Battle of Peralonso

The Santander Campaign was the first major campaign of the Thousand Days' War, fought in what are today the departments of Santander and Norte de Santander.^[11] After the Liberal defeat at the Battle of Bucaramanga on 13 November, Rafael Uribe Uribe withdrew his forces, hoping to make it to Cúcuta. This city was held by Benjamín Herrera’s army and close to the Venezuelan border, where the rebels hoped to receive military and economic support from Cipriano Castro.^[12][13] The Conservative government’s response to the victory at Bucaramanga was sluggish; it waited almost a month before it made any serious attempt to pressure the rebels.^[4] Conservative general Ramón González Valencia was initially authorized by his superior, Vicente Villamizar, to pursue Uribe’s forces and rout them before they could join up with Herrera’s forces. Villamizar countermanded this order shortly after 27 November, however, ordering González to await the arrival of General Isaías Luján’s I and II Divisions.^[7]

This delay allowed Uribe to arrive safely in Cúcuta and link up not only with Herrera, but also General Justo L. Durán, who had raised his own autonomous rebel army.^[7] When the Conservative army, numbering 8,000 soldiers, advanced on Cúcuta, it compelled the Liberals to withdraw.^[14] The Liberal retreat fragmented the rebel army, splitting it once again into the three autonomous armies commanded by Uribe, Herrera, and Durán. They converged around Cerro Tasajero, a strategic hill protected by the Táchira River and the Venezuelan border to the west, and the Aguablanca rail line linking Cúcuta to Puerto Villamizar.^[14][15] Herrera camped west of the Aguablanca line, Uribe camped on the heights, and Durán camped on the Venezuelan border, where they awaited the Conservatives’ next move.^[15]

The Conservative attack was delayed considerably by internal disputes over command of the army. President Manuel Antonio Sanclemente intended to promote General Manuel Casabianca to commander of the Northeastern Theater of Operations. Minister of War José Santos, a Conservative and rival to Sanclemente’s Nationalist Conservative cabinet, instead appointed Villamizar to the post on 22 November.^[16][4]

Several Conservative generals, including Ramón González Valencia, protested and sent Casabianca a telegram informing him that they awaited his arrival so that they could recognize him as commander of the Northeastern Theater. ^[17] Upon Casabianca’s arrival, however, he realized that Bogotá had not granted him the position and opted to return to his original posting on the Atlantic coast in order to avoid a potential revolt within the Conservative ranks. This left Villamizar in charge, per Santos’s decision, making him the Generalísimo of the Army of the Northeast.^[17]

While the Conservative leadership disputed command of the Northeastern Theater, the autonomous Liberal armies awaited their opponent’s move from their positions in and around Cerro Tasajero, a hill on the border with Venezuela. Although those positions were defendable, the Liberals lacked the munitions to hold the hill against a concentrated assault.^[18] The two sides exchanged messages and attempted to initiate negotiations.^[19][3] These proved unfruitful, however, and on the night of 13 December, the rebels secretly abandoned Cerro Tasajero, leaving behind a token force to continue burning campfires so that the government forces would not discover their movement until daybreak.^[20]

The Liberals hoped to cross the Zulia River west of Cúcuta and escape the Conservative forces. The rebels crossed the Zulia at a tributary, the Peralonso River. Although the Peralonso was shallow enough for the soldiers to wade across, rain had swollen the water, forcing them to cross at La Laja Bridge, a small suspension bridge that spanned the river.^[21][22][4] The rain stopped on the night of 14 December.^[23] Conservative advance forces under González caught up to the Liberals at the Peralonso on the morning of 15 December, and both sides dug trenches on either side of the river.^[24] The Liberals occupied the western bank of the river, and the Conservatives occupied the eastern bank. The two lines of battle stretched from Amarilla to the north to Caimito in the south.^[11]

The two armies exchanged fire ineffectively over the course of the day, with Villamizar apparently unwilling to commit his reserves.^[11] González’s vanguard was undersupplied and exhausted. However, the Conservative positions were more favorable, since they could take shelter behind a stone fence and fire through slits across the river.^[21][25] As a result, the Liberals were unable to push the government forces back and sustained heavy losses trying to take La Laja Bridge.^[11][25] Conservative reinforcements arrived that night.^[24] However, these trickled in only periodically, since the Conservative line was stretched more than seven leagues, with Villamizar’s headquarters established at the far end of this line. Further complicating the Conservative situation, Villamizar was only issuing his orders verbally.^[26]

On the morning of 16 December, the Conservative forces attempted to force a crossing south of La Laja Bridge at another bridge at Caimito. This attack failed, and by 9:00 a.m. the main force of the Conservative army had arrived to reinforce the advance forces.^[24] This gave the government forces a significant advantage and allowed them to slowly push the Liberals back, wounding Herrera in the leg in the process.^[24] At 12:00 p.m., a government battalion waded across the Peralonso at Amarilla and managed to advance on the Liberal headquarters at La Zulita. However, Villamizar ordered this battalion to return to its position on the Conservative flank, abandoning the attack.^[11]

The decisive moment came at 4:30 p.m., when Uribe and a small group of between 10 and 14 men charged across La Laja Bridge on foot.^[27] The Conservative defenders failed to inflict any losses on Uribe's party, only managing to wound Uribe himself in the leg,^[11][25] and when the Liberal party had crossed the bridge, the Conservatives abandoned their position. With the Conservative flank vulnerable, more rebels advanced across La Laja Bridge and started to push into the Conservative line.^[10]

In a moment of confusion, the Conservative command signaled a withdrawal on the bugles that transformed into a massive rout. Panic spread throughout the Conservative ranks as the government soldiers dropped their weapons and abandoned their positions on the battlefield.^[28] The Liberal forces drove their enemy from the field, ending the pursuit at nightfall, where they returned to recover the weapons, munitions, and other materials that the Conservatives had left where they fled.^[13] The battle had ended with a Liberal victory.