Jorge Beauchef

Jorge Beauchef (1787 in Velay, France - June 10, 1840 in Santiago, Chile) was a French military who participated in the Napoleonic Wars and later on in the Chilean Independence War. In 1808 he felt prisoner in Spain but managed to escape to United States where he was invited to join South American patriots in the Army of the Andes. He did however not manage to arrive in time for the army's crossing of the Andes into Chile and the decisive battle of Chacabuco. When he arrived he soon begun to participate in engagement with the royalist; first in the siege of Talcahuano (1817) and later on in the decisive patriot victory at the Battle of Maipú (1818).

In 1819 he joined the newly formed Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Cochrane. In February 1820 he led an amphibious assault on the heavily fortified Corral Bay leading to the capture of Valdivia. He stayed in Valdivia to chase remaining royalist while Cochrane sailed further south to Chiloé Island. Beauchef then left Valdivia to expel the royalist from Osorno. The royalist of Valdivia had fled to Osorno and then gathered at Carelmapu fort where they received orders by Antonio de Quintanilla to confront Beauchef. In the Battle of El Toro (1820) Beauchef succeeded in defeating the royalist expedition.

In 1823 he was sent in charge of a reinforcement to José de San Martín's army in Peru. There he served as governor of Lima for a short time. Back in Chile he participated in the 1824 expedition to Chiloé Island where he was defeated in the Battle of Mocopulli. Chiloé would only be incorporated into Chile after Ramón Freire's 1826 expedition. In 1828 Beauchef left the army and three years later, in 1831 he went on visit to France where he remained two years before returning to Chile. He died in Santiago on June 10 of 1840.