
Miguel Estanislao Soler (7 May 1783-23 September 1849) was an Argentine general who fought in the Argentine War of Independence.
Biography[]
Miguel Estanislao Soler was born in Buenos Aires, Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata in 1783. He joined the Spanish Army at a young age and fought against the British invasions of the Rio de la Plata and Martin de Alzaga's revolution. However, he supported the May Revolution of 1810 and was dispatched to the Banda Oriental to aid Jose Gervasio Artigas in his liberation of Uruguay from the Spanish. As a colonel, he helped liberate Montevideo in May 1814. In August 1814, he was appointed Governor of the Banda Oriental, but most of the province was in the hands of Artigas' Federales. His attempt to crush the Federalist uprising was defeated at the Battle of Guayabos in January 1815, and he was forced to evacuate Montevideo. He was then redeployed to Chile, serving as a general in the Army of the Andes from July 1816. Soler participated in the crossing of the Andes and distinguished himself at the Battle of Chacabuco, but he was recalled to Buenos Aires for accusing the Chilean general Bernardo O'Higgins of endangering the victory with a hasty charge. He was without a command until 1819, when Jose Rondeau gave him command of an army in Lujan. He helped overthrow the Supreme Directory after the Battle of Cepeda in 1820, and he served as Governor of Buenos Aires Province that same year. He battled Santa Fe Province governor Estanislao Lopez at the Battle of Cañada de la Cruz on 28 June 1820, and he was defeated and forced to flee to Montevideo. Soler returned to Buenos Aires in 1822 and became inspector general of the army in 1823. He led the army in its campaign against the Empire of Brazil during the Cisplatine War, and he returned to Buenos Aires in 1828 and briefly served as ambassador to Bolivia before being recalled on Juan Lavalle's coup. He served as an advisor to Lavalle and Juan Jose Viamonte before being named commander of the urban forces of Buenos Aires by President Juan Manuel de Rosas in 1830. Soler was a strong supporter of Rosas, but the bloody repression of 1840 caused him to move to Montevideo before returning to Argentina and dying in obscurity in 1849.