Black Steed
of Liberty

At the battle of the Vargas Marsh, a quality emerged that would prove decisive in the course of the armed conflict. Combined with human daring and energy, it transformed into a kind of spirit, capable of the greatest feats. In memory of this outstanding act of independence, the cavalry was institutionalized as an instrument of the country’s armed forces in defense of national sovereignty. Beginning in 1810, independence movements organized a battalion of National Guard volunteers which, under the government of General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, became an army with two distinguished branches: The infantry and the cavalry, to which a corps of military engineers had been added, trained by Francisco José de Caldas. These branches forged Colombia’s independence and contributed to the consolidation of other nations. This is noted by Luis Caropresse Quintero and Eduardo Mantilla Trejos in their work *La Brasa Al Hielo*