Biography of Jose Maria Cordoba | Colombian military.

(José María Córdova or Córdoba Muñoz; La Concepción, 1799 - El Santuario, 1829) Colombian military. Known as the hero of Ayacucho for his important role in the decisive battle, was one of the most prominent military of the wars of emancipation of the America Latin (1810-1826), during which he served in the troops of José Antonio Páez, Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre. By its active participation in the successive battles of the war of independence of Colombia (1810-1819) is considered one of the founding fathers of the independence of the country.

José María Córdoba was born in La Concepción, Antioquia, on 8 September 1799, at home consisting of the Mayor of the place, Crisanto de Cordova and table, and Pascuala Muñoz Castrillon. In 1802, the family moved to the mining town of San Vicente, where Maria José received all instruction doctrine or Catechism of Saturdays. In 1808, the father decided for the sake of their businesses and their children settle in Rionegro; There he learned José Maria to read and write. Like other prominent Patriots, their education was, above all, self-taught. Three years later, in 1811, he accompanied his father on business trip to Cartagena, when it had already decreed the absolute independence of Spain.

Jose Maria Cordoba

In 1814, Francisco José de Caldas Sage organized Corps of engineers of the Republic of Antioquia, which José Maria entered in Medellin. It was the beginning of his military career, which continued with general Emmanuel Serviez when it marched south to support the Patriotic Army fighting in Cauca. The first fight he participated was that of Río Palo, a battalion commanded by José María Cabal; He was a brilliant performance and the up to then second lieutenant was promoted in the same field of battle effective Lieutenant. After the defeat of the blade of the Tambo, in 1816, a small number of men led by Serviez and Francisco de Paula Santander took refuge in the Eastern Plains; José María Córdoba joined this contingent.

In Casanare, the young lieutenant showed exemplary behaviour and dominated the horse as any Ranger, which caught attention, because almost none of the members of the defeated army knew well fitted. Córdoba took part in the battle of the lower Apure, planned by José Antonio Páez to seize the horses of realistic hosts. There the Lion of Apure won the first patriot victory after the Spanish reconquest. After the battle, Serviez was assassinated in November 1816, in a bohio opposite the town of Achaguas, allegedly on the orders of Paez. Cordoba, who estimated the Serviez (had been his master of arms and he had learned everything he knew), he tried to escape from the camp, but he was arrested and charged with desertion. When a Council condemned him to death, a group of officers led by casanareño caudillo Juan Nepomuceno Moreno interceded for him. Córdoba was forgiven and forced to join again the squad first.

Cordoba marched to Guiana in 1817 and the liberator Simon Bolivar incorporated it to its staff in June of that year. He participated in the taking of Angostura and witnessed, on 16 October, the execution of the rebel general Manuel Carlos Piar. On 14 November he was promoted to Cavalry Captain and became aide-de-camp of Carlos Soublette, Chief of General staff. December 31, 1817 general Bolívar traveled by the Orinoco in order to meet with Páez, meeting that took place in Cañafistula on 30 January 1818. At that meeting it was agreed that the Lion of Apure should seize the very important point of Calabozo, action which took place on 12 February; There the Liberator could annihilate the forces of Morillo, but did not do so and realists parapetaron at El Sombrero. There was combat in the Semen and the Patriots were defeated; After regrouping scattered troops, they returned to face the Spaniards in the field of Ortiz, no that would be a clear winner. In all these actions the Cordoba Captain showed great courage and great gifts as a strategist and warrior.

While Bolívar was elected in Angostura, February 15, 1819, as President, he decided to deliver the first New Granada; He met with Paez and Santander in Mantecal and started, on 15 June, the crossing of the Andes, with the intention of taking Santafe de Bogota. On July 25, 1819, in the battle of Vargas swamp, after the famous charge of the 14 Lancers led by Colonel Juan José Rondón and six hours of hard fighting, troops Patriots defeated the Spaniards and virtually sealed the independence. Cordoba was part of the battalion commanded by general José Antonio Anzoátegui. The final triumph of the Republican armies took place, August 7, Boyacá bridge.

