SOME NAVAL ACTIONS BETWEEN BRAZIL, THE ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION AND PARAGUAY. 1865-68.
The first naval event of importance in this long and deadly struggle (which began, as all the later South American wars have begun, about a question of boundary), was the battle of the Riachuelo.
The river Parana, the southern boundary of Paraguay, enters the river Paraguay between the Paraguayan fort of Humáitá, and the town of Corrientes, in the Argentine Confederation; and just below Corrientes is the Riachuelo, which has given its name to this battle.
Riachuelo means a streamlet or brook. The channel of the main river is here about five hundred yards wide. It is much broader both above and below. The Paraguayans had invaded the territory of Entre-Rios, and just north of the “streamlet” had established a position, where they had a strong battery of flying artillery, upon the bank of the main river.
In April, 1865, the first Brazilian naval division ascended the river, towards Corrientes. The Brazilian Admiral, Tamandaré, did not come with them, being occupied in Buenos Ayres, as was notorious, in imitating the conduct of Nelson at Naples, and of Marc Antony at Alexandria. The fleet was under the command of Commandante Gomensoro, who was soon afterwards superseded by Vice-Admiral Barroso.
The fleet anchored almost in sight of Corrientes, on the Chaco, or western bank. It consisted of nine steamers, all sea-going. They were the Amazonas (flag-ship), a heavy paddle-ship, of six guns; the Jequitinhonha, Belmonte, Mearim, and Beberibe, each of eight guns; the Paranahyba, of six guns; Iparanga, seven; Iguatème, of five, and the Araguay, of three guns, fifty-nine in all.
Lopez, the President and absolute Dictator of Paraguay, determined to try to capture this fleet.
His soldiers all were devoted to him, and those of the higher classes who were not so, he kept under, by a system of terrorism worthy of his father’s predecessor, Dr. Francia. Anything which he determined should be done had to be done, or the offender suffered imprisonment and torture, followed by death. Driven in this way by fear, his officers accomplished wonderful things. He seldom conferred upon any one a higher rank than that of Captain, and officers of that grade frequently commanded regiments and brigades. The men were brave and patient, and satisfied with the scantiest food and clothing. They despised the Brazilians, many of whom were negroes or mulattoes, calling them “cambas” and “macacos”—niggers and monkeys. Some of the most wonderful instances of daring, devotion, and calm courage were exhibited by these Indians during this long war; and when it closed, nearly all the men in the country, and many of the boys, were dead, killed in battle.
As an instance of their heroic devotion we may mention that of a Paraguayan soldier, solitary and alone, and surrounded by overwhelming numbers of armed enemies. Being called upon to surrender, he coolly replied, “No tengo orden”—I have no orders—and continued to fight until pinned to the ground by a dozen bayonets. Nor was this by any means a solitary case.
Having determined to try to capture the Brazilian vessels, Lopez adopted in part a plan formed by an English Chief Engineer in his fleet. This man had formerly served in the Brazilian Navy, and understood them thoroughly.
Lopez’ vessels were to run down with the current and reach the Brazilian squadron just at daylight. Each Paraguayan vessel was to select her antagonist, run at her, and board, with plenty of men, armed with their favorite swords and knives.
Lopez, who was personally a coward, and who never took part in any action himself, thought he had great military genius, and would interfere upon this occasion, as upon many others. The plan of Watts, the Englishman, would have caught the Brazilians asleep, and with their fires banked, so that they could not move.
Lopez gave instructions for his vessels to run past the Brazilians, then turn, come up stream, and board. He detailed eight hundred men, in addition to the crews of the vessels, as boarders. These he harangued, and told them to go and bring him back the fleet and the prisoners of the “Cambas.” “No!” cried the Paraguayans, in reply, “What do we want with prisoners? We will kill them all.”
Lopez smiled, distributed cigars, their one great luxury, and sent them away.
He sent on this expedition nine steamers, river boats, about all he had. They were the Tacuari (flag-ship), Paraguari, Igurey, Marquis Olinda (captured early in the war), Salto-Oriental, Ipora, Peribebui, Jejui and Ibera. These carried thirty-four guns. They were to tow down some of the “chatas” or flat-boats used by the Paraguayans, which each mounted one heavy gun, and carried a number of men. These boats were very low in the water, of light draught, and very hard to hit.
Pedro Mesa was the Captain of the Paraguayan Navy. He was fat, and sick, and old, and had no knowledge whatever of naval warfare. He tried to decline the command of the expedition, which, as the whole navy was in service, naturally fell to him. But Lopez would not listen to it, and ordered him on board; and the instructions of Lopez must be obeyed, on peril of death.
