On May 26, 1812, the Triumvirate appointed General Manuel Belgrano commander of the Army of the North, who established his Command in San Salvador de Jujuy. There, he received the remains of the forces returning from Huaqui: 800 men, without weapons or resources, affected by malaria and demoralized.
Belgrano had to reorganize them, rearm them, reestablish discipline and encourage the population. To do this, he became rigorous and inflexible with his subordinates; he created various companies, such as the Guides, the Scouts, the Hunters and the Corps of Castes; he restored the morale of the troops, which amounted to 1,500 men, and received 400 rifles, which were very useful to complete the armament.
To increase patriotic fervour, and in commemoration of the second anniversary of the May Revolution, he had a flag blessed in the city’s Cathedral.
In July, reports arrived that a large royalist force, under the command of Pío Tristán, was advancing through Upper Peru towards Humahuaca, and Belgrano received orders from the Triumvirate to retreat to Córdoba, where the Army of the North would join the Rioplatense troops. In the instructions received, he was ordered to destroy everything that could be useful to the enemy to hinder their marches and resources.
Neither the call to arms of all citizens between 16 and 35 years of age, nor the formation of an irregular cavalry corps, the Determined Patriots, under the command of Eustoquio Díaz Vélez, allowed Belgrano to resist.
It was thus that, on July 29, 1812, Belgrano issued an order addressed to all the people of Jujuy, ordering the withdrawal:
“People of the province: since I set foot on your soil to take charge of your defense, in which the Most Excellent Government of the United Provinces of the Republic of the River Plate is interested, I have spoken to you with truth. Continuing with it, I tell you that the weapons of Abascal under the command of Goyeneche are approaching Suipacha; and the worst is that they are called by the unnatural ones who live among you and who do not lose any means so that our sacred rights of freedom, property and security are outraged and you return to slavery. The time has come for you to show your heroism and for you to come to join the Army under my command, if as you assure you want to be free, bringing us the flintlock weapons, knives and ammunition that you have or can acquire, and reporting to justice those who have them and remain indifferent in view of the risk that threatens you of losing not only your rights, but the properties that you have. you have. Landowners: hurry to remove your cattle, horses, mules and sheep that you have on your farms, and at the same time your charquis, towards Tucumán, without giving me reason to take measures that will be painful to you, also declaring you traitors to the Fatherland if you do not do so. Farmers: secure your crops by extracting them for that place, with the understanding that by not doing so you will incur the same disgrace as those. Merchants: do not waste a moment in bundling your effects and sending them, and likewise any that are in your possession that belong to someone else, because if you do not do so you will suffer the same penalties as those, and in addition the effects that are found will be burned, regardless of who they are in your possession and to whom they belong. Let everyone understand that anyone who is found outside the advanced guards of the army in all the places where they are, or who tries to pass without my passport, will be shot immediately, without any form of trial. That the same penalty will be suffered by anyone who by his conversations or actions attacks the sacred cause of the Fatherland, whatever his class, state or condition. That those who inspire discouragement, whatever their character, will be shot equally with only the testimony of two witnesses. That all those who at my first order are not ready to march and do not do so with the greatest scrupulousness will be considered traitors to the Fatherland, whatever their class and condition. I do not expect that there will be a single one who will give me reason to put into execution the aforementioned penalties, because the true sons of the Fatherland I promise will strive to help me, as lovers of such a worthy mother, and the unnatural ones will obey blindly and hide their wicked intentions. But if this is not the case, know that considerations of any kind are over, and that nothing will be enough to stop me from fulfilling what I have arranged.”
Headquarters of Jujuy, July 29, 1812. Manuel Belgrano.
Almost a month later, on August 23, 1812, the mobilization began, in which men and women, old people and children, rich and poor, Spaniards who embraced the revolutionary cause, creoles and mestizos carried out the General’s order. The population left only a bare field in front of the enemy, so as not to provide them with houses, food, livestock, merchandise or anything else that was usable. The crops were harvested or burned, the houses destroyed and the commercial products sent to Tucumán.
They traveled 360 km along the Camino de las Postas (parallel to the current National Route 34), on foot or in carts, to Tucumán, where General Belgrano committed his “brilliant disobedience” and, encouraged by the triumph of the rearguard under the command of Eustoquio Díaz Vélez over the royalist vanguard in the battle of Las Piedras, decided to give battle to Pío Tristán in Tucumán.
For the sacrifice made, on May 25, 1813, General Belgrano donated a flag to the Cabildo of San Salvador de Jujuy, as a reward and tribute to those people who accompanied him in the exodus of August 23, 1812, and who made possible the triumphs of Las Piedras, Tucumán and Salta. Its fabric is made of satin, consists of three panels and has the coat of arms of the Assembly of the Year XIII painted on it. This flag is known today as the National Civil Liberty Flag and, since 2015, it has been a national symbol.
