War with Brazil: Naval Battle of Los Pozos

June 11th. Anniversary of the Battle of Los Pozos

Background

Imagine a nation on the brink, its borders threatened by a powerful empire, rivers blockaded, and its very sovereignty hanging by a thread. The year is 1825, and the fledgling United Provinces of the Río de la Plata faces a formidable foe: the Empire of Brazil, a giant that seeks to crush any resistance and expand its dominion.

As the specter of war looms, Buenos Aires is thrust into a desperate struggle for survival. A small, hastily assembled fleet, funded by the patriotic fervor of its citizens, is their only hope against Brazil's mighty naval forces. Meanwhile, danger lurks on the southern coast, where whispers of invasion and treachery among indigenous allies threaten to unravel the fragile unity of the provinces.

This is not just a battle for land or power; it is a fight for the very soul of a nation. The stage is set for a conflict that will shape the destiny of South America, where courage, strategy, and determination will be tested to their limits. Will the United Provinces rise to the challenge, or will they be consumed by the imperial ambitions of their neighbor? The answer lies in the epic struggle that is about to unfold. 

The Actions

Picture a nation under siege, its fate hanging in the balance as forces clash on both land and water. The rivers that were once lifelines have become battlegrounds, and the mighty Plata, once claimed by the Empire of Brazil as its own, now bears witness to fierce resistance.

In the closing days of May 1826, the Argentine fleet, though outnumbered and outgunned, dared to challenge imperial dominance. Brig Balcarce, alongside a few schooners and gunboats, stealthily maneuvered to Las Conchillas, where they began the daring task of disembarking troops. The Empire, seeking vengeance, dispatched a squadron of 30 ships to crush this audacious move. But on June 11, as they approached Los Pozos, they met an unexpected foe: Admiral Guillermo Brown, a man of iron will and unyielding courage.

With Buenos Aires as a backdrop and ten thousand spectators lining the harbor, Brown's fleet engaged the imperial forces in a blaze of cannon fire. For fifteen intense minutes, the river roared with the thunder of battle until, against all odds, the imperial ships turned south, retreating from the fray. As the sun dipped below the horizon, the Argentine fleet stood victorious, a testament to their resilience and determination.

Yet, while these naval victories ignited hope, the land war stagnated. The Argentine army, led by General Las Heras, remained in a tense standoff, hindered by political turmoil at home. In a bid to stabilize the nation, Congress acted swiftly, establishing a permanent executive power and electing Bernardino Rivadavia as president.

The stage is set for a dramatic turn in the conflict, where the tides of war may shift at any moment. The courage displayed on the rivers may yet inspire a nation to rise above the challenges that lie ahead, but the road to victory is fraught with uncertainty.



Wikipedia

Triple Alliance War: Williams, John Hoyt (2000). "A Swamp of Blood. The Battle of Tuyuti"

Williams_Swamp of Blood

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Williams, John Hoyt (2000). "A Swamp of Blood. The Battle of Tuyuti". Military History 17 (1).

The Paraguayan War: The Paraná Protocol

The Paraná Protocol

 
José Maria da Silva Paranhos (1819-1880)

Like those cubes that fit one inside the other, Brazil was included within the larger cube of British politics. Miter, in turn, would be the smallest hub of Brazilian diplomacy, as Captain Richard Burton himself would denounce.

Miter and his class did not enter into war, neither deceived nor naive. This general of pounds and surrenders, he knew that if war was declared “…. It would be an unprecedented event in South America, the most immoral in modern history. The Confederation has nothing to claim regarding the free navigation of the Paraguay River. Regarding the question of borders, it is not in the interest of the Republics of Silver to assist Brazil in its policy of invading foreign territory, betraying the cause of the Republic of Paraguay, our defense against the exaggerated pretensions of Brazil; and it would also be betraying our own cause, when similar issues may arise later between Brazil and the Argentine Republic.”

This was maintained by Miter against Urquiza, when he suspected that the Protocol of Paraná of December 14, 1857, which established the alliance between Brazil and the Confederation, to attack Paraguay, was about to be signed. The general's speeches and words are clarified politically in their historical context. Extracting from this quote by Miter a definitive meaning about his position favorable to Paraguay would be hermeneutically incorrect and historically false. Even the same representatives of Urquiza, in article 4 of the Paraná Protocol, had stated: “The war has only as its goal the free navigation of Paraguay in which the interest of the Confederation is secondary and remote due to its current lack of trade in those directions, would not be popular in his country, would not justify the Argentine Government before the national public opinion of abandoning the contemporary policy that has been prescribed until today, despite the serious damages that result from the deplorable system that the Paraguayan Government insists on.