Finally the flotilla got off. But there was much delay from defective machinery and one of the steamers, the Ibera, had to be left behind. Owing to this it was broad daylight before they came down near the Brazilians, and there was consequently no surprise. Mesa carried out his orders literally, as it behooved any one to do who served Lopez, and ran past the Brazilians a very considerable distance, having received their fire as he passed. The latter slipped their cables and got under way, so that it was ten o’clock in the morning before the fleets came in contact. In spite of the bad manœuvre of going down the stream first, the fight opened well for the Paraguayans. The Jequitinhonha, which carried, among other guns, two 68-pounders and a Whitworth rifle, grounded, and was abandoned, after being well peppered by the Paraguayan battery of Bruguez, on the left bank. The Paranahyba had her wheel shot away, and was boarded and taken; and the Belmonte, riddled with shot, had to be run on shore, to keep her from sinking.
In this battle the difficulty was for the Paraguayans to hold on to the Brazilian vessels after they got alongside them, for the latter, being screws, managed to slide away from them. Strange to say, grappling irons had been forgotten.
Colonel Thompson says that whenever the Paraguayans boarded, a portion of the Brazilian crew would jump overboard, some of whom were drowned, and some swam ashore, all the latter being killed as soon as they landed.
Burton remarks that the failure to bring grappling irons on an expedition where boarding the enemy was to be a feature, reminded him of an English attack upon some Sikh batteries, where the English engineers forgot to bring spikes.
The Paraguayan launches, which had been towed down below the Brazilians, got adrift, and as they could not get up again, against the current, were eventually captured.
At the end of the first period of the action the Brazilians had lost three vessels in a very few minutes, and their case seemed very doubtful.
Just then a man of ability came to the front, and saved the day. The chief pilot of the Brazilian fleet was the son of an Italian emigrant, named Gastavino. This man, seeing that the Brazilian commanding officers had entirely lost their self possession, and were doing nothing, and giving no orders, took matters into his own hands. He drove the Amazonas at the Paraguayan flag-ship, cleared her deck with grape, and ran her down. Next he finished the Salto and Olinda, in the same manner; the Amazonas being so high out of water that the Paraguayans could not board her as she came in contact with them. He wound up by sinking the Jejui with his guns. The Marquis Olinda had previously had a shot in her boilers, and almost all her crew were either scalded, or killed or wounded by grape. The other Paraguayan vessels, Tacuari, Igurey and Salto, also suffered in their boilers, and had nearly all their crews killed or wounded.
During the height of the engagement, the Brazilian Paranahyba and the Paraguayan Tacuari fouled. The Paraguayans boarded, sword in hand; at sight of them, most of the crew of the Paranahyba jumped overboard. Her decks were filled with the desperate Paraguayans, and the other Brazilian vessels were afraid to use their guns upon her, for fear of injuring the few of their people who were bravely resisting. These few brave men made so good a resistance that the Paraguayan commander, Mésa, became alarmed for his own safety, and endeavored to retire to his cabin. In so doing he was mortally wounded by a musket ball. The next officer in command to Mésa was hopelessly drunk, and the Brazilians succeeded in backing the Paranahyba away, and she escaped, after much slaughter.
The battle lasted eight hours; and at last the four remaining Paraguayan steamers slowly and sullenly retreated up the stream.
These must also have been taken or destroyed if Vice-Admiral Barroso had done his duty, and pursued with vigor. For his very equivocal conduct on this occasion he was made a Baron. The pilot, who really fought the battle, and saved the day to the Brazilians, was made a Lieutenant.
The English Engineer, Watts, by his ability and good conduct secured the retreat of the four Paraguayan vessels, it is confidently asserted. For this Lopez gave him the lowest order of his Legion of Honor, and, three years afterwards, towards the close of the war, he had him arrested and shot, as a traitor.
Mésa died of his wound in a few hours. He would have been shot by Lopez, if he had returned unwounded, at any rate; and not undeservedly.
Both sides claimed a victory; but the Brazilians certainly had the best of it, and had put a stop to the offensive campaign of Lopez; as they could now blockade the river above Corrientes, and their presence there compelled the withdrawal of the Paraguayan advance corps in Entre Rios, and the evacuation of Uruguayana. Had Lopez’ squadron been successful he would have had command of the whole river, and must have held it until the Brazilians got their iron-clads down.
