War of the Triple Alliance 1864-70

Time for another Obscure War!

I had mentioned this earlier in passing during my blog on the Chaco War (1932-35) between Bolivia and Paraguay.   It’s addressed not only in Stupid Wars: A Citizen’s Guide to Botched Putsches, Failed Coups, Inane Invasions, and Ridiculous Revolutions, by Ed Strosser and Michael Prince, but also a more recent Osprey Men-At-Arms publication, Armies of the War of the Triple Alliance: Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay & Argentina, by Gabriele Esposito, illustrated by Giuseppe Rava. 

Lasting from 1864 to 1870, this was South America’s biggest and bloodiest war.  It destroyed Paraguay for generations, convinced the other powers to modernize their armies, and indirectly led to Brazil becoming a republic and Argentina finally coalescing into a stable country.

Paraguay.  Landlocked (like Bolivia), this little country wanted more.  Its dictator, Francisco Solano Lopez (upper left), not only had ambition on his own, but was stoked by his Irish mistress-whore, Eliza Lynch, to conquer South America. 

Brazil.  Led by Emperor Dom Pedro II, and with a very good general, Luis Alves de Lima e Silva, better known as the Duke of Caxias (upper right).  The Brazilians were caught off guard initially, but quickly rallied. 

Argentina.  At this time Argentina was fairly unstable, but a leader emerged.  I’d seen his name in Rio de Janeiro, Ave. Bartolomeu Mitre (Leblon & Gavea) and sure enough BM (lower left) did most of the leading of Argentina through this endeavor. 

Uruguay.  This country was divided between “Colorados” (modern, pro-democracy) and “Blancos” (more indigenous and reactionary) factions.  Paraguay supported the incumbent Blancos, while Brazil supported the rebel Colorados, led by Venancio Flores Barrio (lower right).  When the two factions had a meltdown in late 1864, Brazil invaded to support its favorites.  This led Lopez to attack Brazil and Argentina.

Start.  As noted, events in Uruguay encouraged Lopez to attack.  He invaded Mato Grosso in Brazil, which was sparsely populated and poorly defended, thus he was able to take “huge…tracts of land” plus cattle, ammunition, and weapons.  Having done so, most of the Paraguayans went home, leaving garrison forces to be wiped away (when the Brazilians got around to it…) by a Brazilian campaign in 1868. 

Lopez also invaded the Corrientes province of Argentina, that male-member shaped part of Argentina which separates Paraguay from Brazil’s most southern state, Rio Grande do Sul.  The Argentine army was not particularly well organized, and not anywhere near Corrientes, so Paraguay was able to quickly occupy this area and capture 2 of Argentina’s three warships. (D’oh!)

Lopez got an early jump, but he succeeded in pissing off the Brazilians, Argentines, and Uruguayans so much that they put aside their own differences – a big rivalry between Brazil and Argentina which persists to this day, although now playing out on the soccer field – and join together to take down Lopez. 

It was personal.

Remarkably, despite a Brazilian civil war several decades earlier in which Rio Grande do Sul tried to secede from Brazil, the gauchos of that district remained loyal to Dom Pedro II – and volunteered in good numbers.  

Navy.  Despite being landlocked, naval operations played a big role in this war.  With little or no railroads, roads, or infrastructure in much of this territory, river traffic became the easiest and quickest means of transportation.  The rivers in question, the Paraguay and Parana, were quite deep and wide here, which allowed full ocean-going vessels to navigate them.  On June 11, 1865, at the Battle of Riachuelo, the Brazilians decisively defeated the Paraguayan fleet.  From then on, the Brazilian fleet was able to navigate the Paraguay River.  The Paraguayans had fortified the banks with several strong forts, though, so it became a matter of successively dispatching each fort in turn. 

Remember the Maine, the US ship which blew up in Cuba in 1898?  That ship was built in response to a Brazilian dreadnaught, the Riachuelo, which scared the hell out of us.  Now you know how that ship was named.

Tuyuti.  This was a big battle in May 1866, down at the corner of Paraguay where the Parana and Paraguay rivers split off, in which the Paraguayans attacked a large force of Brazilians, Argentines and Uruguayans.  Despite their aggressiveness – and excellent cavalry – the Paraguayans were defeated at huge cost, and permanently on the defensive from that point on. 

Unfortunately for the Allies, they followed this up with a doomed attack on the Paraguayans up the Paraguay River at Curupayti in September 1866.  While knocked onto the defensive, the Paraguayans proved effective and skillful at defending themselves against a poorly planned Allied attack.  This loss set the Allies back enough to delay further offensives for a full year.

