of Cusco, Bolívar gave General Sucre command of the new battlefront, which followed the course of the Apurímac River, and withdrew to Lima to negotiate more loans to keep the war going in Peru, and to receive a Colombian division of 4000 men from José Antonio Páez, which would arrive after Ayacucho. Ayacucho campaign The defeat of Canterac forced La Serna to bring Jerónimo Valdés in from Potosí on a forced march with his troops. The royalist generals debated their plans. In spite of the signs of support from within the besieged Cusco, the viceroy rejected a direct assault because of his army's lack of training, having been enlarged by the massive return of peasants a few weeks earlier. Instead, he intended to cut Sucre's rearguard through march and countermarch maneuvers, which led to the encounter in Ayacucho along the Andean range. The royalists planned a quick strike which they made on 3 December in the Battle of Corpahuaico or Matará, where they cost the liberator army more than 500 casualties and much of its ammunition and artillery, vs their own losses of only 30 men. However, Sucre and his adjutant managed to keep his troops organized and prevented the viceroy from exploiting this success. Although he had suffered great losses of men and materiel, Sucre kept the United Army in an orderly retreat, and always situated it in secure positions that were difficult to access, such as quinoa fields. In his memoirs, In the Service of the Republic of Peru, General Guillermo Miller explained the point of view of the independentists. Besides Bolívar and Sucre, the United Army drew on a large body of experienced soldiers; for example, the rifles battalion of the army of Colombia was composed of European troops, mostly British volunteers. This unit was substantially damaged at . Among its ranks were veterans of the Peninsular War, the American War of Independence, and the Spanish–American Wars, and individuals such as the Anglo-German major , a veteran of the 1812 Battle of Borodino against Napoleón Bonaparte in Russia. A number of British and Irish volunteer officers fought with Bolívar's forces in Ayacucho, including general William Miller. But the bulk of the foreign troops, who had taken part in most of the campaign, remained at the rear in reserve during this battle. The royalists had exhausted their resources in a marching war without achieving a decisive victory against