Battle of the Riachuelo (1865)

Battle of the Riachuelo

Part of: Triple Alliance War

Brazilian frigate Amazon sunk the steamer Marqués de Olinda (painting by Trajano Augusto de Carvalho)

date	June 11, 1865
place	Río Paraná , Corrientes Province , Argentina
output	Decisive victory for the Brazilian Navy
consequences	Extensive destruction of the Paraguayan fleet. Final defense of any further Paraguayan offensive projects on the Paraná to the south.

Parties to the conflict
Paraguay	Brazil
Commander
Pedro Ignacio Meza	Francisco da Silva
Troop strength
2 corvettes 7 armed steamers 7 gun barges ~ 1,300 soldiers and seamen 48 guns (on board the ships) 22 guns (on the bank) 2 batteries of Congreve missiles (on the bank)	1 frigate 4 corvettes 4 gunboats 1,113 soldiers and seamen 58 guns
losses
4 armed steamers sunk 7 cannon barges sunk 5 ships damaged ~ 400 dead and missing ~ 700 wounded	1 corvette sunk. 3 ships damaged. 143 dead and missing 123 wounded

The Battle of the Riachuelo was during the so-called Triple Alliance War between Paraguay and Brazil on the river Paraná discharged naval battle in 1865. The battle took place on Argentine held territory in the northwest of the province of Corrientes , a few kilometers south of the capital of the same name . In this area the river Riachuelo flows , from which it got its name. The trigger for the battle was the attempt of the Paraguayan Navy to defeat the Brazilian naval forces blocking the river, to end the sea ​​blockade of the Paraná and thus to open the way to the south. The battle ended with a heavy defeat for Paraguay and is considered a turning point in the Triple Alliance War.

prehistory

After Paraguay declared war on Brazil in December 1864, Argentina , which had officially designated itself as neutral, allowed Brazilian warships to use their own waters, contrary to their neutrality obligations. Paraguay then demanded marching rights through the Argentine province of Corrientes , but this was rejected by the Argentine side. After the subsequent Paraguayan declaration of war on Argentina in March 1865, Paraguay's armed forces were able to take the city of Corrientes in the northwest of the province of the same name in a coup. An attempt by the allies to retake the city initially failed in May 1865 due to the skillful Paraguayan resistance. Thereupon naval forces of the allies, almost exclusively Brazilian ships, began to set up an improvised base south of Corrientes and at the same time closed the Paraná. In order to open the way to the south (and thus in the direction of the war opponent Argentina), the dictator of Paraguay, Francisco Solano López , ordered the river barriers to be attacked at the beginning of June 1865, although the Paraguayan river forces were clearly inferior to the enemy.

The Paraguayan Armed Forces

Although there was no real river force, apart from a few small gunboats and corvettes , Paraguay had captured several Argentine river steamers in Corrientes in March 1865 and was able to arm them with guns. Overall, the Paraguayan armed forces on the Paraná at the beginning of June 1865 had the two corvettes Paraguarí and Taquarí (each with eight cannons), each displacing around 600 tons, and the seven smaller river steamers Ygureí , Marqués de Olinda , Salto Guairá , Rio Apa , Yporá , Pirabebé and Yberá and seven barges that had to be towed by the steamers. There was also an 80 pounder gun on board these barges - the heaviest cannon used by the Paraguayan riverboats. The river steamers carried between two and seven guns each. In total, the Paraguayan river forces had 48 cannons and around 1,300 soldiers and sailors.

To support the ships, three batteries with 22 other guns and two batteries with Congreve missiles were also available on the bank to support the breakthrough attempt. The command of the Paraguayan fleet was Capitán de Corbeta Pedro Ignácio Meza on board the corvette Taquarí .

Rear Admiral Francisco Manuel Barroso da Silva, Commander of the Brazilian Squadron

The Brazilian Armed Forces

The Brazilian river fleet was slightly outnumbered than the Paraguayan, but it had larger and better armed ships. In addition, the Brazilian units were mostly pure warships, while the Paraguayan squadron consisted for the most part of converted civilian vehicles. The Brazilian river fleet consisted of 1,800 tons displacing Raddampf - frigate Amazonas (also the flagship ), the corvette Beberibe , Belmonte , Jequitinhonha and Parnaíba and the gunboats Araguary , Mearim , Ipiranga and Iguatemy . The Brazilians had a total of 1,113 soldiers and sailors and 58 cannons. The commander of the Brazilian squadron was Contraalmirante Francisco Manuel Barroso da Silva on board the Amazon .

Brazilian corvette Parnaíba

Course of the battle

On the night of June 9th to 10th, 1865, the Paraguayan ships left the port of Humaitá and ran downstream, the two corvettes in the lead. Shortly after setting off, the river steamer Yberá suffered engine damage , which is why Capitán de Corbeta Meza left the ship behind and continued the approach with only the two corvettes, six steamers and seven barges. According to the orders of Francisco Solano López , the squadron should have surprisingly attacked and put down the Brazilian ships south of Corrientes in the early morning hours of June 11th . If possible, boarding attacks should also be carried out on the ships at anchor.

