in nearly all his expeditions. Lord Cochrane failing in his first attack
on Callao, resolved to fit out fire-ships, and a laboratory was
accordingly formed under the superintendance of major Miller. Here our
gallant adventurer was nearly destroyed by an accidental explosion; and in
an attack shortly afterwards at Pisco, he was desperately wounded, so that
his life was for seventeen days despaired of.
In the capture of Valdivia, one of the bravest exploits of modern warfare,
Miller acted a distinguished part, and narrowly escaped destruction, a
ball passing through his hat, and grazing the crown of his head. The
narrative of this glorious scene is unfortunately too long for
transference to our columns, and the omission of any of the details would
interfere with its glowing interest.
Miller was again wounded in an unsuccessful attempt, under Lord Cochrane,
to capture the Island of Chiloe. In June, 1820, he was made
lieutenant-colonel of the eighth battalion of Buenos Ayres, and in the
August following, he embarked for Valparaiso, with his battalion, forming
a part of the liberating army of Peru. They made the passage to Pisco, a
distance of 1,500 miles, in fifteen days; and from this point commenced
that series of sanguinary conflicts which terminated, in five years, in
the complete liberation of the country of the Incas. During the land
operations was Lord Cochrane's triumphant capture of the Spanish frigate,
the Esmeralda, in the fort of Callao, which is briefly but vividly told.
Early in 1821, lieutenant-colonel Miller abandoned Pasco, and re-embarked
for the fort of Arica; and after a hair-breadth escape, landed ten leagues
north of that point. The colonel now advanced with his little army of 400
men into the country, where he routed the royalist troops, and in a
fortnight killed or captured more than 600 Spaniards. In 1822, he was
promoted to the rank of colonel, and the civil and military government of
an extensive district in Peru; in which year also he was engaged in
several important battles. In the beginning of 1823, with only a company
of _caçadores_, he harassed the royalists for several months; and so
alarmed the enemy by the rapidity of his movements, that he often passed
the hostile division, of a thousand men, without their daring to attack
him. Of the country in which these operations were carried on, the general
gives a frightful picture.
In 1823, colonel Miller, was promoted to the rank of general of brigade,
and in the same year he became chief of the staff of the Peruvian army. In
1824, he was introduced to _Bolivar_. On the 13th of June he crossed
the Andes to take the command of 1,500 montoneros (a body of men very
similar to the Guerillas of Spain,) who occupied the country round Pasco.
The difficulties of this service, and the perils of a campaign in the
Andes, may be well inferred from the following passages:--
It often occurred during the campaign of 1824, that the cavalry being in
the rear, were, by a succession of various obstructions, prevented from
accomplishing the day's march before nightfall. It then became necessary
for every man to dismount, and to lead the two animals in his charge, to
avoid going astray, or tumbling headlong down the most frightful
precipices. But the utmost precaution did not always prevent the corps
from losing their way. Sometimes men, at the head of a battalion, would
continue to follow the windings of a deafening torrent, instead of turning
abruptly to the right or left, up some rocky acclivity, over which lay
their proper course; whilst others who chanced to be right, would pursue
the proper track. The line was so drawn out, that there were unavoidably
many intervals, and it was easy for such mistakes to occur, although
trumpeters were placed at regular distances expressly to prevent
separation. One party was frequently heard hallowing from an apparently
fathomless ravine, to their comrades passing over some high projecting
summit, to know if they were going right. These would answer with their
trumpets; but it often occurred that both parties had lost their road. The
frequent sound of trumpets along the broken line--the shouting of officers
to their men at a distance--the neighing of horses, and the braying of
mules, both men and animals being alike anxious to reach a place of rest,
produced a strange and fearful concert, echoed, in the darkness of the
night, from the horrid solitude of the Andes. After many fruitless
attempts to discover the proper route, a halt until daybreak was usually
the last resource. The sufferings of the men and animals on those
occasions were extreme. The thermometer was generally below the freezing
point, amidst which they were sometimes overtaken by terrific snow-storms.
These difficulties and hardships were not so severely felt by the
infantry, for, unincumbered with the charge of horses, it was an easy
matter for them to turn back, whereas it was often impossible for the
cavalry to do so, the path on the mountain-side being generally too narrow
to admit of horses turning round. It happened more than once, that the
squadron in front, having ascertained that it had taken a wrong direction,
was nevertheless compelled to advance until it reached some open spot,
where the men were enabled to assemble, and wait for the hindmost of their
comrades, and then retrace their steps. After having pursued this plan,
the troops have met another squadron following the same track; and, under
such circumstances, it has required hours for either to effect a
countermarch. In this complicated operation many an animal was hurled down
the precipice and dashed to pieces, nor did their riders always escape a
similar fate.
