Battle of Cerro Corá

The battle of Cerro Corá was the final battle of the Triple Alliance War . The fight took place on March 1, 1870 in what is now the natural park in the Amambay department and ended with the death of Paraguayan President Francisco Solano López and the victory of the Allied troops. On the Brazilian and Argentine side , General José Antônio Correia da Câmara fought with about 2,600 men, on the Paraguayan side López and Vice President Domingo Francisco Sánchez , who both lost their lives in the battle. The last of Paraguay's troops were already starved and, with only 400 men left, they were hopelessly inferior to the Brazilian troops.

prehistory

The battles for Piribebuy and Campo Grande (August 16, 1869) were the last major battles of the war, and what was left of the soldiers of the defeated Paraguayan troops joined President López's last contingent of troops and fled across the Rio Dourados Paraguay back. From there the column made its way to Caraguatay , where the Paraguayan president had proclaimed the fourth capital of his country. At this time, the numerical superiority of the Brazilian army allowed the organization in several columns to wrest the flanks of Lopez's troops and to pursue Caraguatay on three routes at the same time. On February 8, 1870, López and his column reached Cerro Corá and had his camp secured. The last associations in Paraguay consisted of only about 450 people, including Vice President Domingo Sánchez, Generals Bernardino Caballero , Isidoro Resquín , Francisco Roa and José María Delgado as well as women and children, all hungry and ragged, the men without ammunition mainly only with lances armed with sabers. On February 18, the Brazilian column under Correia da Câmara reached Bela Vista . The general learned from Colonel Bento Martins that the López camp was in Cerro Corá. The information had been passed on by deserters and prisoners.

course

The Brazilian General Jose Antonio Correia da Câmara, Visconte de Pelotas

On March 1, 1870 at 6:00 a.m. Lopez was informed that his defense at the Tacuara crossing had been attacked, and this information was also passed on to the defense at the Aquidabán section. The attack was confirmed by soldiers who flooded back into the central López camp. The Brazilians, who numbered about 2,600 men, approached the camp and surrounded the enemy. On March 1st, Correia da Câmara's troops attacked from two sides, from the front and behind the enemy. The two defensive points, one on Tacuara and the other on Rio Aquibadán , fell quickly. The unit under General Francisco Roa, which secured the mouth of Chiriguelos, was put down after the surrender was refused. It took only about 15 minutes from the beginning of the Brazilian cavalry attack on the camp to the end of the battle. Cavalry and infantry under Colonel João Nunes da Silva y Tavares advanced to the center of the camp and met Solano López, who was on a horse, as well as his 17-year-old son Colonel Juan "Panchito" López and some officers of the battered battalion Rifreros. President López and his officials covered themselves behind the Rifreros, who sacrificed themselves to unsuccessful resistance under Colonel Crisóstomo Centurión. Colonel Centurión was hit by a projectile that shattered his lower jaw and Colonel Gaspar Estigarribia and General José Maria Aguiar , who were injured in the leg, fell with lances. Vice President Francisco Sánchez and Foreign Minister Luis Caminos were killed while fleeing. There were later three conflicting reports of the death of the Paraguayan president. It is certain that Lopez, with the support of Captain Francisco Arguello, fled to Aquidabán-nigüín, but was unable to negotiate the steep bank of the stream because of a wound. He was overtaken by six cavalrymen and, after refusing to surrender, was fatally wounded with a lance by Corporal José Francisco Lacerda. Parts of the Brazilian troops lost self-control and began killing the innocent, setting fire to the camp and killing the sick and wounded. Only about 240 Paraguayan prisoners, including Generals Resquín and Delgado, were captured.

consequences

On March 4, the news of Solano López Tod Concepción , where the Count of Eu was, who had been appointed as the successor to Marshal Caxias with the supreme command. The son-in-law of Emperor Dom Pedro II returned to Rio de Janeiro , where the victorious end of the war was received with jubilation.

After five years of war, Paraguay was at the end of its efficiency, half of its territory fell to the Allies and its population was decimated. In the Empire of Brazil , the war led to a strengthening of republicanism , which spread particularly in the younger officer corps, in view of the high costs of the war and the war that dragged on for too long . Together with the gradual abolition of slavery (until 1888) due to the recruitment of numerous black volunteers ( freedmen ), this led to the overthrow of the monarchy in 1891 .

In 1976 a national park of the same name was established at Cerro Corá. The movie of the same name from 1978 deals with the subject.

literature

Ralph Rotte: Paraguay's "Great War" 1864–1870, published by epubli GmbH, Berlin 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Guarani portal - HUGO MENDOZA - EL ÚLTIMO CAMPAMENTO, CERRO CORÁ - Por HUGO MENDOZA. Retrieved February 26, 2020 . 
2. ↑ National parks in Paraguay - Tips for round trips in Paraguay. Retrieved April 8, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Cerro Cora. Retrieved April 8, 2020 .