Argentine Army: General Antonio Donovan

Gral. Antonio Donovan

Antonio Dónovan (b. Buenos Aires, April 26, 1849 – † Federal, province of Entre Ríos, August 14, 1897), Argentine soldier who participated in the Paraguayan War, in the last Argentine civil wars and in the campaigns prior to the Conquest of the Desert. He was also governor of the National Territory of Chaco.


Beginnings and the Triple Alliance War
Son of Dr. Cornelius Donovan Crowley and Mary Atkins Brown, in 1863 – after the death of his father – he enrolled in the 2nd Infantry Battalion without authorization from his mother, for which he was discharged by direct order of the Minister of War and Navy, General Gelly and Obes. Shortly after, he managed to obtain maternal authorization and joined the Light Artillery Regiment in July 1864, and was assigned to Martín García Island.
After the Paraguayan invasion of Corrientes he participated in the short-lived reconquest of that city by the forces of General Wenceslao Paunero. Under his command he participated in the battle of Yatay, on August 17, 1865. He also participated in the siege of Uruguayana.
In April of the following year he participated in the capture of the Itapirú Fortress, and in the battles of Estero Bellaco, Tuyutí, Yatayty Corá, Boquerón, Sauce and Curupaytí. On October 31 he was discharged from the Argentine Army, with no reference to the cause left.
He rejoined the Army in June of the following year, in the Line Infantry Battalion No. 2, with the rank of captain. He participated in the campaign in which national forces faced and defeated General Nicanor Cáceres, defender of the legal government of that province. In 1869, his regiment went to Córdoba.
He returned to the Paraguayan front the following May, assigned to various destinations, but did not manage to fight. He returned to Buenos Aires at the end of that year.

López Jordán Rebellion
When Ricardo López Jordán's rebellion broke out in the province of Entre Ríos, he accompanied Colonel Luis María Campos as an assistant, without having communicated that decision to his regiment, which discharged him from it. However, under Campos' orders he participated in the battle of Santa Rosa and other minor combats.
In May 1871, having recently arrived in the province of Buenos Aires, he fought against the indigenous people in the Tapalqué area. Later he passed to Martín García.
In June 1873 he was assigned to Paraná, participating in the fight against López Jordán's second rebellion. In the battle of Don Gonzalo, on December 9 of that year, the infantry under the command of Major Dónovan had a decisive performance in pushing back the federals.
In February of the following year he became assistant to the Minister of War, Martín de Gainza. Under the orders of Colonel Julio Campos he participated in the campaign against the revolutionaries in 1874.
During those years he bought a field in the northern part of the province of Entre Ríos, where the town of Federal would be founded.

Dessert Campaigns and Porteño Rebellion
In February 1875 he went to Gualeguaychú, in Entre Ríos, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In January of the following year, transferred again to Buenos Aires, he participated in the advance of the borders ordered by Minister Adolfo Alsina, participating in the occupation of the strategic point of Carhué, later moving to the garrisons of Puán, Azul and Olavarría. In this last place he led the national troops in a battle against the indigenous chiefs Namuncurá and Juan José Catriel, on August 6, 1876, recovering some 50,000 head of cattle.
He was promoted to the rank of colonel in June 1877. He participated in several more battles against the indigenous people in the following years, and in the advanced expeditions that prepared the Conquest of the Desert in 1879, in which he did not participate due to having been incorporated into the Military College and occupy the garrison of the city of Zárate.
He participated in the repression of the Buenos Aires revolution of 1880, commanding the Infantry Regiment No. 8 in the battles of Puente Alsina and Corrales.

The 1st Infantry Regiment and the Chaco 
In February 1883 he was appointed Chief of the Infantry Regiment No. 1. Two years earlier he had been one of the founders of the Military Circle.
In August 1886 he was promoted to the rank of general, and provisionally placed in command of the 1st Army Division; He was later director of the Artillery Park, Chief of Staff of the forces stationed in Chaco, based in Resistencia. Between 1897 and 1891 he was governor of the National Territory of Chaco, and until the end of 1895 he continued to be the commander of all the military troops of Chaco, later retiring.
He died while he was in Federal on August 14, 1897.
Married to Cándida Rosa Blanco, they had 12 children. His grandson Carlos Alberto Dónovan y Salduna died in an accident, and in his memory the March of Lieutenant Dónovan, used by the Argentine cavalry, was composed.1 

References 

↑ Military march Teniente Dónovan 

Sources

[1] Revisionistas.com biography
Planell Zanone, Oscar J. y Turone, Oscar A., Patricios de Vuelta de Obligado. 
Yaben, Jacinto R., Biografías Argentinas y Sudamericanas, Bs. As., 1938. 

Wikipedia