In the mountainous regions of the interior, nature presents difficulties
which, though of a different description, are equally as appalling as
those experienced on the coast. The sheds erected at _pascanas_ (or
halting places) in the vast unpeopled tracts of the bleak mountain
districts, and on the table lands, were inadequate to afford shelter to
more than a small number, so that the greater part of the troops were
obliged to bivouac sometimes in places where the thermometer falls
_every night_ considerably below the freezing point, and this
_throughout the year_; whereas it often rises at noon, in the same
place, to 90 degrees. It may be readily imagined what must have been the
sufferings of men, born in, or accustomed to, the sultry temperature of
Truxillo, Guayaquil, Panama, or Cartagena. The difficulty of respiration,
called in some places _la puna_, and in others _el siroche_,
experienced in those parts of the Andes which most abound in metals, was
so great at times, that, whilst on the march, whole battalions would sink
down, as if by magic, and it would have been inflicting death to have
attempted to oblige them to proceed until they had rested and recovered
themselves. In many cases life was solely preserved by opening the
temporal artery. This sudden difficulty of respiration is supposed to be
caused by occasional exhalations of metalliferous vapour, which, being
inhaled into the lungs, causes a strong feeling of suffocation.
During certain months of the year, tremendous hail-storms occur. They have
fallen with such violence that the army has been obliged to halt, and the
men being compelled to hold up their knapsacks to protect their faces,
have had their hands so severely bruised and cut by large hail-stones as
to bleed copiously.
Thunder-storms are also particularly severe in the elevated regions. The
electric fluid is seen to fall around, in a manner unknown in other parts
of the world, and frequently causes loss of life. Such storms have often
burst at some distance below their feet, as the army climbed the lofty
ridges of the Andes.
The distressing fatigues of the most difficult marches in Europe cannot
perhaps be compared to those which the patriot soldiers underwent in the
campaign of 1824. From Caxamarca (memorable for the seizure and death of
Atuhualpa) to Cuzco, the whole line of the road (with the exception of the
plain between Pasco and the vicinity of Tarma, twenty leagues in extent,
and the valley of Xauxa) presents a continuation of rugged and fatiguing
ascents and declivities. That these difficulties do not diminish between
Cuzco and Potosi may be inferred from the following fact:--
When general Cordova's division marched from Cuzco to Puno, it halted at
Santa Rosa. During the night there was a heavy fall of snow. They
continued their march the next morning. The effects of the rays of the sun
reflected from the snow upon the eyes, produces a disease, which the
Peruvians call _surumpi_. It occasions blindness, accompanied by
excruciating pains. A pimple forms in the eye-ball, and causes an itching,
pricking pain, as though needles were continually piercing it. The
temporary loss of sight is occasioned by the impossibility of opening the
eye-lids for a single moment, the smallest ray of light being absolutely
insupportable. The only relief is a poultice of snow, but as that melts
away the tortures return. With the exception of twenty men and the guides,
who knew how to guard against the calamity, the whole division were struck
blind three leagues distant from the nearest human habitation. The guides
galloped on to a village in advance, and brought out a hundred Indians to
assist in leading the men. Many of the sufferers, maddened by pain, had
strayed away from the column, and perished before the return of the
guides, who, together with the Indians, took charge of long files of the
poor sightless soldiers, clinging to each other with agonized and
desperate grasp. During their dreary march by a rugged mountain path,
several fell down precipices, and were never heard of more. General Miller
suffered only fifteen hours from the _surumpi_, but the complaint
usually continues two days. Out of three thousand men, General Cordova
lost above a hundred. The regiment most affected was the _voltigeros_
(formerly Numancia), which had marched by land from Caracas, a distance of
upwards of two thousand leagues.
General Miller's share in the triumph of Junin was witnessed by Bolivar,
in August, 1824; and at the victory of Ayacucho, which terminated the war
in Peru, general Miller was foremost in the thickest of the fight.
We are now drawing near to the close of our outline of the general's
brilliant career. At the conclusion of the war in 1825, he was appointed
prefect of the department of Potosi, with a population of 300,000 souls.
He was going on prosperously in his labours of peace, in improving the
condition of the natives, who had for three centuries been writhing under
the most infamous oppression, when his health required that he should
visit Europe. In October, 1825, he resigned his honourable office, and
obtained leave of absence to return to his native country, bringing with
him an unsolicited testimonial from Bolivar, of his heroism in the
campaign of 1824. General Miller is now in England, and in circles where
his merit is known, he is received with the highest respect.
In our hasty sketch, we have glanced at only a few of the difficulties
with which General Miller was beset in his several enterprises in the
cause of South American independence. His career, though extending but to
seven years, is one of unparalleled interest, as well to the general
reader, as to the more calculating observer of the rise and progress of
infant liberty. His exploits have none of the daring or bravado of mere
adventures, but they are examples of sterling courage which have few
parallels in the annals of modern warfare. On his quitting Potosi for
England, it is mentioned that he was overwhelmed with testimonials of
popular affection. _We_ live in too advanced a state of refinement to
appreciate the ecstasy which his labours in the great and glorious cause
must have inspired among the native population of the scene of these
exploits; but as a fellow-countryman, we have reason to be proud of his
name, and of the high rank it will hereafter occupy in the records of
human character. He has laid the foundation of the happiness of thousands,
and sincerely do we wish that he may yet live many years to witness the
successful progress of the cause to which he has so gloriously
contributed.
We recommend such of our readers as take interest in genuine records of
glowing patriotism, to turn to general Miller's "Memoirs"--for such
volumes of exhaustless variety and importance are seldom met with in these
days of flimsy literature.
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