As a classmate of his recounts: When war broke out, during the fourth year of studying humanities at the secondary school at Curicó, Luis Cruz Martinez was the top student in his class.

At the beginning of the war Cruz was so young he could barely raise his rifle to shoulder height, and was so short and weak, his comrades jokingly gave the nickname of "el cabo Tachuela."

On defense Carrera-Pinto had just 77 men of the 4th company Chacabuco regiment, with little ammunition, one hundred rounds per man, and also three women who followed their husbands, one of whom was pregnant.

According to General Andrés Avelino Cáceres in his memoirs : ... (the Chilean enemy) continued defending with unprecedented ferocity ... Captain Ignacio Carrera-Pinto died fighting at dawn on Monday, 10 July.

Estanislao del Canto Arteaga, according to the testimony of two witnesses, describes the end of the battle: Lieutenant Cruz was found in the Plaza de Concepción naked, his hands shredded, due to sustained knife combat.