42 Facts About San Martin

1. San Martin was great friends with both St Juan Macias, a fellow Dominican lay brother, and St Rose of Lima, a lay Dominican.

2. San Martin was the illegitimate son to a Spanish gentlemen and a freed slave from Panama, of African or possibly Native American descent.

3. San Martin proposed to establish a constitutional monarchy with a European monarch, with a regency ruling in the interim.

4. In September 1812, San Martin married Maria de los Remedios de Escalada, a 14-year-old girl from one of the local wealthy families.

5. San Martin had never attempted one before his 111 mph throw.

6. San Martin recognized that the Rio de la Plata provinces would never be secure so long as the royalists held Lima, but he perceived the military impossibility of reaching the centre of viceregal power by way of the conventional overland route through Upper Peru.

7. San Martin bequeathed his curved saber to Rosas, because of his successful defense of the country.

8. San Martin offered his military services to Rosas, which was declined because of San Martin's advanced age, and condemned the role of the unitarians in that conflict, as they had allied themselves with France against their own nation.

9. San Martin had good relations with the federal caudillos and a personal feud with unitarian leader Bernardino Rivadavia, but tried to stay neutral.

10. San Martin thought that if he joined forces with Bolivar he would be able to defeat the remnant royalist forces in Peru.

11. San Martin proposed to establish an constitutional monarchy with a European monarch, with a regency ruling in the interim.

12. San Martin resigned again, and observed that the Army would not be able to cross the Andes from Chile to Buenos Aires because the winter snow was blocking the trails.

13. San Martin finally kept the Army in Chile when Belgrano's lieutenant Viamonte signed an armistice with Lopez; he thought that the conflict had ended.

14. San Martin had doubts as well about the projected arrival of a large military expedition from Spain, as the absolutist restoration of Ferdinand VII had met severe resistance in Spain.

15. San Martin proposed to mediate between Buenos Aires and the Liga Federal led by Artigas.

16. San Martin could not have taken part in it, as he was already on the way to Buenos Aires.

17. San Martin discussed with him and finally got financing of 500,000 pesos.

18. San Martin ordered the mounted grenadiers led by Hilarion de la Quintana to charge against the regiment.

19. San Martin thought that it was not possible to defend Concepcion, so he ordered O'Higgins to leave the city.

20. San Martin would instead organize the navy to take the fight to Peru.

21. San Martin instructed Soler to rush the attack as well.

22. San Martin organized a pincer movement, with Soler leading the west column and O'Higgins the east one.

23. San Martin proposed that the country declare independence immediately, before the crossing.

24. San Martin proposed to resign and serve under Balcarce, if they would support the campaign.

25. San Martin stayed on good terms with both the government of Buenos Aires and the provincial caudillos, without fully allying with either one.

26. Government of San Martin repeated some of the ideas outlined in the Operations plan, drafted by Mariano Moreno at the beginning of the war.

27. San Martin began immediately to organize the Army of the Andes.

28. San Martin stayed only a few weeks in Tucuman, reorganizing the army and studying the terrain.

29. The army was in poor condition, and San Martin initially refused to remove Belgrano from the army, as it would hurt the soldiers' morale.

30. San Martin employed a pincer movement to trap the royalists.

31. San Martin was sent with the new Regiment to watch the activities in the Parana River shore.

32. San Martin watched the enemy ships from the top of the convent during the night.

33. In September of 1812, San Martin married Maria de los Remedios de Escalada, a 14-year-old girl from one of the local wealthy families.

34. San Martin was initiated in the Lodge of Rational Knights in 1811.

35. San Martin resigned from the Spanish army, for controversial reasons, and moved to South America, where he joined the Spanish American wars of independence.

36. San Martin was appointed to the armies of Andalucia, and led a battalion of volunteers.

37. San Martin took part in several Spanish campaigns in North Africa, fighting in Melilla and in Oran against the Moors in 1791, among others.

38. San Martin made his way to Argentina and then to Europe, where he spent the rest of his life.

39. San Martin considered that he did not have enough force to meet the Spaniards and would need the aid of the armies of Simon Bolivar, who had just liberated the areas of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador.

40. San Martin was 2 years assembling a fleet which, under the able command of Lord Cochrane, swept Spanish shipping from the west coast of South America.

41. San Martin realized that until the royalist forces from Peru were defeated, South American independence could never truly be secure.

42. San Martin graduated from Harvard-Westlake, a private prep school, in 2008 and joined the Dolphins in 2012.