“…That an alliance of the two States to draw their borders with Paraguay, a State weaker than either of them, would be odious and could seriously compromise the results that both promise to obtain.”.

Upon signing the Protocol of Paraná, on December 14, 1857, Paranhos gave the following “significant toast”: “I wish to see the closest union between the Empire and the Confederation realized, and that the glory of Caseros is not the only glory acquired.” in common for Brazil and the Argentine Nation.”

In a “confidential” from José Manuel Estrada to Wenceslao Paunero, dated December 24, 1868, it is clarified: “…The Government of Urquiza, which in 1857 was courting Brazil to bring it into an alliance against Buenos Aires and obtain loans, without which "He could not carry out what he called the war of reconstruction, that year he concluded a treaty with Mr. Paranahos in which he undertook to hand over the slaves who escaped from Brazil." This treaty was, effectively, another of those signed in Paraná on that occasion. Urquiza's “objectives” were exactly as described. For this reason, Pelham Horton Box rightly says “…in the agreements between Brazil, the Argentine Confederation and Uruguay, of 1856 and 1857, we already see the outline of the Triple Alliance of 1865.”

Miter would participate in the war, despite the position publicly held in 1857, because with it he consolidated his political alliance with the Brazilian Empire and ensured his triumph over the federals. With the alliance, on the other hand, the cycle begun with Urquiza, of financial-political dependence, with respect to Brazil, that is to say, England, was continued.

The price of the “repressive” tranquility of the provincial interior had been previously regulated by Baring Brothers, Rothschild and the Foreign Office. In Argentina, the livestock class, “exporter-importer”, urged Bartolomé Mitre. The newspaper of Melchor Rom – director of the Stock Exchange and one of the eminent representatives of that class – dreamed of the appropriation of Guaraní tobacco and yerba. His imagination as an economic speculator would cause the Paraguayan lands to be traveled, in his dreams, by Buenos Aires cattle.

Seduced by Mitrist rhetoric, a coincidental sublimation of their class interests, the young “autonomists” and “nationalists”, with aristocratic roots, would voluntarily enlist, commanded by their philosophy professors, to put an end to Paraguayan “barbarism”. “After the triumph of Paraguay,” said “La Nación Argentina” in December 1864, “the reign of barbarism will continue for us (…) As Argentines, then, and as enemies of barbarism and dictatorship, we hope that, if the Paraguayan government carries on the war is defeated by Brazil (...) no one can doubt the situation that awaits us if Paraguay triumphs."

After Curupaytí, Mitre's “nationalists” would be replaced by paid mercenaries or the unemployed. The mercenaries were Europeans, hired by Hilario Ascasubi in France. The couplings were made in Marseille and Bordeaux. Hundreds of men were embarked monthly on ships of the “Societé General des Transport Maritime”. The contracts were accompanied by a medical certificate of health of the mercenaries, and the statement of two witnesses, which proved that they knew how to handle weapons. All formalities were completed at the Argentine Consulate in Marseille or Bordeaux. The unemployed Argentines, in turn, were men who, destroyed by free trade the tasks of craftsmanship and industry that flourished under Juan Manuel de Rosas, were distressed and without work, forced to look for a “military” occupation.

All of them would go to carry out the bloody British plan on Guarani land.

Uruguay, converted into a political appendage of Brazilian-Mitrista diplomacy, after its national defeat, would participate through Venancio Flores in the war. The 5,000 men that he will send to their deaths will justify the geometric increase in his public debt, due to the measured “efforts” of the Baron of Mauá and the London bankers. The convention of October 12, 1851, had determined that the Eastern Republic of Uruguay was obliged to apply all its resources to the payment of the Brazilian debt. But, from this obligation, at the request of Brazil itself, the loans that Uruguay had obtained in London had been excluded. This requirement would be repeated in the protocol of 1867, and conclusively demonstrates the total dependence of Brazilian Banking on the English one. The credits of the Brazilian Empire were, in reality, British credits, which could not be settled with English money. León de Palleja, despite his position as an allied officer, would express the authentic Uruguayan thought: “I was not a supporter of this (war); Everyone knows my ideas in this regard, but I consider it a stupid war to wage between Orientals and Paraguayans. Nations of identical origin and causes; although by different means, they are destined to maintain a common policy and to be sisters and not enemies…”

The war seemed an irrational fact, but the world was experiencing the transformation of the export of merchandise into the export of capital, and South America was the favorable victim of that transformation, deeply “rational” for British interests.

Cotton, free navigation, loans, limits, commercial profits, industrial destruction, political power, ambition and fear, marked the war of the Double Alliance, between Financial Capital and local oligarchies. Drama of American characters, with a hidden protagonist and author: England, revealed, through the few traces left in its lethal path.

