Military Intervention to Banda Oriental: Battle of India Muerta

Battle of India Muerta

At the beginning of 1845 the fight was going to resume in the Argentine territory, but the war has never been interrupted. In Uruguay three armies of the Confederation are fighting and in Oribe's there are Argentine battalions. There has also been some insignificant meeting in Entre Ríos, promoted by the governor of Corrientes. But now Rosas will have before him the most notable of our soldiers, General Paz, who has just been appointed chief of the Allied Pacifying Army in Corrientes, and who has already begun to organize his troops. This appointment is not the only skill of the Corrientes government. His trade treaty with Paraguay, which Rosas considers a betrayal, because a province cannot agree with a foreigner, is the first step towards military collaboration.

Manuel Oribe defeated Fructuoso Rivera in Arroyo Grande (December 6, 1842). He lost all his army, and even his pistols and sword of honor, which he threw away in order to flee. This act of arms meant the end of the Federation of Uruguay that Rivera presided over. After that battle, the Rosas troops commanded by General Oribe crossed Uruguay, while Rivera's troops fled towards Montevideo without offering resistance. After that, Oribe with almost the entire country in his power. He set out to besiege Montevideo, in a siege that would last nine years and would be remembered by Uruguayan histography as the “Big Site”. And establish his seat of government in what is now known as the Cerrito de la Victoria neighborhood, in what was then the outskirts of Montevideo.

Fructuoso Rivera, who had not exercised acts of government except as he passed, at the points he occupied with his arms, was followed by the army under the command of Urquiza, who caught up with him in the Sierra de Malbajar, and forced him to cross the border and take refuge in Rio Grande. On behalf of the eastern government, Rivera addressed the Marquis de Caxias, Commander-in-Chief of the Empire's forces in that province, with whom he had had negotiations through his secretary, José Luis Bustamante. There he was able to reorganize with the help of weapons, clothing and horses that he received. The last days of January 1845 he passed to the eastern frontier. His divisions, under the command of Colonels Flores, Freire and Silveira, had minor clashes with those of Urquiza; but as he passed in mid-February from the north to the south of the Negro River and laid siege to the town of Melo, Urquiza gathered his forces and on the 21st moved from Cordobés in the direction of Cerro Largo. Rivera hid in the Sierra del Olimar and Cebollatí. Urquiza countermarched the 23rd of the Dead Fraile, and headed for the path of the blade, with the design of putting himself on the right flank and leading the way. But it was useless. Rivera, knowing the terrain, made Urquiza march and countermarch in order to ruin his horse and fall on him at a propitious moment. They remained like this until March 31, when Urquiza moved from his Los Chanchos camp, upon learning that Rivera, at the head of 3,000 men, was going to take the town of Minas. Urquiza was able to prevent him from reaching the San Francisco bar on time, but he had to remain at this point to give his horses a rest. On the 21st Rivera gathered his entire army and headed for Urquiza. On the 25th both armies sighted each other, and on the 26th he took up positions in the fields of India Muerta.

Rivera had just over 4,000 men; Urquiza had 3,000, most of them veterans. At sunrise on March 27, Urquiza led two strong guerrillas through the Sarandí stream, and behind them he advanced his columns, extending his line within Rivera's cannon shot, and made up the right: from the Entre Ríos division under the command of Colonel Urdinarrain ; center: three companies of the Entre Ríos battalion and three artillery pieces under the command of Major Francia; left: eight cavalry squadrons, two infantry companies and the eastern division commanded by Colonel Galarza. The Entre Ríos squadrons carried out a tremendous charge with saber and spear on the left and center of Rivera, the first made up of recently incorporated militias from the departments of Río Negro, and the second of an infantry battalion and two artillery pieces, respectively commanded by Colonels Baez, Luna, Silva and Tavares. The federal charges were irresistible, and very soon the battle on Rivera's right was reduced, where his best forces were under the command of General Medina, leader of the vanguard. Faced with the danger of being outflanked and encircled, Rivera personally went to his left to redo it, which he was able to accomplish by bringing some squadrons into combat. But Urquiza then launched his reserves, and after an hour of fierce fighting he completely defeated him, killing more than 400 men, among whom there were thirty-odd chiefs and officers; taking about 500 prisoners, the park, horses, all
to his correspondence, and even his sword with shots and balls.

