Battle of Martín García (1814)

Battle of Martín García

Date	10 to 15 March 1814
Location	Martín García island, Río de la Plata
Result	United Provinces victory

Belligerents

United Provinces of South America

Spanish Empire

Commanders and leaders

Guillermo Brown

Jacinto de Romarate

Strength

1 frigate
1 corvette
1 brigantine
2 schooners
1 Falucho
1 sloop [91 cannons] 415 sailors and 177 troops.

2 brigantines
1 brigantine
1 sloop
3 gunboats
1 landing craft and 4 minor vessels
[39 cannons (2 in battery)] 430 troops.

Casualties and losses

one damaged vessel, 23 dead, 35 wounded

one captured minor vessel, 10 dead, 47 prisoners, 17 wounded

The Battle of Martín García was fought from 10 to 15 March 1814 between the forces of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata under the command of then-Lieutenant Colonel Guillermo Brown, and the royalist forces commanded by frigate captain Jacinto de Romarate, defending the region.

After a small naval engagement where the running aground of the leading revolutionary vessel gave the royalists a small victory, but suffering numerous casualties, the United Provinces troops took the island by assault forcing Romarate's squadron to retreat.

Brown's victory divided the enemy's forces, and secured the United Provinces' control of access to the interior waterways, and made possible their advance on Montevideo. After the decisive victory at the Buceo engagement, they could also blockade the city to the open sea completing the land blockade by the army, causing the city's surrender.

On 25 May 1810 the May Revolution in Buenos Aires deposed viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros and established a local government known as the Primera Junta. Montevideo, at the eastern side of the Río de La Plata (the Banda Oriental, modern-day Uruguay), did not acknowledge their authority, and recognized instead the Cádiz Cortes established in Cádiz, Spain. This was resisted in the countryside around Montevideo, and the "Cry of Asencio" began the armed conflicts in the area. Montevideo was soon surrounded and sieged, by the militias under José Gervasio Artigas and Buenos Aires forces under José Rondeau.

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Wikipedia