Joaquín París Ricaurte
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Joaquín París Ricaurte | |
|---|---|
 París in uniform, c. 1860 | |
| Colombian Army Commander in Chief | |
| In office October 25, 1860 – April 1, 1861 | |
| Preceded by | Pedro Alcántara Herrán |
| Succeeded by | Ramón Espina Gámez |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 15, 1795 Santa Fe, Viceroyalty of New Granada |
| Died | October 2, 1868 (aged 73) Honda, United States of Colombia |
| Spouse | María Dolores De la Roche Domínguez |
| Nickname | "The Manc of Bombona" |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | New Granada Gran Colombia New Granada Granadine Confederation |
| Rank | General |
| Battles/wars | Colombian Civil War (1860–1862) |
Joaquín Paris y Ricaurte (Bogotá, Colombia, August 15, 1795 – Honda, Colombia, October 2, 1868)[1] was a hero of the Latin American war for independence.
Early life[edit]
Joaquín París y Ricaurte was born on August 15, 1795, in the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, Santa Fe, a territorial entity of the Spanish Empire. He was born to an aristocratic family, his parents were Jose Martin París and Genoveva Ricaurte. Jose was from an aristocratic family and was born in Madrid and came to Santa Fe as secretary of Viceroy Messía de la Cerda. Génova was a criolla who belonged to an important family from Santa Fe but was born in Medellin as her father was governor of that province at the time of her birth. The two married in 1777 and had 9 children together with Joaquin being the last male child followed by his sister.
Military career[edit]
When the revolution broke out in Santa Fe on July 20, 1810, the 15 year old Joaquin joined the revolutionary cause and enlisted as a cadet in one of the first battalions formed in the republican army the Auxiliary Battalion of Santa Fe. On August 20, 1810 he was promoted to Sub-lieutenant, by 1812 he was an officer in the army of the United Provinces of New Granada, and under the command of then Venezuelan Colonel Simon Bolívar who had come to New Granada to seek assistance for the independence war in Venezuela. Bolívar was given a commission by congress of the United Provinces of New Granada in their army where he would fight Royalist Guerrillas in the Magdalena River region, with these guerrillas largely defeated by 1813. Bolívar then took this army to invade Venezuela starting his Admirable campaign, the young Joaquin however would stay behind and did not accompany Bolívar's army.
In later 1813 he returned to New Granada and was assigned to the Southern Army under the command of General Antonio Nariño in his southern campaignto push the royalists out of the southern cities of Popayán and Pasto. He would fight in all the battles of that campaign. In 1816, during the Spanish Reconquest of New Granada he was the commander of an infantry battalion in Popayán, his battalion would fight in the Battle of Cuchilla del Tambo which spelled the end of the first republic and where he would be captured.
He was spared being executed and transported as a prisoner to Maracaibo in Venezuela, however he would be rescued in Puerto Cabello by a Patriot privateer and taken to Curaçao. He then went to Guayana in March 1818, and was appointed aide-de-camp to Admiral Brión. Later he would be ordered to Casanare in New Granada under the orders of Brigadier GeneralFrancisco de Paula Santander where he would be part of the combined New Granadan and Venezuelan army that was being formed by Santander for a future military campaign to liberate New Granada under the command of Simon Bolívar.
Campaign to Liberate New Granada[edit]
When his fellow countryman, Brigadier General Francisco de Paula Santander, was dispatched by Bolívar to the Casanare region to build and train an army for a military operation to liberate New Granada from Spanish control, Joaquin now Sargent Major joined Santander.[2] Upon arriving to Casanare he assisted Santander with the training of these new troops and the two had a good working relationship and as a result became close friends.[3]
His proven courage earned him the assignment of very risky reconnaissance missions to gather intelligence on the other side of the Andes mountain range shortly before the start of the campaign. When the campaign started he was assigned to the Vanguard Division of the Patriot Army under the command of Santander as second in command of the Cazadores Constantes de la Nueva Granada Battalion under Colonel Antonio Arredondo Martínez. He fought valiantly at the Battle of Paya. After crossing the Paramo de Pisba in July 1819, his battalion took part in some of the first battles against the Royalist Army of Colonel Jose Maria Barreiro. On July 11 he took part in the Battle of Gameza, afterwards he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and given command of the Cazadores Battalion as Colonel Arredondo would die of his wounds sustained at the Battle of Gameza.[4] He would fight at the Battles of Vargas Swamp and Boyacá where he led his battalion to charge across the Boyacá bridge to defeat the Spanish force.[5]
After Boyacá[edit]
He was named governor of the province of Neiva and would later rejoin the army and fought in the Battle of Bomboná. In 1823 he was promoted to Colonel and in 1827 to "General". He remained in active service until June 1832.
He participated valiantly during the civil war of 1840, and in 1841 he served as Secretary of War. In 1854 he took up arms against the dictatorship of José Maria Melo.
In 1860 is wife died, after the death of his wife Paris sought to retire to his hacienda near Honda however, with the outbreak of the Colombian Civil War (1860–1862) he was once again named commander-in-chief of the army by President Mariano Ospina Rodríguez. [6]During the war General Paris's health began to decline and he was bed ridden at times, after the Central government lost the war Paris went to the British Embassy and requested aslyum he eventually left the embassy and returned home when General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera offered him guarantees for his safety.
Later life[edit]
París died in Honda in 1868 at the age of 73, when the news reached Bogotá, President Santos Gutiérrez issued a decree of honors in his memory for his long and faithful service to the republic. Seven years after his death and his remains were taken from Honda to Bogotá in 1875 to be deposited in a small mausoleum in the Central Cemetery of Bogotá.[7]
References[edit]
- ^ París de la Roche José Joaquín, José Joaquín (1919). Una familia de próceres. Los Parises. Bogotá: Imprenta y Litografía de Juan Casis. p. 276.
- ^ Riaño, Camilo (1969). La Campaña Libertadora de 1819 (1st ed.). Bogota: Editorial Andes. p. 28.
- ^ París de la Roche, José Joaquín. 1919. Una familia de próceres. Los Parises. Bogotá. Imprenta y Litografía de Juan Casis. Pg. 131.
- ^ Riaño, Camilo (1969). La Campaña Libertadora de 1819 (1st ed.). Bogota: Editorial Andes. p. 192.
- ^ Cortés Carlos. 1969. Batalla del Pantano de Vargas 1819. Bogotá: Sección de Historia y Publicaciones del Ejército de Colombia.
- ^ Acosta de Samper, Soledad (1883). Biografia del General Joaquin Paris. Bogota: SAGA Egmont. pp. 63–64. ISBN 9788726679243.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ París de la Roche, José Joaquín (1919). Una familia de próceres. Los Parises. Bogotá: Imprenta y Litografía de Juan Casis. pp. 277–280.