The victory was by no means a decisive one, and the road to Tunja remained
in the hands of the royalists. Instead of again attacking his intrenched
foe, Bolivar now employed strategy, retreating during the day, then making
a rapid countermarch at night, thus passing Barreiro's forces in the dark
over by-roads. On the 5th of August Tunja fell into his hands. He found
there an abundance of war material, and by holding it he cut off
Barreiro's communication with Bogota.
The strength of Bolivar's generalship lay in rapid and unexpected
movements like this. The Spanish leaders, bound in the shackles of
military routine, were astonished and dismayed by the forced marches of
their enemies over roads that seemed unfit for the passage of an army.
While they were manoeuvring, calculating, hesitating, guarding the
customary avenues of approach, Bolivar would surprise them by
concentrating a superior force upon a point which they imagined safe from
attack, and, by throwing them into confusion, would cut up their forces in
detail. As a result, the actions of the patriot commander in the field
seemed less impressive than those of less notable generals, but the sum of
effects was far superior.
Bolivar's occupation of Tunja took the Spaniards by surprise. Barreiro,
finding himself unexpectedly cut off from his centre of supplies, fell
back upon Venta Quemada, where he was soon followed by his foe, anxious to
deal a decisive blow before the royal forces could concentrate. Boyaca,
the site now occupied by the hostile armies, was a wooded and mountainous
country and one well suited to Bolivar's characteristic tactics. Placing a
large part of his troops in ambush and manoeuvring so as to get his cavalry
in the enemy's rear, he advanced to the attack with a narrow front. On
this Barreiro made a furious assault, forcing his opponents to recoil. But
this retreat was only a stratagem, for, as they fell back, the Spaniards
found themselves suddenly attacked in the flank by the ambushed troops,
while the cavalry rode furiously upon their rear.
In a few minutes they were surrounded, and the fierce attack threw them
into utter confusion, in which the patriot army cut them down almost
without resistance. General Barreiro was taken prisoner on the field of
battle, throwing away his sword when he saw that escape was impossible, to
save himself the mortification of surrendering it to General Bolivar.
Colonel Ximenes, his second in command, was also taken, together with most
of the officers and more than sixteen hundred men. All their artillery,
ammunition, horses, etc., were captured, and a very small portion of the
army escaped. Some of these fled before the battle was decided, but many
of them were taken by the peasantry of the surrounding country and brought
in as prisoners. The loss of the patriots was incredibly small,--only
thirteen killed and fifty-three wounded.
Boyaca--after Maypo, by which Chili gained its freedom--was the great battle
of South America. It gave the patriots supremacy in the north, as Maypo
had done in the south. New Granada was freed from the Spaniards, and on
August 9, two days after the battle, the viceroy, Samana, hastily
evacuated Bogota, fleeing in such precipitate haste that in thirty hours
he reached Honda, usually a journey of three days. On the 12th Bolivar
triumphantly marched into the capital, and found in its coffers silver
coin to the value of half a million dollars, which the viceroy had left
behind in his haste.
It must be said further that the English auxiliaries aided greatly in the
results of these battles, their conduct giving Bolivar such gratification
that he made them all members of the Order of the Liberator.
It is not our purpose to tell the whole story of this implacable war, but
simply to relate the dramatic invasion and conquest of New Granada. It
must suffice, then, to state that the war dragged on for two years longer,
ending finally in 1821 with the victory of Carabobo, in which the
Spaniards were totally defeated and lost more than six thousand men. After
that they withdrew and a republic was organized, with Bolivar for its
president.
Two years later he aided the Peruvians in gaining their independence and
was declared their liberator and made supreme dictator of the country.
After ruling there absolutely for two years, he resigned and gave the
country a republican constitution. The congress of Lima elected him
president for life, and a new commonwealth was organized in the northern
section of Peru, to which the people gave the name of Bolivia, in honor of
the winner of their liberties.