PARAGUAY. 



611 



and wounded. On the morning of the 3d of 

 March the two wooden gunboats Beberibe and 

 Mage forced the pass of Curupaity with tri- 

 fling injury, and only one man wounded. 



Marshal Lopez, seeing that after the passage 

 of Humaita it was necessary to change his 

 tactics, transported all his war material and all 

 his guns to the Tebicuari, fortifying this inland 

 position. On the 21st of March the Brazilians 

 took possession of the fortifications at Tuyuti, 

 and, on the 23d, Ourupaity, having been 

 abandoned by the Paraguayans, was occupied 

 by the allies. The works taken possession of 

 by the allies were found to be very strong. 

 At Paso-Pocu these consisted of: First line, 

 a ditch 18 feet wide and as deep. The parapet 

 within was 6 feet 3 inches high and so much 

 in breadth on top, and was covered with sods. 

 Behind this parapet were the deposits for 

 powder, extending for about four miles, at a 

 distance of 36 to 42 feet from each other. 

 Between each was a well-constructed terre- 

 pleine, 14 feet 6 inches square and 3 feet 6 

 inches high, intended for a cannon, but on 

 which, for some time before the advance was 

 made, a palm-tree log covered with hides was 

 placed to simulate the real military engine. 

 The second line was more or less the same, 

 and the ditches of both were full of water, and 

 had a few bridges thrown over them. The 

 redoubt called Sauce, at the angle nearest 

 Tuyuti and Lake Piris, besides its natural 

 defences of overflowed lands and ponds, had 

 an antefosse, through which ran a watercourse 

 that drained those overflowed tracts, whose 

 waters were shut off by a sluice. This ante- 

 fosse was over half a mile long, about 30 feet 

 wide and IT feet deep. Between this and the 

 fosse of the intrenchment was a space about 

 130 yards wide and half a mile long. This 

 inner ditch was V feet 6 inches deep and wide, 

 with its- parapet the same height above the 

 terre-pleine, and with a banquette of 20 inches 

 in height. Fortunately for the Brazilian as- 

 sailants they came upon the antefosse soon 

 after the defenders had raised the sluice to fill 

 it, and they were thus able to cross it, but lost 

 much ammunition. The Paraguayans had there 

 four or five hundred men and two light field- 

 pieces, and its assault cost 13 officers and 184 

 rank and file in killed and wounded. 



On the morning of the 23d of March three 

 Brazilian steamers, the Barroso, Rio Grande, 

 and Para, descended below the Paraguayan 

 battery of Timbo in the Chaco. The Paraguay- 

 an steamer Igurey was seen hidden behind in 

 an inlet, and after several shots were fired at 

 her a seventy-pound shot from the monitor Rio 

 Grande struck her below water, and in two or 

 three hours she sunk in very deep water, which 

 covered even her chimney. On going farther 

 on, the other steamer, the Taquary, was per- 

 ceived in the narrow channel between the 

 island of Araca and the Chaco. The Bahia 

 entered the channel, and in a short time her 

 fire sunk the Paraguayan steamer, thus leaving 



the garrisons of Humaita and Timbo only boats 

 to effect their communications with. On the 

 same day all the shipping at Curuzu was 

 brought up to Port Elisiario above Curupaity. 



On the 8th of May General Rivas, having 

 been informed that the Paraguayans were con- 

 structing an advanced redoubt, sent a Brazilian 

 battalion to dislodge them. In the engagement, 

 which lasted an hour and a half, the Argen- 

 tines did not take part, and the result was the 

 complete defeat of' the Paraguayans, leaving 

 one hundred and eleven corpses on the field. 

 Their total losses were calculated at two hun- 

 dred and fifty to three hundred men put hors 

 de combat. The Brazilians had nine killed and 

 sixty-five wounded. A column of Paraguayan 

 cavalry that was coming to protect the first 

 one was also driven back, and in their retreat 

 toward Timbo the two columns, who took the 

 road by the river side, were decimated by the 

 grape-shot of one of the iron-clads that fol- 

 lowed them in a parallel line. 



On the 16th of July the allies suffered a severe 

 repulse before Humaita. An account written 

 from Paso-Pocu on the evening of the 16th, 

 states that Osorio, with 10,000 men, attacked 

 the part of the works of Humaita known as the 

 " triangle;" that the two battalions forming the 

 vanguard got close to one of the redoubts with- 

 out opposition, but when within short range re- 

 ceived a terrible fire of grape and musketry, 

 which threw them into disorder ; that two other 

 battalions were then brought up to their sup- 

 port, and the redoubt was carried with the bay- 

 onet, but with considerable loss ; that he then 

 sent word to the Marquis de Caxias that he held 

 a redoubt, and wanted all the reserves at once 

 to enable him to hold it and pursue the advan- 

 tage gained so dearly, but that Caxias ordered 

 him to retreat ; that on this order being given 

 the troops fell into confusion, and in their re- 

 treat were swept by grape, falling dead in hun- 

 dreds, and that Osorio, who had two horses 

 killed under him, and lost most of his staff, was 

 unable to control them in their retreat. Two 

 battalions were almost entirely destroyed in 

 less than 40 minutes, and the writer says the 

 Brazilian loss was at least 1,000 men, most of 

 them killed. 



Another repulse was suffered by the allies 

 on the 18th of July. A new Paraguayan bat- 

 tery of two guns opening upon the allied posi- 

 tion in the Chaco, and, thus placing it between 

 two fires, that of the battery and that of Hu- 

 maita, the Marquis de Caxias ordered General 

 Rivas to attack and dismantle the new work. 

 By General Gelly y Obes's dispatch to Gen- 

 eral Mitre it appears that the battery lay 

 beyond a deep stream, and that the ground 

 was almost flooded. Colonel Martinez was or- 

 dered to advance and reconnoitre the ground 

 with the Rioja battalion, forty or fifty skirmish- 

 ers, and two Brazilian battalions, with instruc- 

 tions not to pass the bridge which the Para- 

 guayans had on the stream. Rivas, with the 

 main forces, had not started when he received 