Faced with this plexus of interests and relationships, the Paraguayan people, with their statesman at the helm. The armed people, defending their economic freedom, their protectionist tariff, their closure of rivers, their agricultural production, their industry, their railroad, their telegraph.

But above all, sovereign Paraguay, defending the balance of the Río de la Plata, that is, the “American Union”, against the attack prepared by the foreign power.

Anticipating what would happen, Rosas had written to Carlos Antonio López a dozen years ago: “that he hoped for his happiness and for God to preserve him without admitting foreigners, who are bad locusts.”
Felipe Varela, director of the “American System” would say of the War, in an ephemeral moment of truce:

“… The war with Paraguay was an event already calculated, premeditated by General Mitre (...) The Argentine provinces, however, have never participated in these feelings, on the contrary, those people have contemplated, groaning, the defection of the President, imposed by the bayonets, on the Argentine blood, of the principles of the American Union, in which they have always looked to the safeguarding of their rights and their freedom, taken in the name of justice and the law”.

And that thought would be the fraternal echo of the high Paraguayan patriotic expression, synthesized in the doctrine of the balance of the Río de la Plata, which Francisco Solano López proclaimed, with just pride before all his people.

Full text of the Paraná Protocol

On the fourteenth day of the month of December, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in this city of Paraná, the Plenipotentiaries of the Argentine Confederation, doctors Don Santiago Derqui and Don Bernabé López, and the Plenipotentiary of YE. the Emperor of Brazil, Counselor José María da Silva Paranhos, agreed to record in writing the results of their conferences, on the means that their respective Governments should use to obtain from the Republic of Paraguay a satisfactory solution to the pending issues, which they say regarding common river navigation as well as the declarations that the same Plenipotentiaries made in the name of both Governments, presupposing the case that war becomes inevitable to achieve that goal that is of such interest to both countries and to civilization and commerce in general.
It was agreed at the same time that this document must be kept in the most complete confidentiality and is intended only to inform the two Governments of the circumstances and dispositions that each of them has towards the Republic of Paraguay, taking into account that , in any case they can mutually bring together all the good offices inherent to the benevolent and close relations that so happily exist between them and the peoples whose destinies they preside over.
Being an obligation contracted by the Empire of Brazil and the Argentine Confederation, in the Alliance Agreements of 1851, confirmed and again stipulated in the Treaty of March 7, 1856, and in the river Convention of November 20 of the present year, the invitation and use of all means within the reach of each of the two Governments so that the other coastal States and especially the Republic of Paraguay, adhere to the same principles of free navigation as well as the means of making them effectively useful, said Plenipotentiaries agreed:

1. In that the Government of the Argentine Confederation, based on the aforementioned stipulations and the special conditions that exist between it and that of the Republic of Paraguay, for the free transit enjoyed by the Paraguayan flag in the waters of the Paraná, belonging to the same Confederation and by the Treaty of July 29, 1856, will demand of said Republic that for its part it opens the Paraguay River to all flags and adopts in relation to common transit the franchises and means of Police and inspection that are generally used and found stipulated in the River Convention of November 20 between the Confederation and the Empire of Brazil.
2. In that the Government of the Confederation as well as that of Brazil will maintain said claim with the greatest possible effort, being however free to each of them to ensure that their claims reach the point of leaving diplomatic channels and compromising the state of peace. in which they find themselves with that neighboring State, given that the Government of the Confederation and the Imperial Government are not yet in agreement on the hypothesis of resorting to war.
   
3. In that, to make possible, as both Governments so desire, a peaceful solution to the pending issues with the Republic of Paraguay, regarding river navigation, both may stop insisting on the general concession and ultimately limit their claims, to that the Paraguayan Government effectively guarantees all its freedom of transit to its respective flags, according to the means indicated in the river Convention of November 20 of this year, each Government invoking its perfect right to this free transit, in view of the treaties in force between them and that of that Republic. 
4. In that, the claim of the Government of the Confederation will be made in a way that coincides with the special mission that the Government of H.M. The Emperor of Brazil now sends to the Republic of Paraguay with the demand that in the same sense and at the same time direct the Government of the Eastern State of Uruguay.

Sources

• Efemérides – Patricios de Vuelta de Obligado
• Peña, R. O. y Duhalde. E. – Felipe Varela – Schapire editor – Buenos Aires (1975).
• www.revisionistas.com.ar

Triple Alliance War: Riachuelo, the Greatest Naval Battle in America

Riachuelo

On June 11, 1865, the largest naval battle in America was fought, at the site where the water course called Riachuelo flows, located at the mouth of the Paraná River at its conjunction with the Paraguay River, a few kilometers from the city of Corrientes, over Argentine waters. That area of the province of Corrientes was at that time in the power of Paraguayan troops, so they had control of the coast.

