Chilean military officer (1771?1814)
Brigadier
Juan Mackenna
(26 October 1771 ? 21 November 1814) was an Irish-born, Chilean military officer and hero of the
Chilean War of Independence
. He is considered to have been the creator of the Corps of Military Engineers of the
Chilean Army
.
Early life
[
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]
He was born
John MacKenna
(or
Sean Mac Cionnaith
in
Irish
) in
Monaghan
,
County Monaghan
, Ireland, the son of William MacKenna of Willville House near
Monaghan
town and Eleanora O'Reilly and, on his mother's side, a nephew to
Count
Alejandro O'Reilly
.
[1]
Count O'Reilly took an interest in the young Mackenna and took him to
Spain
where he studied at the Royal School of Mathematics in
Barcelona
. He also trained in the Royal Military Academy as a Military Engineer between 1785 and 1791.
Military career
[
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In 1787 he was accepted into the Irish Brigade of the
Spanish army
, and joined the army fighting in
Ceuta
in northern Africa, under Lieutenant Colonel
Luis Urbina
, and was promoted to Second Lieutenant. In 1791 Mackenna resumed his studies in Barcelona and acted as liaison with mercenaries recruited in Europe. The following year he was promoted to Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Engineers. In the
War of the Pyrenees
against the French, Juan Mackenna fought in
Rossello
under General Ricardos and there met the future liberator of Argentina,
Jose de San Martin
. For his exploits in defence of the Plaza de Rozas, he was promoted to captain in 1795.
Career in Chile
[
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]
For the purpose of a new assignment, in October 1796, Juan Mackenna left Spain for South America. He arrived in
Buenos Aires
and then travelled to
Mendoza
and to
Chile
across the Andes and then to
Peru
. Once in
Lima
, he contacted
Ambrosio O'Higgins
, another Irishman, at that time
Viceroy
of Peru, who named him Governor of
Osorno
and put him in charge of the reconstruction works for this southern Chilean town.
In this capacity, Juan Mackenna convinced the families of
Castro
, on the island of
Chiloe
, to move to Osorno to found a colony there. He built the storehouse and two mills, as well as the road between Osorno and present-day
Puerto Montt
. His successful administration provoked jealousy from Chile's captain-general
Gabriel de Aviles
, who feared that Juan Mackenna and Ambrosio O'Higgins would create an Irish colony in Osorno. Both Irishmen were loyal to the Spanish crown, though Juan Mackenna had good relations with O'Higgins' son
Bernardo
, the future emancipator of Chile, and was also connected with the Venezuelan
Francisco de Miranda
and his group of supporters of South American independence. When Ambrosio O'Higgins died in 1801, Aviles was appointed viceroy of Peru. It took him eight years to remove O'Higgins's protege Juan Mackenna from Osorno.
Revolutionary wars
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In 1809 Juan Mackenna married Josefina Vicuna y Larrain, an eighteen-year-old Chilean woman from a family with revolutionary connections, with whom he had three children: Maria del Carmen Dolores, Juan Francisco Maria del Transito, and Felix. After the Declaration of Chilean Independence in 1810, he adhered to the
Patriot
side and was commissioned by the first Chilean government to prepare a plan for the defense of the country and oversaw the equipment of the new
Chilean Army
. At this juncture he trained the first military engineers for the new army.
[
citation needed
]
The following year he was called to the defence committee of the new Republic of Chile, and in 1811 was appointed governor of
Valparaiso
. Owing to political feuds with
Jose Miguel Carrera
and his brothers, Juan Mackenna was dismissed from the post and taken prisoner. He was a firm ally of
Bernardo O'Higgins
, who appointed him as one of the key officers to fight the Spanish army of General
Antonio Pareja
. Mackenna's major military honour was attained in 1814 at the
Battle of Membrillar
, in which the general assured a temporary collapse of the royal forces.
[3]
As a reward for his victory, he was appointed commandant-general by Bernardo O'Higgins, but after a coup d'etat led by
Luis Carrera
he was exiled to
Argentina
in 1814, when Carrera took over power. Juan Mackenna died in
Buenos Aires
late in 1814, after a duel with
Luis Carrera
.
Public commemoration in Monaghan
[
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]
A bust of General MacKenna was publicly presented to
Monaghan
County Museum on 5 August 2004 by his direct descendant
es:Luis Valentin Ferrada
.
[4]
At the presentation ceremony General MacKenna, the man "unreservedly regarded as the greatest of County Monaghan's exiles" was commemorated in speeches by Most Rev. Dr Joseph Duffy, Bishop of Clogher and by his descendant Senor Ferrada who declared, "In this city of Monaghan, very near to Willville House, the tombs of my ancestors are in the old cemetery. There, my own blood is interred in the sacred earth."
[4]
Family
[
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]
Mackenna was the great-grandfather of Chilean composer
Carmela Mackenna
.
[5]
[6]
See also
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Notes
[
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]
References
[
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]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Barros Arana, Diego
(1855).
Historia Jeneral de la Independencia de Chile
(in Spanish). Vol. I?IV. Santiago, Chile: Imprenta del Ferrocarril.
- Gay, Claudio
(1856).
Historia de la Independencia Chilena
(in Spanish). Vol. I & II. Paris, France: Imprenta de E. Thunot y Cia.
- Tellez Yanez, Raul (1952).
El General Juan Mackenna: Heroe del Membrillar (Ensayo historico)
(in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Editorial Alonso de Ovalle.
- Vicuna Mackenna, Benjamin
(1857).
El Ostracismo de los Carreras
(in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Imprenta del Ferrocarril. pp.
553
.
- Zapiola, Jose
(1872?1876).
Recuerdos de treinta anos (1810-1840)
(in Spanish). Vol. I & II. Santiago, Chile: Imprenta de El Independiente. p. 310.
- Murray, Edmundo.
"Juan Mackenna"
.
Dictionary of Irish Latin American Biography
. Retrieved
15 October
2008
.
External links
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