Draft:Battle of Cerro de la Sierpe

The Battle of Cerro de la Sierpe, took place in the Chunchunga valley in the current department of Ica on October 4, 1838, during the campaign that the restorer general Juan José Salas led against the Confederate forces operating in the place under command of Colonels Esteban Pedernera and Estanislao Correa.

Background
Upon receiving news of the surprise attack and capture of the Chilean garrison that he had left in Pisco, General Juan José Salas, commander of the restoration expedition, ordered the immediate pursuit of the group of hussars commanded by Colonel Esteban Pedernera, a former Argentine officer of the liberating army at the service of the Confederation, who, in favor of the knowledge he had of the towns in which he operated, maintained a guerrilla war against the restoration column, however, since General Salas was a native of the region, he not only managed to raise a party militia with the residents of the area but also to reach the Pedernera troops that occupied the Chunchanga valley.

Battle
When on October 3, the restoration column, whose vanguard was made up of the Montoneros and the Peruvian infantry cadre followed by the two companies of the Chilean Colchagua battalion and the Cazadores a Caballo, spotted the Confederate hussars in the vicinity of the Bernales hacienda, these retreated to the heights of the surrounding hills. At dawn on the 4th, General Salas ordered Colonel Manuel Lopera to pursue the enemy with 46 hunters on horseback and 40 infantry mounted on their rumps, while Colonel Layzeca with the rest of the restoration force would march along the left bank of the river to support the destruction of the enemy in case they tried to retreat through that place or serve as an eventual reorganization point in case of a contrast.

While the Confederates tried to gain the heights of Cerro de la Sierpe and after exchanging some rifle shots with the restorers, they were hit by the troops commanded by Colonel Lopera, who during the clash lost the horse he was riding, managing, however, to expel the Confederates from the positions they occupied, who after leaving 8 dead and 14 wounded on the field dispersed through the surrounding dunes. The restorers had a Peruvian officer and two Chilean soldiers dead.

Consequences
After this action, the region was under the control of the restoration army while Colonel Pedernera, with approximately 100 hussars that he managed to gather, marched to Cañete where, on October 12, after holding some encounters with restoration troops under the command of the same Colonel Lopera, they were dispatched in pursuit. Dispersed completely, Colonel Pedernera marching into the interior to join the army of Santa Cruz.