Gloria, honor y valor.

Notas sobre la oficialidad del Ejército del Norte en el contexto de la batalla de Salta y las guerras por la Independencia

Abstract

This article analyzes the composition, social origins, and trajectories of the officer corps of the Army of the North during the battle of Salta (February 20th, 1813), within the framework of the revolutionary processes in the Río de la Plata. Through prosopographical analysis of the officers who participated in this decisive patriotic victory, it examines the role of the army as a space for upward social mobility and as a sphere for the construction of political‑military leaderships that transcended the military context. The research draws on unpublished primary sources from the Historical Archive of Salta, particularly the Treasury Manual Books, as well as documentation from the General Archive of the Nation and testimonies from contemporary actors such as José María Paz. The findings demonstrate the marked social, geographical, and ethnic heterogeneity of the officer corps, which included members of the Buenos Aires elites, caste officers, European veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, and rising urban middle sectors. Analysis of their trajectories after 1813 reveals that many of these officers occupied relevant political and administrative positions in subsequent decades, confirming the hypothesis about the army’s transformation into the revolution’s main body of civil servants. Furthermore, the reconstruction of the role of the Salta Treasury in financing military mobilization constitutes an original contribution that highlights the centrality of local finances in sustaining the war effort and the reconfiguration of regional economic circuits. This work contributes to a more complex understanding of militarization, revolution, and state formation in the Río de la Plata during the early decades of the 19th century.