Ayacucho

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Engels informed Marx of his intention to write an article on Ayacucho on May 28, 1857, but he only began work on it about September 21, when Marx told him about the material he had collected. Extant are Marx’s excerpts from the article “Ayacucho” in the Encyclopédie des Gens du Monde (Vol. 2, Paris, 1833), from A View of South America (New York, 1826), from J. S. Florez’ Espartero. Historia de su vida Militär y Politica (vols. 1-4), and from M. A. Principe, R. Giron, R. Satorres, A. Ribot, Espartero: Su pasado, su présente, su parvenir (Madrid, 1848).

The battle of Ayacucho was most likely described by Engels. The concluding part belongs to Marx. The portrayal of Espartero and his followers conforms to that contained in Marx’s article “Espartero” written in 1854 for the New-York Daily Tribune (see present edition, Vol. 13, pp. 340-46). The article was sent off to New York on October 23, together with “Armada”.

Ayacucho, a department in the republic of Peru; pop. 131,921. Near its chief town, also named Ayacucho, the battle was fought which finally secured the independence of Spanish South America. After the battle of Junin (Aug. 6, 1824), the Spanish viceroy, Gen. La Serna, attempted by manoeuvring to cut off the communications of the insurgent army, under Gen. Sucre. Unsuccessful in this, he at last drew his opponent to the plain of Ayacucho, where the Spaniards took up a defensive position on a height. They numbered 13 battalions of infantry, with artillery and cavalry, in all 9,310 men. On Dec. 8, 1824, the advanced guards of both armies became engaged, and on the following day Sucre advanced with 5,780 men to the attack. The 2d Colombian division, under Gen. Cordova, attacked the Spanish left, and at once threw it into disorder. The Peruvian division on the left, under Gen. Lamar, met with a more obstinate resistance, and could make no progress until the reserve, under Gen. Lara, came up. The enemy’s retreat now becoming general, the cavalry was launched in pursuit, dispersing the Spanish horse and completing the defeat of the infantry. The Spaniards lost 6 generals killed and 2,600 killed, wounded, and prisoners, among the latter the viceroy. The South American loss was 1 general and 308 officers and men killed, 520 wounded, among them 6 generals. The next day Gen. Canterac, who now commanded the Spanish army, concluded a capitulation, by which not only he and all his troops surrendered prisoners of war, but also all the Spanish troops in Peru, all military posts, artillery, and magazines, and the whole of Peru, as far as they still held it (Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno, Quillca, &c), were delivered up to the insurgents. The troops thus delivered up as prisoners of war amounted in all to nearly 12,000. Thus the Spanish dominion was definitively destroyed, and on Aug. 26, 1825, the congress of Chuquisaca proclaimed the independence of the republic of Bolivia.

The name Ayacuchos has in Spain been given to Espartero and his military partisans. A portion of the military camarilla grouped around him had served with him in the war against the South American insurrection, where, beside by military comradeship, they were bound together by their common habits of gambling, and mutually pledged themselves to support each other politically when returned to Spain. This pledge they have honestly kept, much to their mutual interests. The nickname of Ayacuchos was conferred on them in order to imply that Espartero and his party had materially contributed to the unfortunate issue of that battle. This, however, is false, though the report has been so assiduously spread that even now it is generally credited in Spain. Espartero not only was not present at the battle of Ayacucho, but he was not even in America when it happened, being on his passage to Spain, whither Viceroy La Serna had sent him with despatches for Ferdinand VII. He had embarked at Quillca, June 5, 1824, in the British brig Tiber, arriving in Cadiz Sept. 28, and at Madrid Oct. 12, and again sailed for America from Bordeaux on that very same Dec. 9, 1824, on which the battle of Ayacucho was fought. (See Don José Segundo Florez, Espartero, Madrid, 1844 [-5], 4 vols., and Principe, Espartero, Madrid, 1848.)