The forgotten fight in the middle of the desert in which Peru defeated Chile in the Pacific War

The head of the Ministry of War, Moisés Vargas, barely noticed the town of Quillagua, nestled in the driest desert in the world. “A small village of 77 inhabitants near the Loa”, written for him Newsletter of the Pacific War, a compendium of news and information from the front distributed to authorities and consular officers. “This village is the crossroads of different roads: There are more than those we have named: the one that goes to the mouth of the Loa River following its north bank and [sic] the one that unites this point with Tocopilla”.

In this town near the banks of the Loa River, the The Chilean army concentrated a unit of hunters on horseback, composed of 30 horsemen. It was October 1879 and Chile’s war against its allies Peru and Bolivia was tense. The country was on the verge of consolidating its dominance over the sea and had already taken control of the Bolivian coastal department, the current region of Antofagasta. But there was a fear What if the enemies attacked from the desert, and if the Bolivians brought down a large army from the altiplano to try to reconquer Antofagasta?

The Chilean President, Aníbal Pinto, was one of the few to observe the situation with more serenity. “I thought it was impossible for a Bolivian army to be able to cross the immense desert that separates the highlands from the coast, for lack of accommodation, food and roads. . At most, he said, he could come in the evening. This assumes that Bolivia had a ready army, which he also did not believe from the reports he had received, ”says Gonzalo Bulnes in his classic Pacific War.

For this reason, the installation of small cavalry units was organized to protect the Loa line. and watch out for possible enemy incursions. In fact, there were a few skirmishes between the Cazadores and scattered Bolivian cavalry. But in Peru, on the other side of the banks of the Loa, the concern was there. Aware that the naval campaign could end at any time with the capture of the Huáscar (October 8 at Punta Angamos), the high command considered the possibility that the Chilean army would begin its invasion of Tarapacá from the line of the Loa.

The Peruvians therefore took action. “The Peruvian general staff, calculating that the enemy would attempt an attack through Quillagua, reconnoitered the terrain, with about 32 men. commanded by the Chief of Staff, General Colonel Suárez”, details the Peruvian Mariano Paz Soldan in his book Chile’s war against Peru and Bolivia.

In his part of the expedition, compiled by Paz Soldán, Suárez details that he fell with 50 mounted hussars, but left 18 under the protection of food reserves in a place called Monte de la Soledad, where there were also other soldiers and a group of sick people. . Thus, with 32 men, he took the path taken by the muleteers who brought down the cattle from Argentina to reach the banks of the Loa. The march had been hard and thirst parched the throats of troops and animals. On the spot the horses were watered and the exhausted riders filled their water bottles. They were already half a league from the Chilean camp at Quillagua.

It was the dark night of October 10 when the Peruvians decided to advance. The dense desert fog hid them from enemy sight. “A sentry stopped us and would have been taken with great utility for our operations without the imprudence of one of ours who answered “who lives” with a shot” , details Suárez for his part. This alerted the Chilean horsemen, who decided to set off in pursuit of the hussars.

In the war bulletin, the Peruvian advance to Quillagua was reported. “They got to this point around two in the morning on the 10th, and having given them the watchman who lives! they answered the Peruvians! and at the same time they fired six bullets , which the sentry did not hit any. In a continuous act, he informed the commander of what was happening and he ordered Lieutenant Don Belisario Amor to pursue the enemy with 30 mounted chasseurs. [sic]”.

The Chilean horsemen pursued the Peruvian hussars, who were firing from behind. Noticing that the horses were tired, Suárez spotted a ridge from which he dismounted his men. There, he suffered two attacks from Chilean fighters. For his part, he assures that after exchanging a few shots, they withdrew in the middle of the fog, with apparently some wounded. For this reason they continued on their way to Mount de la Soledad, where they arrived around two o’clock in the afternoon. Here were the rest of the horsemen he had left behind.

But Suárez did not know that the unit commanded by the Chilean lieutenant Belisario Amor had found them. They were just beginning to reach the mountain when gunshots rang out from a tamarugo forest. It was an ambush by Chilean hunters.

“I ordered the deployment of the force and I entered the forest, and After fighting for some time, we succeeded, thanks to the courage of our soldiers and the speed of our horses, in dispersing the enemy and taking nine prisoners. , says Suárez on his side. The Peruvian charge, this time outnumbered, had succeeded in repelling the Chilean offensive and capturing troops, carbines, short sabers and even pack mules. According to the same commander, his unit had no casualties, but two dead Chileans were found on the ground whose bodies were cremated on the spot. The misfortune of dying in the crushing solitude of the desert prevented the possibility of a burial. A common situation throughout the war.

In the version of this fight recorded in the war bulletin there are conflicting details. It is said that indeed, the small division of Amor had succeeded in charging against the hussars after having driven them from the Chilean camp. In his pursuit, “he traveled about 16 leagues until he left them in the vicinity of Monte de la Soledad”. at that time they were waiting for them, sheltered on a hill, about 100 infantry . As much for the increased number of enemies as for the weakened ones [sic] of our meager cavalry, Lieutenant Amor deemed it appropriate to begin the withdrawal”.

In the square the Peruvians had increased their forces with the late horsemen and other soldiers who were there, which explains the dissolution of the Amur horsemen. He Newsletter details as the Peruvian hussars “As soon as the infantry met, they fired on our hunters without hurting anyone, insulting them with the epithets of Chilean bandits, rogue robbers, etc., and inviting them to climb the hill where they were hiding behind natural parapets.” In other words, in the Chilean version, there were no deaths. The tension of war was also felt in the stories.