By early 1865, Solano López was determined to take control of the Paraná River in the first place to control an entire future cleansing of the Río de la Plata. If he were successful in sneaking up on the Brazilian imperial fleet in the lower waters of the river then he would achieve an important victory that would enable deeper land operations in the future.

Surprise would be essential. At the end of 1864 the Paraguayan navy consisted of 17 small vessels of various sizes. Only two of them, Anhambay and Tacuarí, were built as gunboats. During the 1860s López was hoping to get new ironclads added to his fleet. He maintained contacts with some European countries to obtain these ships. This project, however, had to be abandoned due to financial problems.

The imperial fleet, on the other hand, fielded 45 vessels, 33 steamships and 12 sailing ships at the beginning of the war. The force had at its disposal a total manpower of almost 2,400 officers and men. The main units were the Niterói propeller type and the Amazonas rear-bladed propeller boat. The fleet, however, had a major defect: it had been designed for the high seas rather than for river operations.



On June 8, the Paraguayan fleet was concentrated in Asunción for the departure towards the fortress of Humaitá. López himself was aboard the Tacuarí. The entire population of the capital was present to witness the departure. At the end of the morning the ships left for the fortress. As soon as he arrived in Humaitá on the morning of the next day, López immediately began to prepare the attack against the enemy squadron located near Corrientes, in a width called Riachuelo, which gave support to the land forces of the Triple Alliance to expel the Paraguayans of Corrientes. He gathered the bulk of the Paraguayan armada to hit the Brazilian ships at dawn on June 11. The squadron consisted of eight ships, the flagship Tacuarí, the recently arrived Paraguarí, built in England, the captured Brazilian steamship Marquês de Olinda and the Ygureí, Ybera, Yporá, Jejuí, Salto Oriental and the Pirabebé. Along with the ships, six low flat-bottomed barges with an eight-inch gun each, known as flatboats, would be towed to confront the enemy. The squadron numbered 36 guns. Commodore Pedro Ignacio Meza would order the assault. In addition, the Paraguayan ships would have the support of a cannon battery under the command of Colonel José Maria Bruguez placed along the river coastline.

The Brazilian squadron anchored near Corrientes formed the Amazonas (flagship) and the ships Jequitinhonha, Belmonte, Parnaíba, Ipiranga, Mearin, Iguatemi, Araguarí and the Beberibé. The total firepower of the squadron amounted to 59 guns. Admiral Francisco Manuel Barroso was in command of the ships.

Meza must sail downstream of the Paraná during dawn on June 11 to reach the enemy around dawn. The surprise would compensate for the fact that the Paraguayan ships were outgunned. At two in the morning the fleet left Humaitá. At five o'clock the chatas assembled the ships. Despite this, a problem with the Iberá's engine delayed the plan.

Battle Plan


Only at nine o'clock, in the broad light of day, the ships reached Riachuelo.

After placing the chatas near the coast, Meza led his ships directly into the enemy to split the Imperial squadron in two.

Barroso's ships were anchored near the confluence of the Paraná and two narrow channels. The attack, if not entirely a surprise, occurred when Barroso's ships were lined up toward the coast.

Meza's squadron passed over the enemy ships sending fire on them. Each of his ships chooses a ship to pawn. Soon the Amazonas was under fire from the Tacuarí, while the Ipiranga exchanged fire with the Salto.

Google Map of the battle zone

In the battle the two squadrons changed positions. Meza was below the squadron and cut off by the enemies from his base in Humaitá. The Paraguayan commander then adopted the strategy of luring the enemies into the lower channels where they would not be able to maneuver as well as the Paraguayans did.

The Jequitinhonha, Barroso's largest ship after the Amazon, was struck on a sandbank. This made him an easy target for Bruguez's ruthless artillery.

The Belmonte was hit several times by the chatas' fire.

The Parnaíba hit the coast and was set adrift. Several Paraguayan ships soon surrounded her. The Marquês de Olinda boarded the Brazilian ship and a deadly combat occurred on the deck of Parnaíba. On several occasions, the Paraguayans tried to take command of the ship. Only with the iron resistance of the Parnaíba crew did he save the ship. Finally, a final assault was expelled and the ship slid away from the enemy.

At this point, things began to change.

