THE ARMY OF THE ANDES.
1816--1817.
The organization of the Army of the Andes is one of the most
extraordinary feats recorded in military history. It was a war machine,
composed of men filled with the spirit of the Argentine Revolution and
with a passion for things American, without which spirit and without
which passion it could never have achieved the task before it. Never was
the military automaton more thoroughly endued with human energy.
The auxiliary corps of Las Heras formed the nucleus of this army, to
which was soon added two companies of the 8th Regiment from Buenos
Ayres, with four field guns. In 1815 Colonel Zapiola joined it with two
squadrons of the Grenadiers. These corps were greatly strengthened by
volunteers, who joined them in Cuyo.
In 1816 the new Government appointed by the Congress of Tucuman,
constituted it formally as THE ARMY OF THE ANDES, under the command of
San Martin as Captain-General, with General Soler as chief of the Staff,
and further strengthened it with the 7th Regiment of Infantry from
Buenos Ayres, and additions to the 8th; Colonel Conde being placed in
command of the 8th, and Colonel Cramer, a Frenchman, who had served
under Napoleon, in command of the 7th. The 11th, under Las Heras, was
divided into two battalions, of which the second became the 1st Light
Infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Alvarado. A fifth squadron under
Necochea was added to the Grenadiers. Thus early in September the army
numbered 2,300 men with the flags, a force still insufficient for the
work, but recruiting went on briskly.
The question of giving freedom to all slaves who would enlist being
under discussion at Tucuman, San Martin spread the report in Cuyo that
the idea was to be carried out, and advised the Cabildos to prevail upon
the slaveowners to set their slaves free before the project became law.
There was much unwillingness to accede to this proposition, but at
length it was resolved to set two-thirds of the slaves free, the
manumission not to be effective until the army crossed the Andes. This
gave a further reinforcement of 710 men to the infantry. Before the end
of the year the army numbered 4,000 men, almost all of whom were
Argentines. The Chilian emigrants were organized into a reserve as the
nucleus for the future army of Chile. This reserve was placed under
command of O’Higgins, who received a commission as a General of the
United Provinces, but within it were many partizans of Carrera, upon
whom San Martin looked with suspicion.
This army was sustained by a combination of patriotic subscriptions,
gratuitous services, and of regular and arbitrary taxes. Some carried
arms, others gave money or labour, all the inhabitants of Cuyo
contributed in some way or another to the great work. For the furnishing
of arms, powder and equipments, special measures were adopted. San
Martin found the man he wanted for this work in a mendicant friar named
Luis Beltran. This Beltran was a native of Mendoza, and being in Chile
at the time of the revolution had joined the Patriots and served as an
artilleryman at the siege of Chillán. After Rancagua he returned on foot
to his own country, with a bag of tools of his own making on his
shoulders. Self-taught, he was at once a mathematician and a chemist, an
artilleryman and a maker of watches or of fireworks, a carpenter, an
architect, a blacksmith, a draughtsman, a cobbler, and a physician. In
addition he was of a robust constitution and of soldierly bearing. He
became one of the chaplains of the new army. San Martin soon discovered
his extraordinary talents, and entrusted him with the establishment of
an arsenal. Soon he had three hundred workmen under his orders, all of
whom were taught by himself. He cast cannon, shot, and shell, melting
down the church bells when other metal was not to be had; he made
limbers for the guns, saddles for the cavalry, knapsacks and shoes for
the infantry, and all other kinds of necessary equipment; forged
horseshoes and bayonets, repaired damaged muskets, and in his leisure
moments drew on the walls of his grimy workshop designs for carriages
specially adapted for the conveyance of war material over the steep
passes of the Andes. In 1816, he took off his friar’s frock, donned the
uniform of a lieutenant of artillery, with a monthly salary of 25
dollars, and became the Archimedes of the Army of the Andes.
