Manuel Roergas Serviez

Emmanuel Roërgas de Serviez (Cutry (Meurthe-et-Moselle), May 16, 1785 – Apure, November 30, 1816), known by the Hispanicized name of Manuel Roergas de Serviez, was a French soldier and adventurer who participated in the wars of independence in South America.

Born to a noble family in France, Serviez served in the French Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. In 1809 he left the French army and would later end up in South America participating in the Venezuelan and Colombian wars of independence.

He became a colonel in the army of the United Provinces of New Granada and played a pivotal part in the Patriot army victory at the Battle of the Palo River. He would later be named commander of the armies of the republic during the Spanish reconquest of New Granada in 1816, he disobeyed government orders to retreat to the south and instead withdrew with what was left of the Patriot army to the eastern plains of the Casanare Province, saving many of the officers that would later be pivotal in the war such as Francisco de Paula Santander and José María Córdova from capture and execution by the Spanish. Upon arriving there he joined up with the Venezuelan army and contributed to the victory at the Battle of Hato Yagual.

Serviez was killed in suspicious circumstances by a group of 3 men in the plains of Venezuela. It has often been suspected that Venezuelan caudillo José Antonio Páez ordered him to be killed.

Early life
Emmanuel Roërgas de Serviez was born on May 16, 1785 and baptized on June 6, 1785. He hailed from a lineage of minor nobility who traditionally served in the military, his father was Emmanuel-Gervais Roergas de Serviez, then a lieutenant in the Royal-Roussillon Regiment. His mother was Marie-Henriette de Trelliard, the two married on December 25, 1784 in Cutry, Meurthe-et-Moselle, her family was dedicated to industry and public affairs. Her father, François de Trelliard, was described as a "noble patrician of Parme, secretary of the cabinet with the approval of His Royal Highness the Lord Infante of Parme, and former mayor of agriculture and commerce in the states of His Royal Highness." Among the witnesses of the marriage ceremony was the future General Anne-François-Charles Trelliard, the bride's brother.

Military career
Serviez enlisted into the French Revolutionary Army during the government of the directorate entering in with the rank of lieutenant in 1798 and was assigned to the general staff of the Army of Italy. He was a later an aid-de-camp of his maternal uncle General Anne-François-Charles Trelliard. He was then a chasseur in the 11th regiment, by 1800 he requested to be transferred to the colonies, a request that was denied. In 1803 he was a sublieutenant in the 7th Crussaires. He took an absence of leave in 1805 to marry Eugenia Tessier de Margueritte with whom he had two children. In 1806 he returned to the army as a lieutenant in the Mounted Chasseurs of the Imperial Guard and was assigned to the army of Spain in 1808 taking part in the fighting there. He was wounded at the Battle of Vimeiro and returned to France.

In 1809 Serviez deserted the French army and fled to England with his mistress and later ended up in the United States.

New Granada
In 1811 Serviez traveled to Venezuela and joined General Francisco de Miranda's Venezuelan patriot army that had begun its war of independence from Spain. With the fall of the 1st republic of Venezuela to Spanish forces, Serviez fled to neighboring New Granada along with other officers from Venezuela arriving in Cartagena de Indias. New Granada had also declared independence from Spain and commissioned many of the exiled Venezuelan officers into their army to augment their forces against the Spanish royalists. The federalist congress of the United Provinces of New Granada commissioned Serviez into the patriot army as a lieutenant colonel, and tasked him with training the troops in the south of the country. In 1814 he was transferred to Medellín to continue training new recruits one of these being 15-year-old José María Cordova.

Serviez was then called up by the congress to join General Simón Bolívar’s army that was tasked with subjugating the centralist Cundinamarca state into the United Provinces of New Granada where he would participate in the Battle of Bogotá. After the federalist victory, Serviez was sent to join the army of the south under the command of Brigadier General José María Cabal to assist him in his defense of the Cauca Valley from a royalist offensive. At the Battle of the Palo River, Serviez played an important role leading the Patriot center with the artillery during the battle and personally leading the combined bayonet charge on foot as his horse was shot out from under him. The victory halted the Spanish offensive in the south and with 300 men Serviez gave chase to the retreating Spanish eventually retaking the city of Popayán.

During the Spanish reconquest of New Granadadue to Servirez's military experience he was called back to Santa Fe where President Camilo Torres named him commander of all the armies of the republic and promoted him to the rank of brigadier general after General Custodio García Rovira was defeated by the Spanish Army in the north at the Battle of Cachirí. Serviez took command of what was left of the army of the north after it was battered at Cachirí, his second in command was Colonel Francisco de Paula Santander.

Serviez and Santander only had about 300 men, despite the government instructing him to defend Santa Fe, Serviez chose to take a different course of action knowing that facing the Spanish in open battle was pointless he decided to take the rest of the army and withdraw to the eastern plains "Llanos" of Casanare to rebuild his forces and fight guerrilla war against the Spanish. Santander agreed with this plan, however the new President José Fernández Madrid had ordered Serviez to march the army to the south to Popayán to join forces with the army of the south which Serviez refused and sent a letter explaining his reasons. Serviez in an effort to resume the morale of his demoralized men decided to take on his march to Casanare the painting of Virgin of Chiquinquira as a way of boosting morale.

During their retreat to the Llanos they were chased after by Spanish Brigadier Miguel de la Torre, who in two occasions managed to almost catch them, however at the crucial Negro River crossing, Serviez cut the bridge crossing the river allowing the patriots to gain a significant lead. After reaching the town of Pore they joined forces with General Rafael Urdaneta's small army who had also joined forces with José Antonio Páez's Venezuelan llanero cavalry. This combined force fought the Spanish at the Battle of Hato Yagual which prevented the Spanish from penetrating into the Llanos.

Shortly after the battle Serviez retired to a small farm near Yagual to recuperate his health, one night three men showed up at the door claiming be messengers from the army with orders to go at once to the camp, they then took Serviez to a forest and killed him there. Many suspected this was Paez's doing in an effort to assume control for in the power struggle for the control of the combined Venezuelan and New Granadan army. However no concrete evidence has ever proven this theory, another theory speculates that the men had followed the army and came to rob Serviez of his money.

Legacy
Although Serviez has often been forgotten, he is considered one of the heroes of the Colombian War of Independence. The National Army of Colombia's 20th airborne battalion based in the city of Meta is named after him in his honor.

In 1966 the Colombian Academy of History erected a bust of Serviez in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his death, this bust is located in Bogotá on Calle 61 near the University of La Salle in the Chapinero district.