Despite the difficulties in maneuvering, the superior firepower of Barroso's ships began to show effectiveness. The Jejuí was sunk by nearby fire from Brazilian ships. The Marquês de Olinda caused her boilers to explode and she was out of action. The Paraguarí was hit by the Amazon and was left helpless. Meza gave orders to retreat. At 1 P.M. the combat was over. Of the eight Paraguayan vessels, only four returned to Humaitá. The others were sunk, captured or left stranded on a sandbank (this included the Paraguarí, the Jejuí, the Marquês de Olinda and the Salto Oriental). Two flatboats were sunk and the other four remained in Brazilian hands. A few days later, however, the Paraguayans succeeded in removing the Paraguarí, sending the ship to Asunción for repairs. The Paraguayan casualties are not known exactly. Brazilian assumptions of 1,000 casualties are probably exaggerated. Perhaps this number is between 300 and 400 (Brazilian sources say it can reach 750).

Meza died a few days later in Humaitá from the wounds he received during the battle.

The imperial squadron lost one ship, the Jequitinhonha while two other vessels, the Parnaíba and Belmonte were severely damaged. The Ipiranga was slightly damaged. Barroso had 104 men killed, 123 wounded and 20 lost.

The Paraguayans failed in the attempt to have the entire power of the Paraná River from Asunción to Montevideo. Furthermore, they would not be able to replace the lost ships. While Brazil added new units to the fleet.




Remarks

• I would highlight the fact that in the river the East-West escape and maneuver axes are considerably smaller. For this reason and due to the number of ships used, the battle had to have a lot of congestion between so many ships and ships giving back to the cannon shots. Another issue was the loss of surprise of the attack given that the Iberá broke down. This caused the attack to begin at 9 AM when it was planned for 5 AM. It was a failure of surprise that added light to the scenario to the detriment of the Paraguayan plan. As in Tuyuty, the loss of surprise caused a good initial attack plan to falter. (SiberianSky, FDRA moderator).
• "...largest naval battle in America"... The most paradoxical thing is that this action was in a river (Mongoose, FDRA moderator).

Triple Alliance War: Battle of Yatay

Battle of Yatay

Battle of Yatay - August, 17th 1865

The War of Paraguay can be divided into five campaigns: that of Matto Grosso, that of Uruguay, that of Humaitá, that of Pikysyry and that of the Cordilleras. In Matto Grosso's campaign, the Paraguayans took over the fortresses of Coimbra, Alburquerque, Corumbá, Miranda and Dorados. The second had as its objective Uruguay, where two columns of the Paraguayan army headed, through Corrientes and Río Grande, to expel the Brazilians and maintain the sovereignty of that country. The objective of the third - for the allies - was the capture of the stronghold that was the center of the Paraguayan resistance. The fourth is called that because it was developed on the fortified line of the Pikysyry stream, the second center of the resistance in Paraguay. The fifth was the one that took place after the battle of Lomas Valentinas, on the other side of the Cordilleras, to Cerro Corá.

At the beginning of the second campaign, Solano López left the capital to go and lead his armies. He thus left the Assumption forever. He would never enter her again, not allowing her the hazards of a war to the death or even contemplating her from a distance again.

In reality, at that moment - June 8, 1865 - his agony began, which was that of his country, as he was condemned to a cruel and irremediable death. Before leaving, he addressed a proclamation to the people, in which he implied that he was determined to abandon “the bosom of the Homeland,” to join “his comrades-in-arms in the campaign.”

But he arrived in Humaitá and changed his mind, under the influence of insinuating courtiers, such as Bishop Palacios, who ended up convincing him that this useless sacrifice should not be imposed, having at his side so many capable men who could very well replace him... He therefore installed , there his headquarters, establishing active telegraphic communication with the city of Corrientes, where José Berges exercised his representation.

General Wenceslao Robles had, meanwhile, gathered 30,000 men from all three arms and was in a position to march, without any difficulty, overcoming the small obstacles that he found in his path. At that time the general camp of the allies in Concordia had not yet been established, nor did they have troops capable of counteracting the action of Paraguay. No Paraguayan doubted the success of the enterprise entrusted to Robles, an experienced military man, who had given so much evidence of his brilliant organizational skills. But events soon dashed such optimistic hopes.

At the head of that powerful column, Robles felt inferior to his task, unable to act with the resolution and expertise that circumstances imposed on him. He wasted his time with futile pretexts, advancing extremely slowly, distracted by small, unimportant guerrillas. Thus he lost the unique opportunity given to him, giving all the advantages to the opponents. Finally, he entered into deals with the allies, paying with his life for the serious errors committed.

He was replaced by General Francisco Isidoro Resquín, who made his army countermarch, returning with him to Paraguayan territory. The failure of the Robles expedition determined the failure of the Estigarribia expedition. He, leading 12,000 men, invaded the State of Río Grande del Sud, following the line of Uruguay, to meet the other expeditionary column on the border of the Eastern Republic.

The timely arrival of Robles must have prevented the formation of the allied army that went out to defeat him, allowing him to easily subdue the Brazilians. But it didn't happen like that. Robles never reached the eastern border, not passing beyond the limits of Corrientes. Thanks to this, Miter was able to organize the army until he was in a position to defeat the Paraguayans.



