Qualla: Battle of Vargas Swamp

Battle of Vargas Swamp: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Talleres del Estado Mayor General, Public domain. "I saw the battle lost at five, and won at six." Father Andres Maria Gallo, a local presbyter watching from a distance, condensed six hours of carnage into a single sentence. The Battle of Vargas Swamp, fought on July 25, 1819, between the towns of Paipa and Tibasosa in what is now Boyaca, Colombia, was the bloodiest engagement of Simon Bolivar's campaign to liberate New Granada. By late afternoon, Bolivar's exhausted army was being pushed back toward a swollen river with no place to retreat. What happened next became the founding legend of Colombia's cavalry.

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Image: Talleres del Estado Mayor General | Public domain

Battle of Vargas Swamp: A Naked Army Crosses the Andes

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Henao y Arrubla, Public domain. Bolivar's forces arrived in the highlands in sorry condition. They had crossed the Andes through the Paramo de Pisba in early July 1819, choosing a route so punishing that the Spanish commander, Colonel Jose Maria Barreiro, had not bothered to guard it -- no sane general would at...

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Image: Henao y Arrubla | Public domain

Battle of Vargas Swamp: Trapped Between Hills and a River

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Henao y Arrubla, Public domain. Bolivar's strategy hinged on a flanking march to capture Tunja, the provincial capital, which would sever Barreiro's supply lines to Bogota. On July 25, starting at five in the morning, the Patriot army began crossing the rain-swollen Chicamocha River on hastily built rafts. Many...

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Image: Henao y Arrubla | Public domain

Battle of Vargas Swamp: Colonel Rondon, Save the Republic

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Luis Rengifo, CC BY 4.0. By five o'clock, after five hours of fighting, the Patriots were falling apart. Barreiro, watching from the Casa de las Seis Ventanas, reportedly shouted "Long live Spain -- not even God can take this victory away from me" as his dragoons planted their standard on Picacho Hill. F...

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Image: Luis Rengifo | CC BY 4.0

Battle of Vargas Swamp: Fourteen Lancers

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Henao y Arrubla, Public domain. The charge of the fourteen lancers up Cangrejo Hill penetrated the royalist line and threw the Spanish dragoons and reserve infantry into chaos. Seeing the breach, Bolivar committed his remaining cavalry under Colonels Mujica, Infante, and Carvajal. The combined assault overwhelm...

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Image: Henao y Arrubla | Public domain

Battle of Vargas Swamp: The Country That Will Bury Me

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Henao y Arrubla, Public domain. The most senior Patriot officer to die was Colonel James Rooke, commander of the British Legion, who had led a bayonet charge earlier in the afternoon. Shot in the left elbow, his arm was amputated the next day. Rooke seized the severed limb with his remaining hand and raised it,...

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Image: Henao y Arrubla | Public domain