The Brazilians were unable to raise their sunken vessels, being driven off by the flying batteries of Bruguez, until such time as they were not worth working at.
Parts of the crews of the destroyed Paraguayan vessels got on shore on the Chaco side of the river. The Brazilians sent an armed boat to take them off, but the Paraguayans killed all the crew, and seized the boat. These men were in the desert Chaco for three days and a half, without food, and at last, when the Brazilians left the river free, crossed over safely to their own side.
Their desperate devotion was something wonderful. The Paraguayan captain of the Olinda was wounded, and taken, a prisoner, on board the Amazonas, where he had his arm amputated. Rather than remain a prisoner, and thus be declared by Lopez a traitor, he tore off the bandages and ligatures, and died.
On the thirteenth of the month the Brazilian fleet ran down the river, past the field batteries at Riachuelo, and operations ceased for the time.
The Brazilian officers confessed that at one time it was “touch and go” with them.
Had the Paraguayans carried grappling irons, and gone straight alongside at first, it is altogether probable that they would have captured the whole Brazilian fleet. But the screw steamers, having been allowed time to get up steam, slipped away from their opponents, who were inexperienced as watermen, and who were baffled by the high sides and boarding-nettings of their man-of-war-built enemies.
It is a curious fact that not one of the Brazilian 120 and 150-pounder Whitworth shot hit a Paraguayan vessel; and the Paraguayans only knew that they had them by afterwards finding the shot, some of them five miles inland.
A large picture of the Amazonas at the battle of Riachuelo was exhibited in the Brazilian department of the Centennial Exhibition, at Philadelphia.
THE BATTLE OF THE BANK.
When the land forces of the Allies at last invaded Paraguay, they reached the Parana, after some preliminary skirmishing; and, with 50,000 men, and 100 guns, prepared to cross that river, to effect a lodgment on Paraguayan soil. Lopez had a force of two or three thousand men in observation at Encarnacion, and seeing these ready to oppose a crossing, the Allies altered their plans, and marched down the Parana, intending to cross at Paso la Patria.
On March 21st, 1866, the Allied fleet came up to Corrientes, and anchored, in line-of-battle, extending from Corrales to the mouth of the Paraguay.
Their fleet was now an imposing one for river warfare. They had eighteen steam gun-boats, carrying from six to eight guns each, four iron-clad vessels, three with casemates, and one, the Bahia, a monitor, with revolving turret, and two 150-pounder Whitworth guns, in all one hundred and twenty-five guns.
Two of the steamers and the ironclad Tamandaré were sent up the Parana, to reconnoitre, but soon returned, after getting on shore and being in some jeopardy. There was a work on the right or Paraguayan bank, some distance from the confluence, called Itapirú. In the Allied reports it is designated as a fortress. It was really a dilapidated battery, of about thirty yards internal diameter; and at that time armed with one rifled, 12-pounder field gun.
The Parana is here quite deep, except in one place, where there was only twelve feet of water in the northern channel, and here some scows, loaded with stones, had been sunk, which closed that channel. The Paraguayans had, at this point, the steamer Gualeguay, armed with two 12-pounders, and two flat-bottomed boats, with an 8-inch gun mounted in each.
On the 22d the Gualeguay towed one of these boats down half a mile below Itapirú, and moored her close in under the right bank. The scow at once opened upon the Brazilian fleet, and, in a short time, had put four eight-inch shot into the Admiral’s ship.
Three ironclads were sent up as soon as possible, and approached the scow, keeping up an incessant fire. The Paraguayans made excellent practice, in the meantime, with their eight-inch guns, seldom failing to hit one of their opponents. At last the ironclads approached within about one hundred yards, and the crew of the scow left and took to the woods. The Brazilians then lowered and manned three boats, and sent them to take possession of the scow and her gun. As they reached her, some infantry, numbering about one hundred, who were concealed in the woods, gave the boats a volley, which killed or wounded about half of their crews; the rest made off and returned to their vessels.
The ironclads then continued to fire at the abandoned scow, and at last blew up the magazine, and she sunk. The gun was not injured, and was recovered by the Paraguayans.