Estigarribia really had to back down when he saw that the agreed plan had failed. But he was pushed forward by the numerous eastern leaders who accompanied him, who assured him that, upon reaching the border of his country, he would have the frank support of all Uruguayan compatriots.

Entering Uruguayana was for him entering a mousetrap. He was soon there surrounded by the already powerful allied army, having to succumb, defeated by hunger and death. A part of his army, which was marching along the right bank of the Uruguay River, under the command of Major Pedro Duarte, also succumbed, crushed by much superior forces.

In fact, on August 17, 1865, 3,500 Paraguayans, cavalry and infantry, fought battle, with 11,000 allies of the three arms, under the command of General Venancio Flores.

Despite his overwhelming enemy superiority, Estigarribia ironically rejected the proposal to surrender to the “liberators of his homeland.” “If VV.EE. (he said to the allied leaders) they are so zealous to give freedom to the Paraguayan people, why don't they start by giving freedom to the unhappy blacks of Brazil, who make up the majority of the population, and groan in the harshest and most frightening captivity to enrich and be idle for some of the hundreds of grandees of the Empire?”

After the defeat of the Paraguayans, Flores declared: “The Paraguayans are worse than savages in fighting, they prefer to die rather than surrender…”

Most of the prisoners were put to the sword (it is estimated that there were around 1,400) and the surviving soldiers were enlisted in the battalions of the allied army, thus forcing them to go against their homeland. Flores said: “The eastern battalions have suffered a great loss in Yatay, and I am determined to replace them with the Paraguayan prisoners, giving a part to General Paunero to increase his battalions, some of which are small.” Meanwhile, Argentine Vice President Dr. Marcos Paz adds: “General Flores has adopted a system of incorporating all prisoners into his ranks, and after reloading his battalion with them he has organized a new one of 500 places with pure Paraguayans.” .

The great oriental publicist, Carlos María Ramírez, protested in 1868 against the systematic repetition of the same event: “The prisoners of war,” he said, “have been distributed among the line corps and, under the flag and in the uniform of the allies, compelled to to turn their weapons against the defenders of their homeland. Never has the 19th century witnessed a greater outrage to the rights of nations, to humanity, to civilization!

In the Fifth Section, the Ombucito farm, there is a monolith that evokes the Battle of Yatay. This site was declared a Historic Site on February 4, 1942, by Law 12665, as stated in “Monuments and Historic Places” by Hernán Gómez. There a stream meanders, through bushes and grasslands, which empties into the Uruguay River. This landscape is adorned with elegant Yatay palm trees (Yatay means Palm Tree in Guaraní). They gave their name to the stream and the place. The toponym gave the name to the battle.

Source

Efemérides – Patricios de Vuelta de Obligado
O’Leary, Juan E. – El Mariscal Solano López – Asunción (1970).
Portal www.revisionistas.com.ar
Rosa, José María – La Guerra del Paraguay y las Montoneras Argentinas – Buenos Aires (1985).
Turone, Gabriel O. – La Batalla de Yatay – (2007)

Source: www.revisionistas.com.ar

War of Paraguay: The Fall of Asunción

Brazilian entry to Asunción

 

On January 1, 1869, the Brazilians entered Asunción, unleashing a wave of unrestrained looting and chaos. In a matter of days, the city was inundated with a diverse and chaotic population, speaking a multitude of languages and dialects in its once-peaceful streets. Private homes were forcibly occupied and quickly rented out by the audacious individuals who had taken them over, demanding exorbitant rents for entire quarters and semesters in advance.

Makeshift hotels, inns, restaurants, entertainment venues, public dance halls, shops, stores, and sweet shops sprang up overnight, all thriving on the proceeds extracted from the 30,000 allied soldiers and countless tourists, opportunists, and curious onlookers who eagerly flocked to witness the downfall of a once-mighty nation.

These invaders stormed houses, competing to seize the most valuable spoils. It is astonishing how the efforts of generations could be obliterated in mere hours. As the day wore on, the streets became littered with furniture discarded as houses were set ablaze. In the afternoon, ships from Argentina appeared along the Paraguay River, eager to purchase the looted goods. Soldiers thronged the docks, bartering their ill-gotten gains for gold, leading to arguments and scuffles. The ships remained anchored, awaiting more plunder, while the soldiers continued their relentless pillaging. By nightfall, the fires from the ravaged neighborhoods cast an eerie glow on the thick black clouds overhead.

Men concealed their loot wherever they could, stuffing their saddlebags, cloaks, the interiors of their boots, and helmets with gold, silver, and precious metals. The following day, they advanced to another section of the city, setting it ablaze as well. They had already ransacked government offices, embassies, opulent residences, and humble abodes alike. It was then that the refugees began to return.

