Salvete Omnes,
today we will canter to Argentina, when the country was being born and its cavalry too.
I saw this monument by Fernando Pugliese on the Argentinian portal and decided to do a quick post about the Argentinian cavalry and their first victorious battle, of San Lorenzo, during long war for the Latin American independence.
In early March 1812 Lt. Colonel Jose Francisco de San Martin petitioned the junta (el Primer Triunvirato) to organize cavalry unit for the rebellion and on March 16, 1812 the first squadron of the cavalry (Ganaderos a Caballo) was born, housed in the Cuartel de la Rancheria (moved in May 1812 to the Cuarteles de el Retiro) in Buenos Aires. In September 1812 2nd squadron was organized, and the 3rd was formed in the late 1812.
The newly formed cavalry regiment consisted of 3 squadrons,
each squadron : 1 squadron commander,
1 squadron Corporal Major, 1 Adjutant Major, 1 Guidon Bearer
1 cavalry captain, 1 cavalry lieutenant and 1 cornet.
9 cavalry sergeants, 3 cavalry corporals, 31 cavalry grenadiers and one cavalry trumpeter
The cavalrymen were armed with lances, flintlock carbines, and curved sabres. They rode in the so called Hungarian saddles.*
Montevideo, the capital of Spanish viceroyality of La Plata, was under siege of the rebellion's forces (or Republican) but royalist organized naval raids on the settlements along Rio de la Plata, using ships, boats and naval-borne infantry aka marines. That February 1813 the royalist landing force force, 250 militia infantry with 4 artillery guns, were about to raid the vicinity of the settlement of San Lorenzo.
De San Martin was ordered to 'raid the raiders' and upon scouting the plains around the San Lorenzo Convent he prepared, in a gaucho fashion, a dawn surprise attack on the raiders coming onto the land from their ships and boats. During this expedition he led 125 cavalry, men and horses, and 50 militia.
Lt. Colonel de San Martin ordered his cavalry to use their white arms only and his cavalry, divided in two columns of 60 each moved, in a pincer movement, charged the infantry, fought a hard fight and eventually defeated the raiding royalists.
during the fighting one of the cavalrymen, el sargento Juan Bautista Cabral, saved de San Martin's life, when lt. colonel de San Martin was pinned down by his fallen horse and in danger of betting killed - as depicted in the said monument in from the the modern regiment's barracks.
* original document printed in ''La Revista de Buenos Aires,' v. Iv, 1864 page 480-1 ,
the Regiment is the guard regiment of the Argentinian army -
Valete