On the 27th they towed the other gun-boat to the same place, and opened upon the Brazilian fleet again, and the ironclads renewed the same tactics as before. This time the Paraguayans had their boat very close in to the bank, and kept their cartridges on shore, to avoid being blown up. Most of their 68-pound shot struck the ironclads, but flew in pieces. Some penetrated, however. One struck the Tamandaré at the edge of a port, broke in pieces, and the fragments entered, killing every one in that part of the casemate, including the first and second Captains, three other officers, and eighteen men killed, and fifteen wounded. The Tamandaré was driven off by this shot. The two other ironclads kept up the fire, responded to by the Paraguayan musketry from the woods, and at nine o’clock at night the Brazilians retired, having effected nothing. Next day four ironclads and four wooden gun-boats came up to engage this doughty Paraguayan 8-pounder. On this day the ironclad Barroso got four holes through her plates, and all the rest of them were more or less damaged, until, at last, the Paraguayan gun was struck, and fairly broken in two. Strange to say, not a Paraguayan was hurt.
On the night of the 29th, these irrepressible people, having recovered the 8-inch gun from the first scow, endeavored to bring a boat from Humáitá, to mount it upon. Their audacity was such that they towed it, with canoes, down the Paraguay to the confluence, and then up the Parana, and all this under a bright moonlight. At last the Brazilians saw them, before they had reached their goal, and the gun-boats steamed up, to capture an empty scow. The men had made off, in the canoes, up the Parana.
These Paraguayan gun-boats thus constantly engaged the whole Brazilian fleet. But it must be remembered that a mere float, of this kind, bearing a gun, was very difficult to hit. For a week after this, the steamer Gualeguay went out every afternoon, and fired at the Brazilian fleet with her two 12-pounders. This was done principally for Lopez’ amusement, and he, at a safe distance, had excellent long glasses mounted, with which he watched the performances. The Brazilian fleet would dash up the water, all about the Gualeguay, with every kind of missile, from a 68 to a 150-pounder, and yet this steamboat never received any damage but one hole in her smoke-stack.
In some of the subsequent bombardments, Lopez would take up his quarters in a secure bomb-proof, and receive exact reports of every gun fired; what it had effected, and so forth. But he never exposed himself for a moment.
The Allied artillery, on the left bank of the Parana, kept up a heavy fire upon the post of Itapirú. But there was nothing there to receive any damage, the 12-pounder being snugly stowed away for an occasion. This continued for some time; until, at last, the Brazilians occupied a sand bank, or bar, in the river, opposite Itapirú, and mounted eight guns there, with two thousand men in trenches. From this point they reopened a fire upon the work, which seemed a perfect bugbear to them.
On the 10th of April the Paraguayans attacked this bank, or bar; and the naval part of the enterprise consisted in their coming in canoes.
Nine hundred men were embarked, in divisions of four hundred and fifty each; with a reserve of four hundred at Itapirú. It was a dark night, and the canoes, propelled by paddles, arrived at the bank, or bar, at four o’clock in the morning. It was a complete surprise; and the Paraguayans delivered one volley, and then charged with the bayonet, taking the trenches. They were soon driven out of them again, however, by overwhelming numbers; retook them, and were again driven out. The Brazilian guns opened with canister, and the Paraguayans lost heavily from this source. Two hundred of them were dismounted cavalrymen, armed only with their swords, but they did great execution, charging up to the guns, and taking them; but being again driven off by heavy musketry fire.
As soon as the firing was heard below several gunboats and ironclads came up, and surrounded the island, while the garrison was reinforced from the left bank.
At last the Paraguayans were almost all killed or wounded, and those who could move pushed off in their canoes, some paddling with one arm who had the other one wounded. The daylight had appeared, and they were forced to stem a heavy current, under the fire of the Brazilian vessels, at close quarters; and yet fifteen canoes got back to their own shore.
The Paraguayans lost fourteen officers killed, and seven wounded. Of the soldiers three hundred returned, almost all wounded, and they left five hundred men on the bank, or bar. Among the prisoners taken by the Brazilians was a Lieutenant Roméro; and Lopez forced his wife to write a letter disowning him as a traitor to Paraguay, because he had allowed himself to be taken alive.
In this affair the Brazilians lost about a thousand, killed and wounded, many more than the whole attacking force. The fire of their own steamers destroyed a number of these.
Six Brazilians were afterwards tried for cowardice in this engagement, and were shot.
In February, 1868, the Brazilian iron-clad vessels succeeded in passing Humáitá, the extensive works above the confluence of the rivers, which had so long kept them in check.
On the 13th three new monitors had arrived from Rio Janeiro, and joined their squadron. They were built in Rio Janeiro, and had twin screws, with four inches of iron on the hull, which was only one foot out of the water, when prepared for action in fresh water. They had each one revolving turret, six inches thick, with one heavy Whitworth gun in each. The circular port for the gun was barely larger than the muzzle, and when run out was flush with the face of the turret. Elevation and depression of a gun so placed was obtained by means of a double carriage, which raised or lowered the trunnions.