Most of these returnees were young women and girls or children left behind by the men who had perished on the battlefield. These vulnerable individuals ventured back to the city driven by hunger and the faint hope of finding shelter. However, the invaders pounced on them, subjecting them to physical assault, public humiliation, and sexual violence in the streets. They mercilessly raped these women, with lines of ten, twenty, or even thirty men taking turns on a single victim. The desperate cries of these victims echoed throughout the city, and there was no corner or alley in Asunción where a woman was safe from harassment. Those who resisted were ruthlessly killed on the spot.

The horrors did not cease with the onset of night, nor did they relent with the arrival of a new day. The tormentors only relented when the victims, drained of life and devoid of the strength to resist any longer, met their end with a look of bitter resignation on their faces.

And then the thirst for gold is revived again and the officials look greedily at the cemeteries of Asunción. Under his orders, the soldiers dig everyone up. Those who have a ring or chain are stripped without respect. The rest, they leave lying everywhere; bones and more bones piled up everywhere, restlessly dead, warming in the sun.

The Brazilian minister in Asunción himself, José da Silva Paranhos, who later received the title of Viscount of Rio Branco, seized the immense treasure from the National Archives of Paraguay which, after his death, he donated to the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, the catalog of the Rio Branco collection, which contains the public archives of Paraguay taken at the end of the war, consists of a thousand pages divided into two volumes. The collection consists of fifty thousand documents on the early history of Paraguay, Portuguese infiltration, questions of limits and dates, and facts about the history of the Río de la Plata. It would also contain the act of the Foundation of the City of Asunción in 1537 and all the archives of the Jesuit Missions with the first geographical map of Paraguay, established before 1800 by the famous Spanish geographer Félix de Azara.

For three days the city was robbed by the imperial hosts, who did not spare the temples or the tombs, in their barbarous eagerness to increase their booty. Admiral Delfino de Carvallo himself - Baron del Pasaje - directed the looting, accumulating on the decks of his ships the pianos and fine furniture that adorned Paraguayan aristocratic homes. And when there was nothing important to steal, they even took the doors, windows and marbles of the López palace (2) and many houses and public buildings. In a word, Asunción, according to General Garmendia, "suffered the fate of the vanquished of distant times, the victor entering it by sack."

Many children were torn from their mothers' arms to end up sold as slaves on the plantations of Brazil. Everyone is running for their lives, and the once-populous Paraguayan capital is left deserted. “It was pitiful to see the city completely devoid of human beings,” says Brazilian colonel José Luis Da Silva.



The National Archive of Paraguay, with centuries of history inside, burns in flames. “El Paraguayo” from Asunción, in its edition of October 10, 1945, thus recalled the burning and looting of such vital documentation. “The archives of Paraguay were looted by the invaders during the War of the Triple Alliance. We lack many documents, even to reconstruct our history, and we can affirm that when our Archive was stripped, all those documents that could compromise the historical version that was forged were selected to take away all hope of vindication”.

Like the headquarters of the Archive, houses and public buildings are also looted, one by one, carefully and without haste. “The officers made use of the houses and things” points out the aforementioned Brazilian colonel.

The Argentine army camped five kilometers from the city, in Trinidad. And to be worthy of his ally, he turned the temple of that town into a stable, setting up a stable on the very grave of Carlos Antonio López. Soon the tombstone disappeared under the dung of the spirited steeds of the officers, substituting the noise of neighing for the voices of the organ and the prayers of the believers.

Just like "in the distant times" when Asia spread its barbarism, like a bloody shroud, over dying Europe. Breaking in and turning Christian churches into dunghills was the great pleasure of the men of the North. And no other was the delight of those terrible warriors, at whose step the earth trembled, led by the Scourge of God.

History repeats itself. Man is within men. Humanity advances, but has not yet finished leaving the cave. Ferocity boils in the depths of instinct, and there are moments when the beast that has crouched for centuries, dominated, but not defeated, leaps to the surface.
 
This is how peoples who called themselves Christians and men who invoked altruistic sentiments of humanity, fell into crime, reproducing, through an ancestral movement of inborn barbarism, acts that are repugnant to our conscience and that seemed already far from history. And all that was still nothing. The war was just about to enter a really wild period.

Meanwhile, Marshal López was preparing to resume the resistance. When he returned to occupy the old camp of Cerro León, after his last defeat, he had no more strength than his omnipotent will. All Paraguayan defensive power was concentrated in his person, a moral fortress more fearsome than the artillery walls of Humaitá. To no avail, the Duke of Caxías declared the war over.