The battalion of general Anzoátegui, which was part of Córdoba, was commissioned August 10, 1819 to pursue the viceroy Juan Sámano. Arrived the detachment to Honda, Cordoba separated on 20 August with a small troop of 100 men and marched to Antioch, where Bolívar had given him to permanently evict the last remnants of the Royalist Army in the province and on the Atlantic coast. Once he came to Antioquia territory, the young captain organized it politically and military: called on rows to the officers and soldiers who had collaborated with the Republic above, and with the help of Captain Carlos Robledo took Medellin, named José Manuel Restrepo, on 31 August, as political Governor and dispatched, on 9 September, Juan María Gómez to Chocó , with order evicting from the region to the Spaniards.

Pressure the Spaniards put on Antioch was great. However, Cordoba was able to deal with the situation; He did not hesitate to shoot those who opposed the Republic, seized assets and expelled by order of the Liberator suspected royalists. In the administrative field was also very active: reorganized the printing press and gunpowder factory and strengthened the Treasury by the income of the tobacconist from tobacco and liquor regulation. The ultimate victory of the Patriots on the royalists in Antioquia territory Cordoba led it when, on February 12, 1820, clashed at the site of Chorros-Blancos Spanish colonels Francisco Warleta and Carlos Tolrá, who he beat in a battle of just one hour.

After the triumph, Bolívar asked that it recovered Mompos and the rio Magdalena, fluvial artery of paramount importance for the economy of the country. He appointed him Commander of the columns of the Cauca and Magdalena operations. Cordoba marched quickly to comply with the order of the liberator and the 3 June 1820 he held Magangue, June 20 recovered Mompos and at the end of the month the Lieutenant-Colonel Hermogenes Maza, Deputy Commander of Cordoba, Tenerife took: thus the Magdalena river was clean of escutcheons.

However, it was to free the city of Cartagena and the savannas of Corozal; to achieve such objective was planned a joint action in which participate the Colonel Mariano Montilla, Admiral Luis Brión, commander José Prudencio Padilla and Captain Cordoba. In August 1821, Padilla and José María Carreño managed to take possession of Santa Marta. Once taken the main square of the Spaniards on the Atlantic coast, the Patriots, commanded by José María Córdoba, proceeded to take Cartagena, which took place on October 10, 1821, thus expelling the realists of the territory of the New Granada. After the surrender of the city, Cordoba joined the Masonic lodge charities.

Once confirmed as President of Gran Colombia, Bolívar began the campaign in the South and ordered to José María Córdoba that, along with Hermogenes Maza and Alto Magdalena battalion, will be moved, via Panama, to Guayaquil, where should meet with the general Antonio José de Sucre. After many hardships, Córdoba and his men succeeded in joining the forces of Sucre. This confirmed as head of the Alto Magdalena battalion, and Maza was commissioned to pursue the guerrillas operating in that area.

At the battle of Pichincha, Sucre and his hosts defeated the Spanish Commander Shepherd of Aymerich. Cordoba had a very prominent role in that battle. Six months after the triumph, he was promoted to Brigadier general. It also contributed to the weakening of the pastusas realistic forces, commanded by the indigenous leader Agustín Agualongo; following an order of Sucre, it effected an enveloping movement while the Rifles battalion attacked head-on, in a move that carried out perfectly and managed to disperse enemy army.

Córdoba asked permission to visit his family and pass to Antioquia, interviewed in Bogota Vice-President Santander, who named him temporarily in command of arms of Cundinamarca, in replacement of Nariño, with whom Santander maintained a hard clash. In addition, Cordoba was appointed President of the Commission of cast property, political move that Vice President devised to have on their side the brilliant General; but Cordoba was not made to wrap in the astuteness of Santander and the relations between the two deteriorated. Cordoba chose to return to the South, to wage the war of the Peru.

In Popayán, step to the Peru, the general commander of the province, José María Ortega, ordered to put in front of the army that was facing the again insurgent Agustín Agualongo, seconded by Estanislao Mecharcano. Cordoba obeyed the mandate but had difficulties, because the rebels had managed to take hold of grass, and Popayán was in danger of falling into the hands enemy. In addition, he was accused of the death of Sergeant José de el Carmen Valdés. He left Popayan (without having managed to attach to the anachronistic rebel) January 10, 1824, heading to Pasto, city reached the day 22 and which immediately departed for Peru, where Bolivar urgently required their services.

