Carrasco's participation in the contest between Peru and Bolivia against Chile is little known. However, it is known that thanks to him Bolivia won one of the few battles against the Chilean Army.[5][6]
On December 6, 1879, 70 chicheños snipers defeated 24 Chileans in the Tambillo gorge. The Chilean troops were preparing to enter Oruro and Potosí to cut supplies from Sucre.[7]
After the defeat, which left 9 dead and 11 wounded in the Grenadiers of Chile; Carrasco's men obtained 11 prisoners and a booty of 18 Winchester rifles, 14 swords, 16 beasts, and countless mounts, belts, and ammunition.
Carrasco's bravery, which was overshadowed despite his victory at Tambillo, is opposed to the performance of Narciso Campero. Campero was at the head of the Bolivian Fifth Division, of which Rufino was a colonel. After the Battle Tambillo was won, Carrasco raised the Bolivian flag in Atacama and waited for reinforcements that never arrived:
It is extremely strange to me that General (Narciso) Campero (...) after entrusting me with such a difficult expedition, launching me with only 70 men until I was within eight leagues where considerable enemy forces are, have not sent forces to support us. We, resolved to sacrifice ourselves for the homeland, we do not omit any means of doing so, but for any failure that may arise in the future, you and only you will be responsible to the Bolivian people, "wrote the colonel, in a letter sent to the Headquarters of the State. Bolivian major.
Those were the words of Carrasco, who ended up vacating Atacama due to the lack of reinforcements.
A year later, in 1880, Rufino Carrasco published a Manifesto on the expedition of the Bolivian coast, in which he gives an account of his participation in the conflict. This document was published in 2016, in a facsimile edition, by the Ministry of Defense of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.[8]
Bolivia
Bolivian Army