| Battle of Llaclla Bridge | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War of the Confederation | |||||||
 Combat on the Llaclla bridge. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Peru-Bolivian Confederation |  Chile  Peru | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Unknown |  Juan Colipí [1] | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 20 men [2] | 11 men | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 1 killed 1 wounded 1 missing [3] | ||||||
The Battle of Llaclla Bridge was a minor military engagement of the Yungay campaign during the War of the Confederation.
It is a famous episode for Chilean historiography that remembers how the mapuche Juan Lorenzo Colipí, in command of 11 men of the Carampangue battalion, defended his position for 5 hours against the attack of 20 Confederate soldiers. The restorers prevented their enemies from forcing the passage and withdrew during the night to meet the rest of the army, leaving a dead man in the field, carrying a wounded man and having a scattered corporal during the night.
For this action Lorenzo Colipí was promoted to lieutenant and the government decreed a decoration dedicated to the "Eleven of the Llaclla bridge." [4]
Mr. General: On date 14, the military commander of Cajatambo told me that the enemies were approaching that point, and that he was watching his movements. On the 16th I sent Sergeant D. Juan Colipi of the Carampangue battalion, with ten men mounted, with the aim of observing the enemy more closely. On the 17th he gave me this part that I had seen him between Gorgorillo and Mangas, and that he was retreating to the Llaclla bridge, six leagues away from this point. At eleven o'clock in the evening of the same day he was attacked on that bridge by very considerable forces, and he held until half past three in the morning, when he undertook his retreat to the town of Ticllos, to observe from there the movements of the enemy. His loss consisted of a dead, an injured and a corporal who got lost in the darkness of the night. With these notices that came to me at ten in the morning on the 18th, I ordered the division to undertake its withdrawal [...].
— Part of General Torrico to Chief of Staff José María de la Cruz. [5]