During this time, Duke de Caxias consolidated and reformed the Brazilian forces, while Lopez built up his huge fortress at Humaita, the “Paraguayan Sevastapol” (also on the Paraguay River), which protected the Paraguyan capital, Asuncion, from attack.  Taking a page from Grant’s successful campaign at Vicksburg (summer 1863), Caxias did an end run around the fortress and outflanked it.  Combined with Brazilian naval bombardment, the fort was overcome by July 1868, freeing the Brazilians to continue onward up the Paraguay River to Asuncion, which fell to the Brazilians on January 1, 1869. 

By this time, with the war pushed onto Paraguayan soil, the Uruguayans and Argentines dropped out of the war, leaving the Brazilians to press on – out of personal animosity of Dom Pedro II for Lopez.  Once Asuncion had fallen, Lopez ran off with the remnants of his army – by now mostly boys and old men - into Cerro Cora, in northeast Paraguay.  In March 1870 the Brazilians overran his camp.  Lopez was killed (“I die with my country” were his last words), and the Brazilians made Eliza Lynch – who had, remarkably, accompanied Lopez into internal exile – dig his grave.    

Uniforms.  At this point in history, the dark blue sack coat seems to be a popular choice of uniform.  Variations: the French uniform (up to 1914), the US Civil War sack coat, and the Prussian coat, which changed to field grey shortly before World War I.  This style also prevailed among the belligerents of this war, though with several variations:

Paraguay:  red sack coats, white pants, and a tricolor (red/white/blue) shako, with officers frequently wearing a blue kepi.  The Paraguayan cavalry was top notch and acted as elite shock troops.  They tended to have higher morale than the infantry and kept the Allies off-guard with counterattacks.  Lopez stood by his “the best defense is a good offense” and was consistently aggressive, though it didn’t always work (Tuyuti). 

Brazil.  This country actually took Portugal as a default and veered off from there.  They started with dark green, changed to dark blue, and by 1868 had switched to “duck”, a cream color, with a straw hat.  The cavalry, particularly units raised locally (Mato Grosso and Rio Grande do Sul) had a strong “gaucho” (South American cowboy) look to them which was distinctive but also practical.  The picture on the upper right, labelled “Exercito Brasileiro” (Brazilian Army) shows a very Union flavor to the contemporary Brazilian army.

            Moreover, a substantial part of Brazil’s military forces were volunteers from various states.  Like the US and CSA units, they frequently had specific and unique uniforms.  Because of Garibaldi’s involvement in the prior civil war in Rio Grande do Sul, many were “Garibaldi” type units and uniforms, particularly of Italian immigrants, with red shirts, red kepis, and green pants. 

Argentina.  More with the dark uniforms and kepis, closest to the US Civil War uniform, although copied mostly from the French dark blue uniforms of the time. 

Uruguay.  Mostly blue, then white, taking the French contemporary uniforms as a basis.  Two units, the Florida Battalion (Uruguay’s elite troops) and the Volunteers of Liberty, had distinctive uniforms.     

Zoauves.  Remember those US Civil War units inspired by French North African troops?  Well, the Brazilians (Zouaves de Bahia) and Argentines (Legion Militar) had them too.  In fact, slavery was still legal in Brazil at this time, and many slaves fought in the Brazilian militias in an effort to gain their freedom. 

Weapons.  The Brazilians managed to get hold of some Sharps repeaters for their cavalry, which helped the Brazilian gauchos fight back against their Paraguayan counterparts.  The British Pattern 1853 Enfield, a muzzle-loading rifle which got its start in the Crimean War and was featured in the US Civil War, was Brazil’s main infantry rifle.  The Argentines and Uruguayans also used this rifle, so it could be considered the standard Allied rifle as well.  The Paraguayans typically used older muskets and the blockades prevented them from importing any more modern weapons. 

Aftermath.  As noted above, the high casualties and major problems all belligerents suffered made the various countries reconsider their militaries after the war and import European advisors.  As with the Civil War, this was another bloody conflict in which most soldiers died of disease than actual combat wounds.

            Paraguay lost almost half its territory to Brazil and Argentina, though Brazil rejected Argentina’s suggestion to divide the entire country between them.  It also lost over half its population, and the majority of its male population, leading to a 4-1 ratio of women to men.  The war was expensive for Brazil and helped encourage them to abolish slavery, which they did in 1888.  Thanks to Lopez, the Argentines finally got their act together and stabilized their politics by 1880, resulting in a much stronger, prosperous country.  The war also solidified the Colorados’ control of Uruguay for the next 80 years.  So in other words, the war which Paraguay started and the Triple Alliance ended was good for everyone except Paraguay.