The Siege of Salta occurred in January 1815 when Major-General Eustoquio Díaz Vélez's Argentine Unitarian army captured the city of Salta from the Federalist Army of the Andes amid the Argentine Civil Wars.
In 1814, territorial control in Argentina was split between the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata - which ruled over northeastern Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay - and José de San Martín's Army of the Andes in northwestern Argentina. While the two factions occasionally worked together to further the patriotic cause and take the battle to the Spanish Royalists in Chile, Peru, and Upper Peru (Bolivia), tensions arose between the federalist San Martin and the centralist Manuel Belgrano, commander of Buenos Aires' armies. In late 1814, the Army of the Andes and the Bonaerense government went to war as San Martin's army attempted to expand its control over northern Argentina. The Federalists conquered Santa Fe Province, Salta Province, and Jujuy Province, vital borderlands between Argentina and Royalist-controlled Upper Peru, before agreeing to a truce with the Unitarios in Buenos Aires. However, Belgrano made plans to reconquer lost territory and, in late December 1815, he ordered Major-General Eustoquio Díaz Vélez to assemble his armies at Buenos Aires for a march on Salta.
On 1 January 1815, as the Unitarian armies assembled outside Salta, the Buenos Aires government issued a declaration of war against the Army of the Andes. The Unitarios laid siege to Salta, fielding 595 troops against the city's 143-strong garrison. Major-General Eustoquio Díaz Vélez was in command of the army, while his officers included Lieutenant-Colonel Juan Escobar, Lieutenant Francisco Mallea, Colonel Cornelio Zelaya, Captain Manuel Dorado, Captain Felipe Bertres, and Captain Galeano Moretti. On 2 January 1815, the Unitarios stormed the city. Moretti's men suffered heavy casualties while charging across an open courtyard, as Federalist snipers shot at them from balconies and other Federalists fired from behind barricades. The Unitarios' first assault was repulsed and Moretti was knocked out in the fighting, but his men carried him from the field. Moretti participated in the second wave, which ultimately overwhelmed the Federalist garrison and captured the city.
Despite the Unitarian victory, Major-General Juan Gregorio de las Heras and his Federalist armies immediately counterattacked, and the Unitarian armies withdrew from Salta rather than fight a pitched battle outside its walls. In short order, Salta returned to Federalist control.
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