“I notified you of the unfortunate event of the 27th –Rivera writes to his wife- unfortunately I suffered another contrast that forced us to cross the Yaguarón in a bit of a hurry. I lost part of the mount and since that day we have been under the protection of the imperial authorities”.

This victory forever destroyed the military influence of the director of the war against Rosas.

In Buenos Aires, where the news arrives on the last day of March, the triumph is celebrated with great parties: fireworks, downloads, lighting, flagging and street demonstrations with music. A column of four to five thousand people arrives in Palermo. There are deputies, judges, officials. Rosas does not show up to receive his tribute and they are attended by Manuelita.

At the end of January, Admiral Brown, by order of Rosas, has restored the blockade. No longer the partial blockade, like the previous year, to certain merchandises and the exemption for England and France, but the absolute one. But Admiral Lainé does not know. Converted since the previous year into an enemy of Rosas, into another Purvis, he applauds the legionnaires and says he cannot dissolve them because they are no longer French. At the same time, he harasses Oribe, ignores his rights and does not allow other Frenchmen to go to Buenos Aires. He has established in Montevideo, an undoubted intervention. He is the one who now rules there. Very little is missing for the city to be occupied by France. Rosas then decreed, to the indignation of the representatives of France and England, that the ships that had landed in Montevideo should not enter Buenos Aires, the true port of destination.

After India Muerta, the fall of Montevideo seemed inevitable. The government itself even declared that the city could not sustain itself for forty days with its own resources. Oribe convened in May for the renewal of the legislative assembly and elections for the president of the Republic, and proposes the surrender. Repulsed, he prepares to attack. Lainé and Inglefield declare that they will not allow the fall of the city. And that is when they provide it with weapons, ammunition and food and when troops land. And the government of Montevideo writes to the government of Brazil some infamous and shameful words according to which Uruguay, almost having to surrender to a foreign power, "rather than succumb under the blade of Rosas" -words verbatim- "would lie down with preference in the arms of an American power”. That is to say, that before being governed by their compatriot Oribe, hero of Uruguayan independence, one of the "33" and head of Ituzaingó, those bad Uruguayans prefer to be Brazilians, they prefer to hand over their homeland to Brazil, the only and perpetual enemy of Their independence.

Once again, foreigners prevent the fall of Montevideo. Now only four hundred and nine Orientals defend it. The rest of the troops are slaves, mostly belonging to foreigners and in number of six hundred and eighteen; and 2,500 foreigners, including 1,554 French. What have the remaining thousand Frenchmen done? The most serious, as well as others who never formed in the legion, have taken refuge in Buenos Aires. From here they address a petition to the French government, where these significant words are read: "Mr. Lainé, has he been sent to protect the dying party that dominates in Montevideo, or to protect us?" That dying party, those four hundred and nine men, now that Rivera's army does not exist, represent the Eastern State for France and England. And in the name of that handful of individuals, France and England come to get involved in the politics of La Plata, to rule as owners, to impose themselves with their cannons.

And the emigrants? The number of Argentines who defend the plaza is barely one hundred and thirty. Very few more are those who carry weapons. The rest are in Buenos Aires or in Brazil. But those few Argentines are the owners of the Montevideo government, mainly Florencio Varela. Varela must be happy, seeing the result of his mission to Europe, seeing his homeland about to go to war against the two great powers of the world, in danger of being destroyed and devastated.

Source

• Efemérides – Patricios de Vuelta de Obligado (2008).
• Gálvez, Manuel – Vida de Don Juan Manuel de Rosas – Ed. Tor – Buenos Aires (1954).
• Portal www.revisionistas.com.ar
• Saldías, Adolfo – Historia de la Confederación Argentina.

Source: www.revisionistas.com.ar