José de la Serna
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Don José de la Serna Count of los Andes |
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| Viceroy of Peru | |
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In office January 29, 1821 – December 9, 1824 |
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| Monarch | Ferdinand VII |
| Preceded by | Joaquín de la Pezuela |
| Succeeded by | Juan Pío de Tristán |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 1, 1770 Jerez de la Frontera, Spain |
| Died |
July 6, 1832 (aged 62) Cádiz, Spain |
| Profession | Lieutenant General |
| Signature |  |
José de la Serna e Hinojosa, 1st Count of los Andes (Spanish: José de la Serna e Hinojosa, primer conde de los Andes) (1770 – 1832) was a Spanish general and colonial official. He was the last Spanish viceroy of Peru to exercise effective power (January 29, 1821 to December 1824).
He entered the army at a young age and saw his first service (as a cadet) in the defense of Ceuta against the Moors in 1784. Later he saw service against the French in Catalonia (1795), against the British under Admiral José de Mazarredo (1797), and in the second siege of Zaragoza (1809). During the latter battle he was captured and taken to France as a prisoner. He soon escaped.
Thereafter he traveled in Switzerland and the Orient, finally returning to Spain in 1811. In Spain he fought under Wellington in the Spanish War of Independence against the French, until the expulsion of the latter in 1813.
In 1816, having risen to the rank of major general, he was appointed to take command of the Spanish forces in Peru battling the insurgents. He arrived in Callao on September 22, 1816 and proceeded directly to Alto Perú (now Bolivia). He took charge of the army in Cotagaita on November 12, 1816. Viceroy Joaquín de la Pezuela ordered De la Serna to attack Argentine insurgents in the province of Tucumán, but De la Serna opposed this plan, citing insufficient forces.
De la Serna had advanced as far as Salta when the Spanish were surprised by the appearance in February 1817 of José de San Martín's Army of the Andes in Chile. San Martín had made an arduous, 21-day crossing of the mountains from Argentina. He conquered Chile, and De la Serna's army in Alto Perú was reduced to defensive warfare against various rebel groups in different parts of the country.
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Wikipedia