On reaching the Brazilian base on the morning of June 11, 1865, around 8:30 a.m., thick fog prevented an immediate attack. Since visibility was restricted and therefore no precise assessment of the situation was possible, Capitán de Corbeta Meza initially allowed his ships - contrary to his orders to attack immediately and surprisingly - past the Brazilian ships suspected in the fog and continued south and there began the relatively ineffective one Bombardment of Brazilian troop camps near the shore. This procedure enabled the Brazilian ships, which would actually have been surprised by a possible attack by the Paraguayan squadron (some ships had not even built up steam pressure, and some of the crews were on land), to sail ready for action. Accumulating from aft , the Brazilian ships involved the Paraguayan in a bitter line battle.

Here part of the Brazilian squadron came within range of the Paraguayan coastal guns. The corvettes Parnaíba and Jequitinhonha (630 tons) received heavy hits from the land side and shot at from several barges . The latter ran aground and was abandoned by the crew, who had eight dead and 33 injured. The Parnaíba received around a dozen hits, mostly in the area of ​​the waterline , and could only be held with difficulty; With 80 dead and 29 wounded, it suffered the highest loss of personnel of all Brazilian ships involved in the battle. In return, however, the large frigate Amazon was able to bring its armament to bear and shot the two Paraguayan river steamers Marqués de Olinda and Salto Guairá together. The first sank, the other ship ran aground and went up in flames. Almost none of the crews of the two ships could be saved. The commandant of the Marqués de Olinda , Teniente Ezequiel Robles, was pulled out of the water by the crew of the Amazon with a torn arm , but died a short time later on board the frigate after he was allowed to take off his bandage on his arm ( he had asked to die and thus avoid capture), whereupon he bled to death. There were 13 dead and 13 wounded on board the Amazon during the battle.

In the further course of the battle all Paraguayan barges sank, two of them were brought to sink by ramming , and the corvette Taquarí and the steamer Pirabebé were badly damaged. The Paraguayan commander, Capitán de Corbeta Meza, was seriously wounded and the chain of command collapsed. The Paraguayan order of battle then fell apart, and the ships that were still able to fight and sail began to withdraw at will. During this uncoordinated retreat, the damaged Pirabebé was overtaken by two Brazilian gunboats and sank itself. Another Paraguayan river steamer, the Yporá , sank after the battle and separated from the remaining ships, also when it was on the Río Yhaguy from superior Brazilian ones Units was provided.

The remaining Paraguayan ships, the two corvettes and two steamers, all of which were damaged, were able to move north and fled to Humaitá , which ended the battle.

Aftermath

Battle of the Riachuelo, 1st phase

Battle of the Riachuelo, 2nd phase

Battle of the Riachuelo, 3rd phase

The battle of the Riachuelo was a heavy tactical defeat for Paraguay, at the same time the debacle also represented a strategic setback, not only because the majority of the fleet, which was important for the river war, had been destroyed, but also because during the entire Triple Alliance War no further attempts were made to break through to the south on the Paraná. In addition to five steamers (four were sunk, one failed due to engine damage), all artillery barges were lost. A total of around 400 Paraguayan soldiers and sailors were killed and another 700 men were wounded. The remaining ships of the Paraguayan Navy were more or less badly damaged and in some cases were no longer repaired, for example the no longer repaired Corvette Paraguarí , which had been badly damaged during the battle by shelling and a ram, was sunk as a block ship in 1869 off Humaitá , to make it difficult for the advancing allies to advance. While the Battle of the Riachuelo effectively ended the existence of the Paraguayan Navy as a power factor in the river war, the Brazilian fleet was strengthened in the further course of the war by numerous newcomers, including ironclad ships and monitors that were particularly suitable for use on the rivers.

The Brazilian Navy lost only one corvette during the Battle of the Riachuelo. Three other ships had been damaged. Altogether there were 143 dead and missing and 123 wounded on board Contraalmirante Barroso da Silva's ships.

literature

• Hernâni Donato: Dicionário das Batalhas Brasileiras . Editora Ibrasa. São Paulo 1987.
• Francisco Fernando Monteoliva Doratioto: Maldita Guerra: Nova História da Guerra do Paraguai . Companhia das Letras. São Paulo 2002, ISBN 85-359-0224-4 .
• Chris Leuchars: To the Bitter End. Paraguay and the War of the Triple Alliance (= Contributions in Military Studies). Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, ISBN 0-313-32365-8 . (books.google.de)
• L. Schneider: A guerra da tríplice Aliança . Volume I, Edições Cultura. São Paulo 1945.
• Thomas L. Whigham: The Paraguayan Was. Vol. 1: Causes and early conduct. (= Studies in War, Society, and the Military ). Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln et al. a. 2002, ISBN 0-8032-4786-9 . (books.google.at)

Web links

Commons : Battle of the Riachuelo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• On the history of the battle (Portuguese)
• La Batalla Del Riachuelo - Guerra De La Triple Alianza . Full battle map and map on a maritime history and archeology website (Spanish)

Coordinates: 27 ° 33 ′ 44 ″  S , 58 ° 50 ′ 21 ″  W.