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Battle of Tarapaca
Following a decesive defeat during the battle of San Francisco at the hands of the Chilean invadors the remnants of the Peruvian army where scattered, demoralized and almost leaderless. Upon realizing that a column of exhausted Peruvian soldiers under the command of Andres Avelino Caceres had stopped near the town of Tarapaca to rest and obtain water the Chilean colonel Luis Arteaga decides to take advantage of the situation. Thus Arteaga dispatches a party of five hundred men hurridly in a desperate attempt to crush the Peruvians. However Arteaga soundly underestimated the battle capabilities of his enemies wich fougth energically and managed to capture many artillery pieces after a series of brilliantly planned ambushes. Despite this unexpected success Caceres' victory proved pyrric for the Peruvians where unable to obtain any strategical advantage from the skirmish. Ironically the Peruvians where forced to bury their captured cannon upon being unable to carry them away due to insufficient logistics. The battle of Tarapaca marks the begining of Andres Avelino Caceres' career as one of the most distinguished military leaders in Peruvian (and South American) hystory.
See also
War of the Pacific
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Battle of Tarapaca
