In Colombia, the government of the conservative Mariano Ospina Rodríguez was faced with a liberal uprising led by the governor of Cauca Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera in 1860, which quickly turned into a civil war throughout the country.

García Moreno sent General Juan José Flores as head of the Ecuadorian armed forces, who seized Tumaco and Túquerres with 5,000 infantry, 1,000 horsemen and some artillery pieces.

García Moreno ordered General Flores to mobilize towards the north of Ecuador almost all of the existing battalions in the territory, around 8,200 infantrymen and 1,150 horsemen divided in 4 divisions: Draquea, Salvador, Maldonado and Dávalos.

The battalions that were able to get ready to fight were the Amalia, the Bomboná, the Pasto, the 2nd and 5th Vargas, the Cariaco, the Pichincha, the Voltígeros, the Tiradores, the Bogotá, the Guitarra, the Palacé and the Granaderos.

At the beginning of December, Mosquera took a map, and after observing the siege of Cuaspud (current department of Nariño), he pointed to it with a pin exclaiming: "here I have to annul the cavalry of Flores".

At this point was located a border farm with Ecuador, which was characterized by being swampy, with its hills and mudflats completely hidden by thick wild vegetation, a natural product of stagnant moisture as in a large mud lake.

On December 5, Flores received the last troop reinforcement sent from Tulcán by Colonel Gómez de la Torre; all these movements announced the proximity of combat.

On December 6, Mosquera ordered that the Cumbal camp be raised and he headed towards Carchi, the foregoing due to the loss of part of the horses and oxen that loaded the cannons; Flores immediately set his eight thousand soldiers on the move, sending the 1st and 2nd Avengers battalions and three hundred horsemen in the direction of Mosquera, the two sides suddenly meeting on the slopes of the hill called Cuaspud, so close that they were almost point-blank fire.

This move by Mosquera and his army managed to place it on the hill, interposed between Flores and El Carchi and also defended to a large extent by the deep swamps that had the appearance of simple pastures.