In addition to this arsenal, San Martin established a laboratory of
saltpetre and a powder factory, in charge of his aide-de-camp Major
Condarco, using water power to work the machines. This factory produced
excellent gunpowder, sufficient for the supply of the army, at very
small cost. He also set up a manufactory of army cloth, which cloth was
dyed blue, and uniforms for the troops were made of it by the women of
Mendoza, free of charge. A military tribunal was created, and the
medical staff was organized under Dr. Paroissien, a naturalised
Englishman. The commissariat and treasury were also placed under the
strictest regulations. Everything was prepared for an offensive war, and
for distant operations.
In May, 1816, the scheme was almost upset by the persistence of the
Central Government in prosecuting the war in Upper Peru. San Martin had
taken great interest in the projected Congress of Tucuman since the idea
was first mooted, looking upon it as the last hope of the revolution.
Four deputies were sent from Cuyo, who were all friends of his, and who
took deep interest in his plan. One of them, Don Juan Martin Pueyrredon,
was elected President.
The majority of this Congress were in favour of the establishment of a
constitutional monarchy. San Martin and Belgrano, who commanded the
armies of Cuyo and the North, were the pillars of the State edifice,
and, though San Martin was in theory a Republican, they both shared in
this opinion, but both were equally convinced that the first step should
be a Declaration of Independence, in order to put an end to the present
anomalous position, in which they, still nominally subject to the King
of Spain, made war upon Spain under a flag of their own. Thus the
Declaration of Independence on the 9th July was welcomed by San Martin
as a master stroke of policy.
Don Juan Martin Pueyrredon, now President of the United Provinces, had
already so far adopted the military ideas of San Martin, that on the
16th June he had given orders for the despatch of men and arms to Cuyo,
but San Martin was not content with mere acquiescence in his plans, he
wanted the hearty approval and concurrence of the Chief of the State. He
accordingly left Mendoza for Cordoba on the 15th July, and there met the
President. The conference lasted three days and resulted in a complete
understanding between them.
Then as no maps existed of the passes of the Andes, he sent his
aide-de-camp Condarco, who was a skilful engineer, with a copy of the
Declaration of Independence to the Governor of Chile.
“But,” he said to him as he gave him his instructions, “your real errand
is to reconnoitre for me the roads by Los Patos and Uspallata. Without
making a note, you must bring back in your head a plan of them both. I
shall send you by Los Patos which is the longest road, and as they are
certain to send you back at once, if they don’t hang you, you will
return by Uspallata, which is the nearest way.”
As San Martin had anticipated, the copy of the declaration which
Condarco presented to Marcó del Pont, was burned by the public hangman
of Santiago, and the messenger was sent back at once with scant
courtesy, but in his receptive brain he brought with him plans of both
roads, which he drew out on paper at his leisure, and these plans so
obtained, became the chart of the first operations of the Army of the
Andes.
In the early spring, San Martin brought the various corps of his army
from their cantonments, and encamped them on an open plain about a
league to the north of Mendoza, where the recruits were thoroughly
drilled, and the whole force was taught to act in concert. Every hour of
the day had its allotted work, and in the evening the officers attended
classes for instruction in tactics. To complete its organization, a
printing press was added to the stores, from which bulletins of victory
were to issue to the world, teaching to the liberated people the
principles of the Argentine revolution, which the soldiery supported
with their bayonets.
On the 17th January, 1817, there was high holiday in the city of
Mendoza. The streets and plaza were decorated with flags and streamers.
The whole army marched in to salute the Virgen del Carmen as its patron
saint, and to receive a special army flag embroidered by the ladies of
the city. When the usual formalities were over, San Martin ascended a
platform in the great square with the flag in his hand, and waving it
over his head, said in a voice which could be heard by all:--
“Soldiers! This is the first independent flag which has been blessed in
America.”
One great shout of “Viva la Patria!” rose from the people and the troops
in answer.
Then he added--
“Soldiers! Swear to sustain it and to die in defence of it, as I swear
to do.”
“We swear!” was the answer from four thousand throats. A triple
discharge of musketry and twenty-five guns, then saluted this new flag,
the flag of redemption for one-half of South America, which passed the
Cordillera, waved in triumph along the Pacific Coast, floated over the
foundations of two new Republics, aided in the liberation of another,
and after sixty-four years, served as a funeral pall to the body of the
hero, who thus delivered it to the care of the immortal Army of the
Andes.