Ayacucho, a department in the republic of Peru; pop. 131,921.
Near its chief town, also named Ayacucho, the battle was fought
which finally secured the independence of Spanish South America.
After the battle of Junin (Aug. 6, 1824),?'? the Spanish viceroy,
Gen. La Serna, attempted by manoeuvring to cut off the
communications of the insurgent army, under Gen. Sucre.
Unsuccessful in this, he at last drew his opponent to the plain of
Ayacucho, where the Spaniards took up a defensive position on a
height. They numbered 13 battalions of infantry, with artillery
and cavalry, in all 9,310 men. On Dec. 8, 1824, the advanced
guards of both armies became engaged, and on the following day
Sucre advanced with 5,780 men to the attack. The 2d Colombian
division, under Gen. Córdova, attacked the Spanish left, and at
once threw it into disorder. The Peruvian division on the left,
under Gen. Lamar, met with a more obstinate resistance, and
could make no progress until the reserve, under Gen. Lara, came
up. The enemy’s retreat now becoming general, the cavalry was
Jaunched in pursuit, dispersing the Spanish horse and completing
the defeat of the infantry. The Spaniards lost 6 generals killed and
2,600 killed, wounded, and prisoners, among the latter the
viceroy. The South American loss was 1 general and 308 officers
and men killed, 520 wounded, among them 6 generals. The next
day Gen. Canterac, who now commanded the Spanish army,
concluded a capitulation, by which not only he and all his troops
surrendered prisoners of war, but also all the Spanish troops in
Peru, all military posts, artillery, and magazines, and the whole of
Peru, as far as they still held it (Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno, Quillca,
&c.), were delivered up to the insurgents. The troops thus

delivered up as prisoners of war amounted in all to nearly 12,000.
Thus the Spanish dominion was definitively destroyed, and on
Aug. 26, 1825, the congress of Chuquisaca proclaimed the
independence of the republic of Bolivia.

The name Ayacuchos has in Spain been given to Espartero and
his military partisans. A portion of the military camarilla grouped
around him had served with him in the war against the South
American insurrection, where, beside by military comradeship,
they were bound together by their common habits of gambling,
and mutually pledged themselves to support each other politically
when returned to Spain. This pledge they have honestly kept,
much to their mutual interests. The nickname of Ayacuchos was
conferred on them in order to imply that Espartero and his party
had materially contributed to the unfortunate issue of that battle.
This, however, is false, though the report has been so assiduously
spread that even now it is generally credited in Spain. Espartero
not only was not present at the battle of Ayacucho, but he was not
even in America when it happened, being on his passage to Spain,
whither Viceroy La Serna had sent him with despatches for
Ferdinand VII. He had embarked at Quillca, June 5, 1824, in the
British brig Tuber, arriving in Cadiz Sept. 28, and at Madrid Oct.
12, and again sailed for America from Bordeaux on that very
same Dec. 9, 1824, on which the battle of Ayacucho was fought.
(See Don José Segundo Flórez, Espartero, Madrid, 1844 [-5], 4
vols., and Principe, Espartero, Madrid, 1848.)