Battle of San Mateo
San Mateo, Aragua, Venezuela
What happened
Republican forces under Simón Bolívar defended San Mateo against royalist armies under José Tomás Boves. Boves's horsemen advanced through the Aragua valleys and attacked the republican trenches at San Mateo, Bolívar's family estate, again and again for nearly a month. The royalists tried to seize the ammunition store in the main house. When the royalists finally took the main house on 25 March, Captain Antonio Ricaurte set fire to a gunpowder store inside rather than let them have the ammunition. It cost him his life, along with many of the attackers, and Bolívar's men retook the house in the confusion. In the end Bolívar's troops held the estate.
Why it matters
It stopped Boves's advance for a time, which had threatened Caracas and Valencia.
What came next
Boves kept fighting, and the war in Venezuela went on. He was killed at Urica later that year.
Did you know?
Venezuelans remember Ricaurte's sacrifice as the battle's famous moment. The battle was fought on Bolívar's own family estate.
Timeline
- Feb 1814Boves defeats a republican force at La Puerta.
- 28 Feb 1814Boves's first attack on San Mateo.
- 25 Mar 1814Ricaurte blows up the powder store as the final royalist attack is beaten off.
- 5 Dec 1814Battle of Urica.