On February 18th everything was ready, and at half past three in the morning the Brazilians began to bombard the Paraguayan works most furiously.
The large casemate ironclads, each with a monitor lashed alongside, then steamed up to the batteries at Humáitá. The fire of these batteries was well sustained, and true, as the Paraguayan fire had always been, but their cast-iron shot flew to pieces on the armor of the ironclads, which passed without serious damage. After passing the works they continued straight on, past more batteries, at Timbó, to Tayi. The batteries at Timbó were water batteries, and injured the ironclads more than all the others they had passed. In this passage one of the Brazilian monitors received no less than one hundred and eighty shot; and another one was hit one hundred and twenty times. Their plates were dented and bent, and the bolts started, but there was little or no loss of life on board them.
If one or two of the Brazilian ironclads had remained between Humáitá and Timbó, instead of all running by the latter place, the works of the former would have been really closely invested; and as the object of running the batteries was to cause the surrender of Humáitá, the movement was to that extent a failure. The Paraguayans evacuated their works at their leisure, taking guns and stores.
THE RIVER FIGHT AT TAYI.
Twice, in the year 1868, the Paraguayans attacked the Brazilian monitors lying off Tayi, just above the influx of the river Bermejo.
These desperate attacks showed the most heroic bravery and devotion, but were never successful.
Upon one occasion the iron-clad vessels Lima-Barros and Cabral were attacked, and on another the Barroso and the monitor Rio Grande.
After the last attack, in July, the Brazilians threw a boom across the stream, which would detain their enemies, descending in their canoes, long enough to give time for preparation.
These Paraguayan boats were admirably adapted for navigating those waters, where there was a rapid current and many sand-bars, constantly shifting, with channels, more or less deep, between them.
The canoes were built so that only a part of the central section was borne by the water, and they were consequently easily turned, while they glided over the water, propelled by spoon-shaped paddles. Some of these craft were very large, and would carry a cargo of many tons.
On the first occasion that the ironclads were attacked by means of these canoes, an expedition consisting of twelve hundred men was organized, under the command of a Captain Xenes, and armed with swords and hand-grenades only.
The men were all paraded before Madame Lynch, the mistress of Lopez, who, after distributing cigars among them, with great condescension, told them to “go, and bring me back my ironclads.” The men answered her with “vivas,” and went contentedly off upon their desperate undertaking.
It was a dark night. The canoes were lashed in pairs, with eighteen or twenty feet of slack rope between each pair. By this means they hoped to make sure of boarding, the canoes of each pair swinging round on opposite sides of the bows of the Brazilians.
There were forty-eight canoes, each carrying twenty-five men. The Lima-Barros and Cabral were in advance of the main body, up the stream. Many of the canoes were carried past them by the current, into the midst of the Brazilian fleet. But about half of them hit the advanced vessels, and the Paraguayans sprang on board, unperceived. The crews were sleeping on the decks, outside, and some fifty were at once killed by the boarders. The remainder rushed below, and into the turrets, and secured the ports and hatches. The Paraguayans attempted to throw hand-grenades into the port-holes, and “ran about seeking ingress, like a cat attacking a trapped mouse,” in the meantime loading the Brazilians with all sorts of epithets, and daring them to come out and fight with the sword, like men.
The Lima-Barros and Cabral were thus virtually captured, but by this time the rest of the fleet were aroused, and soon two more ironclads came steaming up to their relief. They swept the Paraguayans from the decks with grape and canister, and those who were not blown to pieces in this manner were obliged to take to the water, and swim for life. Very few of them survived to tell the tale.
It is surprising that people so utterly fearless and devoted never made very serious attempts to blow up the Brazilian ironclads, especially as there were so many ways of doing so, and plenty who were ready to attempt it, even at the sacrifice of their own lives.
The best informed foreigners who were in Paraguay at that time thought that they wanted the vessels themselves so much that they hesitated to destroy them, hoping that an opportunity to board them successfully would occur at some time. The same persons thought that if they had even had one fairly good ironclad they would have completely cleared the river of the Brazilians. On the part of Paraguay the war was premature. Lopez had ordered armored vessels and rifled guns of heavy calibre in Europe, but so late that the war was upon him, and the river blockaded, before they could be delivered.
THE DREADNOUGHT.
(The most powerful Ironclad of the English Navy.)