With regard to the love life of Cordoba should be pointed out that, during his life in the camps military, his figure and his courage had made him very attractive to the opposite sex. He conquered the women with the same ease with which was then moving away from them, and seemed that never filled their longing for love. Its sentimental stage passed many ladies of all the trimmings. In times of release of Antioquia, when he held the post of general commander of the province, he was as a lover Manuela Morales y Leiva.

Arriving at the Peru he was named Chief of staff. In Junin succeeded August 6, 1824 the Patriots about the Spanish commander José de Canteras troops. In Ayacucho, or "corner of the dead", December 9, 1824, the participation of Cordoba in the battle was short. With the famous cry "Division, from the front. Weapons at discretion. Winners step! ', undertook a devilish inset that completely destroyed the realistic forces, commanded by the viceroy of Peru, José de la Serna. " With this emphatic victory was decided to the independence of the Peru and was definitively liquidated the Spanish colonial empire in South America. The Alto Peru became in Bolivia, and the European powers, France and England, as well as the United States, acknowledged the new Nations.

Córdoba arrived in Cochabamba in October 1825, where he remained for a year as Commander of the second division. On March 12, 1827 he resigned and came to Lima on day 27. In April embarked for Bogota, on a boat where he also traveled Manuelita Saenz; It is unknown if loving self-identification, multiculturalism or rejection of Córdoba mistress del Libertador, the case is that between them was born a deep hatred that would harm the General. On September 11 he arrived in Bogota and was tried for the death of Valdés, indictment from which he acquitted.

When the conspiracy of the September 25, 1828, Córdoba supported unreservedly the Bolivar, but a casualty (the embrace of one of the conspirators, Pedro Carujo) did Manuela Saenz to emponzoñara relations between the liberator and hero of Ayacucho. However, Bolivar continued to support him and appointed him to be the Cauca and then Neiva to combat the rebellion of the General José Hilario López and José María Obando, who had defeated Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera and hindered the Liberator plans to deal with the general Lamar Peruvian troops, that they had taken Ecuador.

Cordoba and Bolivar held a meeting in Popayan, on January 29, 1829; There the general advised the Liberator that stop the dictatorship and forgive the rebels López and Obando. Bolivar was upset with suggestions of Cordoba, but agreed to negotiate with the rebels and could continue to the Ecuador. Córdoba was general commander of the province of Pasto, charge much lower than that occupied by the general Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, which hurt a lot: had greater merit than the raised, although it was not as intriguing as the one.

Disappointed, Cordoba resigned from their posts on June 21, 1829. Bolívar refused to accept the resignation and appointed him as Minister Secretary of State in the Department of Navy, an important position in which, however, did not have much to do. Before a so-called monarchy of Bolivar, Cordoba definitely rebelled, left their posts and arrived at Rionegro on September 8, 1829. He organized an "army of freedom" and launched several proclamations supporting the Constitution of Cúcuta, which spread in New Granada, Venezuela and Quito in the midst of general indifference. However, despite not having found many followers of his ideas, launched the insurrection.

To crush the rebellion of Cordoba, in Bogota Daniel Florencio O'Leary organized an army of eight hundred men, with several foreign officers, under the command of brigadier general. Cartagena went another contingent under the command of general Montilla and Lieutenant Colonel Gregorio Urueta. The general Cordoba organized the defense, but the vile denunciation of one of his subordinates, Miguel Ramírez, allowed O'Leary troops advance on insurance.

The final confrontation took place on October 17, 1829 in the plain of the sanctuary; the balance of forces was completely unfavourable to the hero of Ayacucho, it had only three hundred men and fifteen riders. After a bloody battle, Cordoba was found wounded and helpless. O'Leary ordered the Lieutenant Colonel of Irish origin Rupert Hand that at Cordoba, and the subordinate had complied with the criminal order, meanly murdering sablazos to the hero of Ayacucho.

Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas