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Battle of La Concepción

Battle of Concepción
Part of War of the Pacific
La Concepción is a little town at the Mantaro River. Roads and railroads at that time are drawn.
Date July 9, 10 of 1882
Location Concepción, Perú
Result Peruvian victory
Belligerents
 Chile  Peru
Commanders and leaders
Chile Captain Ignacio Carrera Pinto Peru Colonel Juan Gastó
Strength
77 soldiers 300 soldiers, 1 000 guerrillas
Casualties and losses
77 soldiers According to Peruvian sources: 40 soldiers (injured or killed)
According to Chilean sources: 250 guerrillas killed

The Battle of Concepción (Spanish: Batalla de Concepción) was fought on July 9 and July 10, 1882, during the Sierra Campaign of the War of the Pacific. Heavily outnumbered, the Chilean detachment of 77 men under the command of Lieutenant Ignacio Carrera Pinto was annihilated by a 1.300 Peruvian force, many of them armed with spears, commanded by Col. Juan Gasto and Ambrosio Salazar after a 27-hour fight in the small town of Concepción in the Peruvian Andes.

After the defeat at Miraflores and the invasion of the Peruvian capital city, many Peruvian officers escaped to the mountains and organized resistance. Among these men was Col. Andres Caceres, who successfully gained the sympathies of the farmers who lived totally disconnected from the preceding campaigns.

The Chilean occupation was directed by the recently appointed Admiral Patricio Lynch, who sent a division divided into several columns with the intention of sweeping the Andes and gaining control of the towns in the region. The first major force to be sent was a division under the command of Col Ambrosio Letelier, who was successful in his task, but committed abuses against the population. He was recalled to Lima and sent to Santiago to be court-martialed. The abuses perpetrated by Letelier's division generated discontent and hate of the invading troops, allowing Caceres to increase his troops easily.

In Lima, the Battle of Sangra took place on June 26, 1881, at the Hacienda de Sangrar, where a Chilean company commanded by José Luis Araneda fought with Peruvian forces commanded by Manuel Encarnación Vento.

In 1882, Col. Estanislao del Canto was sent to the Junin Department with orders to maintain control on the region and to find and eliminate Caceres forces. Del Canto's division had about 2,300 men and was formed from the "Tacna" 2nd Line, Lautaro and "Chacabuco" 6th Line infantry battalions, one "Yungay Carabiners" Cav. Squadron, and one artillery brigade from the 1st Artillery Regt.

At Pucara on February 5, Caceres's and del Canto's forces clashed. On the 22nd, Caceres defeated his fellow Peruvian Col. Arnaldo Panizo at Acuchimay, taking control of Panizo's army and increasing his own.

Ambrosio Salazar Márquez was sent by Cáceres to organize a guerrilla in Comas, but his attempt to organize was rejected by the rural farmers.


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Wikipedia

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