CASUALTY RECORD // November 19, 1879
Battle of San Francisco
Estimated casualties — killed, wounded, captured, and missing — by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Casualties by side
1 sides catalogued · combined 1,500 estimated
Peru
1,500
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of San Francisco was a major engagement in the Tarapacá Campaign of the War of the Pacific, fought as Chilean forces under Colonel Emilio Sotomayor held a position at the San Francisco Saltpeter Office deep in the Peruvian department of Tarapacá. The Allied assault, launched by General Juan Buendía with a numerically superior force of over 9,000 against roughly 6,500 Chileans, failed to dislodge the Chilean position. Peruvian casualties reached approximately 1,500. The Chilean hold on this desert interior position sustained the momentum of the Tarapacá Campaign, which aimed at securing the nitrate-rich province that lay at the economic heart of the wider conflict.
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