Campaign 342 - The Paraguayan War 1864-70. The Triple Alliance at Stake in La Plata (2019).pdf

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THE PARAGUAYAN
WAR 1864–70
The Triple Alliance at stake in La Plata
GABRIELE ESPOSITO
ILLUSTRATED BY GIUSEPPE RAVA
CAMPAIGN 342
THE PARAGUAYAN WAR
1864–70
The Triple Alliance at stake in La Plata
GABRIELE ESPOSITO
ILLUSTRATED BY GIUSEPPE RAVA
Series editor Marcus Cowper
CONTENTS
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
The strategic context
4
CHRONOLOGY
OPPOSING COMMANDERS
Paraguayan
n
Triple Alliance
16
19
OPPOSING FORCES
Paraguayan
n
Triple Alliance
n
The opposing navies
25
OPPOSING PLANS
Paraguayan
n
Triple Alliance
34
THE CAMPAIGN
Brazil intervenes in Uruguay, 1864
n
Paraguay invades Mato Grosso
n
The Paraguayan occupation of
Corrientes, 1865
n
The Battle of the Riachuelo, June 11, 1865
n
Yatay and Uruguayana, August–
September, 1865
n
The Alliance advance on Paraguay, 1866
n
The Battle of Estero Bellaco, May 2, 1866
The First Battle of Tuyutí, May 24, 1866
n
The Battle of Boquerón del Sauce, July 1866
n
The battles of
Curuzú and Curupaytí, September 1866
n
The long stalemate, September 1866–July 1867
n
The
Second Battle of Tuyutí, and the fall of Humaitá
n
The Pikysyry maneuver and the beginning of the
Dezembrada,
1868
n
The battles of Avay and Lomas Valentinas
n
The Hills Campaign and the death of
López, 1869–70
36
AFTERMATH
THE BATTLEFIELD TODAY
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READING
INDEX
89
92
94
95
ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN
The Paraguayan War, also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, was the
greatest and most important military conflict in the history of South America
after the Wars of Independence that freed that continent from Spanish and
Portuguese colonial rule. It involved four countries and lasted for more than
five years, during which Paraguay fought alone against a powerful alliance
formed by Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay (i.e. the Triple Alliance, which
gave the war its alternative name).
This conflict was unique in South American military history for a series
of reasons, but primarily because of the large number of troops involved
and for its terrible cost in lives. It was the only true continental war in South
America, which saw a full mobilization of the countries involved in the
fighting. The Triple Alliance War cost Brazil 50,000 casualties, Argentina
30,000, and Uruguay 5,000; but these paled in comparison to Paraguayan
losses. The catastrophic human price paid by the latter amounted to more
than 300,000 lives, some 70 percent of that country’s total population.
Other related statistics are equally impressive: in the most important pitched
battle of the conflict, fought at Tuyutí on May 24, 1866, an army of 32,000
Alliance soldiers defeated a Paraguayan army that numbered around 24,000
men. The Battle of the Riachuelo, fought on the Paraná River on June 11,
1865, was without doubt the largest and most important naval battle ever
fought between South American navies. No other war in South America was
fought on such a massive scale until the Chaco War of 1932–35 between
Bolivia and Paraguay.
From a military history standpoint, the War of the Triple Alliance marked
a revolution for the armies of South America. It was the first truly modern
conflict on the continent, and took place in a period during which warfare
was undergoing radical changes around the world. The innovations that the
Europeans and North Americans introduced during conflicts such as the
Crimean War, the Austro-Prussian War, and American Civil War were more
or less the same as those introduced by Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, and
Uruguay between 1864 and 1870. It is interesting to note how during the
years 1860–70, the whole of the Americas was ravaged by war: in the USA,
Unionists fought Confederates; in Mexico, Emperor Maximilian I with his
European allies was at war with the Republicans of Benito Juárez; and in the
Andean region of South America, an alliance formed by Peru, Chile, Ecuador,
and Bolivia fought against Spain in the Chincha Islands War.
When the Triple Alliance War broke out in 1864, South American armies
were relatively small and lacked professionalism. Their soldiers were poorly
4
trained and badly equipped, being mostly armed with outdated, surplus
weapons from Europe. They were semi-professional forces at best, frequently
hated by the populations upon whom they preyed. The endemic political
instability within the continental countries had transformed them into
instruments of the various
caudillos
(dictators), who very often used them
as private armies. The innovations introduced and harsh lessons learned
during the Paraguayan War would change all this, in a definitive way.
Every new technology available at the time was utilized, including railways
to transport troops, telegraphy for communications, and air balloons for
reconnaissance purposes.
The greatest revolution took place in the field of weaponry. When the
war started, most South American troops were still armed with old flintlock
or percussion smoothbore muskets; by the time it ended, most armies had
adopted percussion rifles employing the Minié system. New weapons such
as breech-loading rifles and Gatling machine guns were tested for the first
time, while rifled artillery showed its superiority on the field of battle (in
1867, Argentina was the first South American country to adopt the Krupp
artillery system). Such technological improvements also affected naval
warfare, with steam-powered and ironclad vessels becoming dominant and
with torpedoes being used for the first time in an effective way. The new
weapons changed the traditional tactics employed by South American armies
profoundly: cavalry, which had always been the most important element on
the battlefield, had to abandon the practice of frontal charges, transforming
A map showing the location
of the Fortress of Humaitá.
Between August and October
1867, the Alliance maneuvered
to isolate the fortress and cut its
lines of supply from Asunción.
On February 19, 1868, the
Brazilian fleet was finally able
to force its way upriver on
the Paraguay, bombarding
the fortress.
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