Manuel Osorio

Spansk general. Gjorde tjeneste i Sydamerika.

• Maipo-floden, 1818

Spansk soldat, født i Sevilla i 1770 og døde i Havana, Cuba, omkring 1830. Han studerede ved artilleriskolen i Segovia og gik ind i hæren, hvor han gjorde tjeneste som kaptajn under den første belejring af Zaragossa i 1807. Den 19. august 1812 ankom han til Lima som artillerikommandør og chef for krudtfabrikken, med rank af oberst. ....When the viceroy, Abascal, repudiated the treaty that General Gainza (q. v, .) had made with the independents of Chili in Lircay, 3 May, 1814, he superseded Gainza by Osorio, who left Lima on 19 July with an expedition of about 600 men, and totally defeated the Republicans at Rancagua on 2 October He occupied Santiago on 9 October, and sullied his victory by arbitrary measures, notably the banishment of more than thirty of the principal citizens to the island of Juan Fernandez. He sent two agents to Spain to solicit his confirmation as president of Chili, but, although he was promoted brigadier, he was superseded in the presidency by General Marce del Pont, to whom he delivered the government in December, 1815, returning to Lima in June, 1816. Meanwhile General San Martin with the Argentine army had passed the Andes and invaded Chili, defeating Marco in Chacabuco, 12 February, 1817. The viceroy, Pezuela, now sent Osorio to re-conquer Chili, and the latter left Lima with ten vessels and about 2,600 men, and landed at Talcahuano, 18 January, 1818. San Martin encamped with a superior force at Cancha-Ravada, where he was surprised in the night of 19 "March by the Spanish army and totally routed, but Osorio, instead of marching immediately on the capital, lost time by inactivity, notwithstanding the advice of his lieutenants. This had given the patriot general time to reorganize his army, and he defeated Osorio on the march to Santiago in the plain of Maipu on 4 April. Osorio fled to Concepcion, and, after disarming the fortifications of Talcahuano, left the command to Gem Sanchez, and arrived in Lima in September, 1818. He did not again enter active service in Peru, and went in 1819 to Spain, where he was promoted major-general in 1822, and sent later to serve in Havana, where he died.