Lieutenant Colonel Cruz Cañete (1815-1868)

Lieutenant Colonel Cruz Cañete (1815-1868)

He was born in Buenos Aires in 1815, the son of Mariano Cañete and Leonor Peñalva, both from Buenos Aires. He entered military service in June 1835 as a soldier in the 4th Campaign Regiment’s Line Squadron.

In 1837, as a standard-bearer (a rank he achieved in 1836), he participated in a battle against Chilean Indigenous groups who had attacked friendly chiefs Llanqueleu and Francisco. That same year, he fought against the same forces under Lieutenant Colonel Quesada, and later in the Battle of Loreto on December 22, 1838, against a large contingent of Chilean and Ranquel Indigenous fighters, directly under Colonel Hilario Lagos as a cavalry lieutenant. In 1842, he was severely wounded in another action against Indigenous groups, under Captain Seguí’s command.

He continued his service at Fort Junín until 1844 as a lieutenant, then transferred to San Nicolás under Colonel Juan José Obligado’s command, where he remained until June 12, 1845. He subsequently served under General Lucio Norberto Mansilla and participated in the Battles of Vuelta de Obligado (November 20, 1845) and Quebracho (June 4, 1846) against Anglo-French naval forces, commanding a squadron he had personally trained. Mansilla, in a report dated November 15, 1860, described Cañete as “a disciplined, exemplary officer, devoted to his duties.”

He was promoted to captain in 1848 and major in November 1851. That same year, with his squadron, he joined a division that General Mansilla assigned to Colonel Julián Sosa, under whom Cañete fought in the Battle of Caseros. Mansilla had assigned command due to an illness requiring his return to Buenos Aires.

When Colonel Hilario Lagos rebelled against the Buenos Aires government on December 1, 1852, Major Cañete was stationed in San Nicolás, where Colonel José María Cortina, acting under Lagos’s command, enlisted him to help disarm groups moving towards San Nicolás after the disbandment of the Buenos Aires besieging army on July 13, 1853, maintaining order “with honor, activity, and patriotism” (Cortina’s report, November 20, 1860).

In November 1854, during the Buenos Aires invasion led by enemies from the province of Santa Fe and commanded by General Jerónimo Costa, Cañete, then a retired major, offered his services to Lieutenant Colonel Mariano Artayeta, the local military commander. Artayeta accepted, tasking him with organizing local cavalry forces, which he did successfully, leading 50 cavalrymen in capturing the defeated forces from El Tala and performing other missions, gaining the Superior Government’s recognition.

In January 1856, he accompanied Colonel Esteban García, commanding the first skirmishes against the invading forces of Generals Flores and Costa at Ensenada and Villamayor, where Costa was defeated and executed. As part of the Extramuros Regiment under Colonel García, he fought in the Battle of Cepeda, leading a squadron. After the dispersion of Buenos Aires cavalry, Cañete reached Morón, then returned to the capital and participated in the brief siege until the treaty of November 11. In a report dated December 17, 1860, Colonel García praised Cañete’s conduct: “I have nothing but respect for his morality, skill, and dedication to service.”

He participated in the Battle of Pavón and joined the "General San Martín" Regiment under Colonel García when the Paraguayan War began, taking part in the battles of Yatay, Uruguayana, Paso de la Patria, Itapirú, Estero Bellaco del Sud, Tuyutí, Yataytí-Corá, Boquerón, Sauce, and the cavalry demonstration at San Solano on September 22, 1866.

Promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel, he received full rank on May 8, 1868. However, he was forced to return to Buenos Aires due to severe dysentery. Complications from “malaria” led to Lieutenant Colonel Cruz Cañete’s death in the capital on July 28, 1868, at 53.

On January 18, 1858, he married Rosario Rodríguez, a widow from Buenos Aires, daughter of Colonel Ramón Rodríguez and Concepción Lahite. She passed away in 1894.

Sources

Efemérides – Patricios de Vuelta de Obligado.

www.revisionistas.com.ar

Yaben, Jacinto R. – Biografías argentinas y sudamericanas – Buenos Aires (1938).