Antonio Jose de Sucre was twenty-seven years old and already Simon Bolivar's most trusted subordinate. He had been sent from Guayaquil in 1821 to take command of Patriot forces in what the Spanish called the Real Audiencia de Quito. Two previous campaigns had failed - both at the same battleground near Ambato, the First Battle of Huachi in 1820 and the Second Battle of Huachi in September 1821. This time, Sucre chose a different strategy: a long southern sweep through Cuenca, then north along the inter-Andean corridor, giving his troops time to acclimate to altitude. The plan worked. By May 1822, his multinational army was in Sangolqui, declaring it part of independent Colombia.

The force Sucre commanded was an improbable coalition. Colombians formed the Alto Magdalena and Paya battalions. Ecuadorians made up the Yaguachi. From Peru came the Trujillo and Piura battalions, 1,500 strong under Colonel Andres de Santa Cruz. From Argentina and Chile came the Horse Grenadiers of the Andes, veterans of San Martin's crossings. Then there was the Albion Battalion - 433 Scottish, Irish, and English volunteers of the British Legions, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Mackintosh. These were men who had crossed oceans for a cause. Some had survived the Napoleonic Wars. Most had no personal stake in South American independence beyond the ideas that brought them here. The Royalist side, under Field Marshal Melchor Aymerich, numbered 1,894, including the veteran Spanish Aragon Battalion that had fought in the Peninsular War.

At eight in the morning, Sucre sent part of the Paya forward in a reconnaissance role. Ninety minutes later, the Paya was struck by a well-aimed musket volley. The battle had begun on terrain neither commander had chosen: steep slopes broken by deep gullies and dense undergrowth, with no room to maneuver and no clear fields of fire. The fighting was piecemeal. Units were thrown in as they arrived. The Paya took heavy losses under withering fire. The Ecuadorians of the Yaguachi came up, tried to stabilize the line. The Colombians of the Alto Magdalena attempted to flank but found the broken ground impossible. Ammunition ran low. The Trujillo Battalion fell back. The Piura fled before making contact. A desperate bayonet charge by the Paya reserve barely held the line.

Aymerich had an ace. He had detached his best unit, the Aragon Battalion, to climb higher than the main force and fall on the Patriot rear when the moment came. The Aragon veterans reached their position above the faltering Patriot line, ready to charge down and break it. But the Albion - the British volunteers who had been bringing up the rear with the ammunition train - had, improbably, climbed higher still. When the Aragon prepared its charge, the Albion appeared above them. Muskets cracked from a position the Spanish had not anticipated. The Aragon was stopped in its tracks, suffered heavy losses, and was put out of action. The Alto Magdalena then moved forward to relieve the Paya and charged the Royalist line, which finally broke. At midday, Aymerich ordered the retreat.

Four hundred Royalist soldiers and two hundred Patriots lay dead on the slopes of Pichincha. Among the wounded was Lieutenant Abdon Calderon Garaycoa, a young officer from Cuenca who had suffered four successive wounds and refused to leave the field. Sucre mentioned him specifically in his after-action report. Calderon died of his wounds. Ecuador made him a national hero. Sucre entered Quito on May 25 and accepted the Spanish surrender. On June 16, Bolivar arrived to general celebration, and the former Province of Quito joined the Republic of Colombia. Eight years later, in 1830, Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca would secede from Colombia to form a new nation: the Republic of Ecuador. The battlefield where it began is now called La Cima de la Libertad - the Summit of Liberty. A monument and military parade mark the site every May 24.