San Lorenzo, Battle of

views updated

San Lorenzo, Battle of

Battle of San Lorenzo, fought on 3 February 1813 between Spanish loyalists ascending the Paraná River and Argentine revolutionaries led by José de San Martín. This was the first engagement in which San Martín commanded the patriot forces following his return to Argentina from Spain in 1812. The site was a monastery not far from Rosario, on the west bank of the Paraná. Troops from a Spanish flotilla landed and began to move inland, only to be surprised and routed by the mounted grenadiers whom San Martín had concealed behind the building. Though few men were involved, the victory helped secure the river for the patriots and gave an important boost to morale.

See alsoWars of Independence, South America .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. C. J. Metford, San Martín the Liberator (1950), pp. 36-38.

Ricardo Rojas, San Martín, Knight of the Andes, translated by Herschel Brickell and Carlos Videla (1967), pp. 31-35.

Additional Bibliography

Luna, Félix. La emancipación argentina y americana. Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1998.

Pasquali, Patricia. San Martín: La fuerza de la misión y la soledad de la gloria: Biografía. Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1999.

Ruiz Moreno, Isidoro J. Campañas militares argentinas: La política y la Guerra. v. 1-2. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2005.

Szuchman, Mark D., and Jonathan C. Brown. Revolution and Restoration: The Rearrangement of Power in Argentina, 1776–1860. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

                                      David Bushnell

More From encyclopedia.com