Battle of Magdalena River

Battle of the Magdalena River
Part of the Santander Campaign of the Thousand Days' War
Oil painting of the Battle of the Magdalena River by Francisco Valiente, 1899
Date October 24, 1899 Location Los Obispos, Magdalena, near present-day Gamarra, Cesar Department, Colombia Result Conservative victory
Belligerents
Colombian government Conservatives	Liberal Rebels
Commanders and leaders
Diego de Castro	Domiciano Nieto  † Manuel N. Vásquez  † Nicanor Guerra  † Efraín Mejía  †
Strength
2 gunboats "Colombia" "Hércules"	1 dredger 7 passenger steamships 500 men
Casualties and losses
Minimal losses	200+ killed[1]

The Battle of the Magdalena River (Spanish: Batalla del río Magdalena), also known as the Battle of Los Obispos or the Battle of Gamarra, was the first major battle of the Thousand Days' War. It took place on the Magdalena River on 24 October 1899,^[2] near the town of Gamarra, Magdalena (modern-day department of Cesar), Colombia. The Liberal Party rebelled against the Conservative government of Manuel Antonio Sanclemente on 17 October 1899 and attempted to seize the Magdalena River in a bid to sever riverine transportation to Bogotá. A rebel flotilla composed of converted passenger steamships and a dredge temporarily impeded Conservative advances down the river, but on the night of 24 October, two Conservative gunboats under General Diego de Castro destroyed the rebel flotilla.