Ordoñez and all his principal officers, with the exception of Rodil, who escaped, gave up their swords to Las Heras, and the victory was complete. This was the hardest fought battle in all the War of Independence. The Royalists lost 1,000 killed, twelve guns, four flags, and a great quantity of small arms, ammunition, and baggage captured; and one general, four colonels, seven lieutenant-colonels, 150 officers, and 2,200 men were made prisoners. The Patriots lost more than 1,000 men killed and wounded, the greatest sufferers being the freed negroes of Cuyo, of whom more than half remained upon the field.
Great tactical skill was displayed by San Martin in this battle. The victory was achieved by the opportune attack of the reserve upon the weakest flank of the enemy. Like Epaminondas, he won only two great battles, and both by the oblique movement invented by the Greek general. Its importance was only equalled by that of Boyacá and that of Ayacucho; and without Maipó neither the one nor the other would have been fought. Maipó crushed the spirit of the Spanish army in America, and that of all adherents to the cause of royalty from Mexico to Peru. It had, further, the singular merit of being won by a beaten army fifteen days after its defeat.
The Arequipa battalion retreated in good order, under Rodil, but dispersed after crossing the Maule. This battalion and the dispersed cavalry were all who escaped from the field. San Martin had witnessed the flight of Osorio, and sent O’Brien after him with a party of cavalry. However, he escaped by the coast, leaving his carriage, with all his correspondence, in the hands of his pursuer, and reached Talcahuano on the 14th April with fourteen men. There he was joined by 600 more of the fugitives—all that remained of the victors of Cancha-Rayada.
San Martin made small use of his victory. He at once despatched Freyre in pursuit with a party of cavalry, but not until the guerillas began to commit depredations did he send Zapiola with 250 grenadiers to maintain order in the South. Osorio made use of this respite to strengthen himself in Concepcion and Talcahuano, and, by calling in outlying detachments, succeeded in collecting 1,200 men by the middle of May.
Pezuela, who fully appreciated the magnitude of the disaster, wrote to the Viceroy of New Granada and Venezuela for reinforcements. Sámano sent him the Numancia battalion, 1,200 strong, weakening himself at the time that he was threatened by Bolívar; but Morillo could send him none from Venezuela, and he confined his efforts to making preparations against invasion, leaving Osorio unaided to sustain himself in Chile as he could.
On the 21st May Osorio sent two detachments across the Nuble, one of which surprised the town of Parrol. Zapiola sent off Captain Cajaravilla with 200 horse to retake the town, which task he gallantly accomplished, capturing 70 prisoners; while Lieutenant Rodriguez of the grenadiers cut the other detachment to pieces at Quirihue. This put a stop to the efforts of the Royalists for that time, and Zapiola, being reinforced, determined to attack Chillán, where Colonel Lantaño was in command with a garrison of 500 men. The expedition was confided to Cajaravilla, who attempted to carry the place by assault, but was beaten off and compelled to retire.
Osorio, fearing that he would be attacked in the spring by the whole united army, resolved to evacuate Talcahuano, and to return to Peru. Accordingly, on the 5th September, he left Colonel Sanchez in command of the Chilian Royalists, and, after dismantling the fortifications, sailed for Callao on the 8th with thirty-five heavy guns, a great quantity of war material, and 700 Spanish troops—all that remained of the strong reinforcement he had brought with him.
CHAPTER XIX.
AFTER MAIPO.
1818.
THE same day on which the despatch announcing the victory of Maipó reached Mendoza, Don Luis and Don Juan José Carrera were shot in that city. The suit against them had been carried on in a most irregular manner, both in Mendoza and in Santiago. Don Luis was accused and convicted of having violated a mail bag; Don Juan José was accused of the murder of a boy, of which there was no proof. Both were indicted for conspiracy against Chile in Argentine territory, and in Chile for high treason. It was at once an international, criminal, and political case, and was tried by two courts of different nationalities, and totally independent of one another. The Argentine Government was by accident, and San Martin indirectly mixed up in it. Questions of jurisdiction arose, and the case was still pending when, in February, 1818, Don Luis was discovered to be engaged in a conspiracy against the Government of Cuyo.
After the disaster of Cancha-Rayada fugitives from Chile spread panic through the province, and Luzuriaga, the Governor, asked permission to send the accused to Buenos Ayres; he was apprehensive of what might happen should another defeat bring upon him a flood of Chilian emigrants, but the municipality called upon him in the name of the people to finish the case at once. He then appointed three judges to try the case, of whom one was Dr. Monteagudo, who was one of the fugitives from Chile. On the 8th April at 3 P.M. both the accused were sentenced to death; at 5 P.M. they were shot. They fell not so much in expiation of crimes committed as in sacrifice to the necessities of the Argentine-Chileno Alliance.