Battle of Boyacá

On 7 August 1819, beside a small bridge over the Teatinos River in the Andes of central New Granada, a patriot army under Simón Bolívar destroyed the main royalist force in central New Granada in roughly two hours of fighting. The defeat caused Spanish government in Santa Fe (Bogotá) to collapse within days and opened the way to the creation of the Republic of Colombia, usually called Gran Colombia, at the end of the same year. It is remembered as one of the turning points of independence in northern South America.

In early July 1819 Bolívar led his Venezuelan and New Granadan troops, together with a British Legion of British and Irish volunteers, over the high Páramo de Pisba into the province of Boyacá. The crossing caught the Spanish off guard but left his men exhausted. Viceroy Juan de Sámano ordered Colonel José María Barreiro, commanding the III Division of the Spanish expeditionary army, to stop the patriots before they could reach the capital. The two sides first clashed at the Vargas Swamp on 25 July, a narrow patriot success.

Both armies now aimed for Santa Fe, which had only about 400 Spanish defenders. On 3 August Bolívar crossed the Chicamocha River in full view of the royalists, appeared to withdraw at nightfall, and then turned back in the dark to take another road. On 4 August his troops entered the lightly held city of Tunja and found 600 rifles there. Barreiro, realising that his link to the capital had been cut, tried to slip around Tunja through the mountains by night, in heavy rain, but patriot spies reported the move.

Early on 7 August the royalists marched for the Boyacá bridge, where the road to the capital crossed the swollen river. Bolívar watched them from heights near Tunja and sent his divisions to intercept them. Shortly before 2 p.m. patriot scouts met the Spanish vanguard resting near a farmhouse, the Casa de Teja. The royalist vanguard fell back across the bridge, while the patriot divisions under Francisco de Paula Santander and José Antonio Anzoátegui split the Spanish army in two.

Anzoátegui's battalions, including the British Legion, attacked the royalist rearguard on both flanks. The Spanish had carried their guns dismantled and managed to fire only a few shots. Patriot lancers then charged the infantry, the Spanish cavalry broke, and panic spread. Barreiro was captured. At the bridge, Santander forced a crossing with the bayonet while another column forded the river behind the defenders. The fighting was over soon after 4.30 p.m.

According to figures cited for the battle, the patriots lost about 13 killed and 53 wounded, while the royalists had some 100 killed, 150 wounded and around 1,600 taken prisoner. Many of the prisoners were themselves Venezuelans or New Granadans and were absorbed into Bolívar's army.

News of the defeat reached Sámano on the night of 8 August. He left Santa Fe the next morning, reportedly in disguise, heading for Cartagena, and abandoned archives and a large sum in gold and silver. Bolívar rode into the city on 10 August to a jubilant reception. On 11 October 1819, on Santander's orders, Barreiro and 38 other prisoners were executed in Bogotá under the earlier decree of "war to the death".

The victory freed much of central New Granada and led to its union with Venezuela as the Republic of Colombia in December 1819. Further patriot victories followed, from Carabobo to the Battle of Ayacucho in Peru. In Colombia 7 August is a national holiday and Army Day, and presidents take office on that date. The old bridge is preserved as a monument.

Our 1815 map shows the Viceroyalty of New Granada still within the Spanish Empire, shortly before the campaign; the 1878 map shows the independent republics that emerged from it.