The twenty thousand victorious soldiers, entrenched in Asunción, knew very well that as long as the Paraguayan president remained standing, the fight was not over.

When Count D'Eu, who came to replace the Duke of Caixas, arrived in Asunción, he found a great demoralization of the allied troops. The solemn Te Deum commanded to be sung by Caixas, celebrating the end of the war, had fallen into immense ridicule. The discouragement was general.



Benigno López Palace (Asunción, 1869). Source

 

 

No Brazilian boss had wanted to take responsibility for a single initiative. And, meanwhile, López grew at a distance. From one moment to the next, a surprise was expected, believing him capable of extracting resources from nothing. And there Juan Bautista Alberdi had time to say in Europe that at that time Paraguay had its “second and most powerful army in what are called its mountains. They are the Andes –he added- of the new Chacabuco and the new San Martín, against the new Bourbons of America”.
In the battle of Lomas Valentinas the invalids and children had fought, loading the cannons with pieces of stone and even with earth. Three months after that defeat, Paraguay again had an army of thirteen thousand men, relatively well armed and equipped.

The wounded of the last battle threw themselves by the hundreds into the immense estuary of Ypecuá, crossing it, with water up to their necks, for three days, without eating, and joining Solano López in Cerro León. And all those who could still walk or carry a rifle rushed from the farthest reaches of the republic to surround the unfortunate hero who was holding the Paraguayan flag.

Weapons abandoned on the battlefields are collected, another arsenal is assembled, iron is cast, cannons are drilled, gunpowder and paper are manufactured, a newspaper is published, schools start operating again, the compulsory primary education law is in force, children Soldiers attend classes. And the Ybycuí foundry and the Caacupé arsenal worked tirelessly to arm that strange army, taking advantage of the scandalous indecision of the more than prudent victor. Despite Asunción having fallen, the war was not yet over.

References 

(1) On February 22, 1869, at 4:00 p.m., Francisco Solano López issued an edict ordering the evacuation of Asunción, it was then that all the Asunción families that still had some jewelry and metal money, ran to deposit them in the legation of the United States of America, in charge of Minister Carlos A. Washburn as well as in the consulates of France and Italy.

(2) The Palacio de los López is the seat of government of the Republic of Paraguay, since the official office of the President of the Republic is located there. It is one of the most beautiful and emblematic buildings of the Paraguayan capital, Asunción. Its location is on Paraguayo Independiente street, between Ayolas (before Paraná) and O'Leary (before Paso de Patria). Located in the center of Asunción, overlooking the bay, this building was built by order of President Carlos Antonio López, to serve as a residence for his son, General Francisco Solano López, hence the fact that the name of the building is "Palace of the Lopez". Its works began in 1857 under the direction of the English architect Alonso Taylor.
In the first half of the 19th century, Lázaro Rojas gave his baptismal godson Francisco López the property where the palace is located. After his famous trips to Europe, Francisco Solano brought several architects and engineers with him, who helped develop works of progress in the country. By order of Carlos Antonio López, President of the Republic since 1842, one of these works was the residence of his son. The construction, planned by the Hungarian Francisco Wisner, began directed by the English architect Alonso Taylor in 1857.

The materials for the construction of the palace came from various places in the interior of the country, stones from the quarries of Emboscada and Altos, wood and obrajes from Ñeembucú and Yaguarón, bricks from Tacumbú, cast iron pieces in Ybycuí, etc.

Various European artists came to Paraguay to be in charge of decorating the building. Artists such as the English engineer Owen Mognihan who was in charge of sculpting the necessary figures to create a palatial environment, the Italian Andrés Antonini who came to Paraguay exclusively to design and establish the marble staircase of the Palace that connects to the second floor, the painter Julio Monet, French, who painted the ceiling with floral decorations and figures.

By 1867, the time of the War of the Triple Alliance, the Palacio de los López was almost finished, although finishing details were lacking for its conclusion. The decoration was made of bronze statuettes and furniture imported from Paris, and large and decorated mirrors for the halls of the Palace. During the seven years that the Brazilians occupied Asunción, the Palace served as their forces' headquarters. After they abandoned it, the building was left in a state of abandonment. It was during the government of Juan Alberto González that the great restoration works of the Palace began, which lasted only two years. The building ended up regaining its former glory.

Source

• Efemérides – Patricios de Vuelta de Obligado 
• Estragó, Margarita Durán – Homenaje al pueblo de Patiño, en el centenario de su fundación (1909- 2009) 
• O’Leary,Juan E. – El mariscal Solano López 
• Rivarola Matto, J. Bautista – Diagonal de sangre: la historia y sus alternativas en la Guerra del Paraguay. 

www.revisionistas.com.ar 

Brazilian entrance to Asunción