Editing Gregor MacGregor (section)

===Venezuela, under Bolívar===
The British merchant class in Jamaica that had shunned MacGregor on his first arrival in 1812 now welcomed him as a hero. The Scotsman entertained many dinner parties with embellished accounts of his part in the Cartagena siege, leading some to understand that he had personally headed the city's defence. One Englishman toasted the "[[Hannibal]] of modern [[Carthage]]".{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=159–160}}{{#tag:ref|Among the claims MacGregor made about Cartagena was that he had lost two children during the siege—Sinclair calls this "almost certainly a lie", noting the lack of evidence for any MacGregor children being born at this time, but proposes that Josefa may have suffered miscarriages, which would make her husband "guilty of hyperbole rather than outright lying".{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=159–160}} Whatever the truth, Sinclair comments, MacGregor's claim strongly implies that Josefa had left Jamaica at some point between 1812 and 1815 and joined him in New Granada.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=159–160}}|group="n"|name="miscarriages"}} Around New Year 1816, MacGregor and his wife made their way to [[Santo Domingo]] (today the Dominican Republic), where Bolívar was raising a new army. Bolívar received MacGregor back into the [[Venezuelan Army]] with the rank of brigadier-general, and included him in an expeditionary force that left [[Les Cayes|Aux Cayes]] (now Les Cayes) on 30 April 1816.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=160–163}} MacGregor took part in the capture of the port town of [[Carúpano]] as second-in-command of [[Manuel Piar]]'s column, but is not mentioned in the record of the battle prepared by Bolívar's staff.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=160–163}} After the Spanish were driven from many central Venezuelan towns, MacGregor was sent to the coast west of Caracas to recruit native tribesmen in July 1816. On 18 July, eight days after the numerically superior royalists countered and broke Bolívar's main force at La Cabrera, MacGregor resolved to retreat hundreds of miles east to [[Barcelona, Venezuela|Barcelona]].{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=165–167}}

Two pursuing royalist armies harried MacGregor constantly as he retreated across country, but failed to break his rearguard. With no carts and only a handful of horses, the Scotsman was forced to leave his wounded where they fell. Late on 27 July, MacGregor's way east was obstructed by a royalist force at [[Chaguaramas, Venezuela|Chaguaramas]], south of Caracas and about a third of the distance to Barcelona. MacGregor led his men in a furious charge that prompted a Spanish retreat back into Chaguaramas, then continued towards Barcelona.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=167–169}} The Spanish remained in the town until 30 July, giving MacGregor two days' head start,{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=167–169}} and caught up with him only on 10 August. The Scotsman deployed his 1,200 men, mostly native archers, behind a marsh and a stream—the Spanish cavalry were bogged down in the marsh, while the archers repelled the infantry with volleys of arrows. After three hours MacGregor charged and routed the royalists. MacGregor's party was helped the rest of the way east to Barcelona by elements of the main revolutionary army. They arrived on 20 August 1816, after 34 days' march.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=169–171}}

In Rafter's view, this marked "the zenith of MacGregor's celebrity" in South America.{{sfn|Rafter|1820|p=82}} He had, according to his biographer Frank Griffith Dawson, "led his troops with brilliant success";{{sfn|Dawson|2004}} Sinclair agrees, calling the march a "remarkable feat" demonstrating "genuine military skill".{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=169, 173}} With Bolívar back in Aux Cayes, overall command of the republican armies in Venezuela had been given to Piar.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=172–173}} On 26 September, Piar and MacGregor defeated the Spanish army commanded by Francisco Tomás Morales at El Juncal.{{sfn|Harvey|2011|p=178}} But MacGregor and Piar had several disagreements over the strategic conduct of the war{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=172–173}}—according to the American historian [[David Bushnell (historian)|David Bushnell]], the Scottish general probably "r[an] afoul of personal and factional rivalries within the patriot camp".{{sfn|Bushnell|1986|p=9}} In early October 1816, MacGregor left with Josefa for [[Isla Margarita|Margarita Island]], about {{convert|24|mi}} off eastern Venezuela, where he hoped to enter the service of General [[Juan Bautista Arismendi]].{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=172–173}} 

Soon afterward, he received an acclamatory letter from Bolívar: "The retreat which you had the honour to conduct is in my opinion superior to the conquest of an empire&nbsp;... Please accept my congratulations for the prodigious services you have rendered my country".{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=172–173}} MacGregor's march to Barcelona would remain prominent in the South American revolutionary narrative for years.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=167–170}} The retreat also earned him the title of "[[Xenophon]] of the Americas" ({{langx|es|Jenofonte de América}}).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJ_GZJE1MWEC&q=%22jenofonte+de+am%C3%A9rica%22+macgregor&pg=PA33|title=Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia. TOMO CCIV. NUMERO I. AÑO 2007|publisher=Real Academia de la Historia|language=es}}</ref>