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Battle of Acosta Ñu
Part of the Paraguayan War
Battle of Campo Grande, by Pedro Américo.
Date August 16, 1869 Location Eusebio Ayala, Paraguay Result Allied victory
Belligerents
Paraguay	Empire of Brazil  Argentina
Commanders and leaders
Bernardino Caballero	Gaston of Orleans
Strength
3,646 12 cannons	1st and 2nd Corps more than 20,000 Brazilian and Argentine soldiers
Casualties and losses
3,500: 2,000 killed 1,500 wounded and captured	602: 182 killed 420 wounded

The Battle of Acosta Ñu (Guarani: Acosta Ñu ñorainõ), also known as the Children's Battle (Spanish: batalla de los Niños) in Paraguay and the Battle of Campo Grande (Portuguese: Batalha de Campo Grande) in Brazil, took place on 16 August 1869. It was the last major engagement of the Paraguayan War between the Triple Alliance and Paraguay. The 3,500 poorly armed Paraguayans, mostly boys between nine and fifteen years old, old men and wounded combatants, confronted 20,000 Brazilian and Argentine veteran soldiers.

Background

In the middle of 1869, the Paraguayan Army was in full retreat and Asunción was under allied occupation. Francisco Solano López, the Paraguayan president, refused to surrender and retreated to the hills, vowing to keep fighting to the end. The commander of the allied forces, Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, the Duke of Caxias, suggested that the war was militarily over. Pedro II, the Brazilian emperor, refused to stop the campaign until López surrendered. Caxias then resigned and was replaced by the Emperor's son-in-law, Prince Gaston of Orleans, the Count of Eu.

The Count of Eu and the main Allied troops advanced and took Caacupé on August 15, though López had already moved to Caraguatay, leaving Bernardino Caballero to guard the rear. In an attempt to block the Paraguayan Army from retreating to Caraguatay, the Count of Eu sent a cavalry division to Barrero Grande (now Eusebio Ayala), while the 1st Corps pursued López. Before engaging Caballero at Acosta Ñu, the cavalry division was reinforced by the Brazilian army's 2nd Corps, including Argentine soldiers under the command of Col. Luis María Campos.

Battle

Allied troops reached the rear of Paraguayan forces near Barrero Grande on August 16. The allied troops consisted of some 20,000 Brazilian and Argentine soldiers, facing about 4,300 Paraguayan teenagers and adult veterans. To disguise how young the bulk of his forces were, Caballero disguised many of the nine- and ten-year-olds among his ranks with false beards. The battle began at 8:30 in the morning in on Campo Grande, also known as Acosta Ñu ('Acosta's Field'), an open plain of about 12 square kilometres (4.6 sq mi) favorable to the Brazilian cavalry. However, because the approach to the field was narrowed by the confluence of two streams, Arroyo Yukyry and Arroyo Piribebuy, the Allied 1st Crops infantry, under the command of Col. Manoel Deodoro da Fonseca, led the initial attack.

Over the next eight hours, the Paraguayans offered fierce resistance, retreating across Arroyo Yukyry where they had eight cannons and cover. They set fires and used the smoke to hide their movements, but they soon spread through the dry grass. The Paraguayans repelled an attempt by the Allied troops to cross the stream, but the Count of Eu's artillery fire caused heavy losses for the Paraguayans, allowing the Allied 4th Cavalry Brigade to cross the stream and attack the defenders' flank as the Caballero’s troops assumed a classic square formation to defend themselves with bayonets.

By this time, the Allied 2nd Corps reached the Paraguayan rear, blocking a retreat. The Allied infantry attacked with bayonets, overran the Paraguayan positions, and captured Caballero's cannons though Caballero was able to escape with a small number of troops.

Many of the injured soldiers died due to fires that swept the battlefield. Some scholars, such as Julio José Chiavenatto, accused the Count of Eu of ordering fires set to kill fallen soldiers, including burning a field hospital. A contemporary report from the Viscount of Taunay, who was present at the battle, however, blames the Paraguayans for setting fires to hide their movements that then spread out of control.

Legacy

The battle of Acosta Ñu is depicted in the painting Batalha de Campo Grande by Pedro Américo, as well as in a series of paintings by Argentine painter Modesto González. The Viscount of Taunay provided an eyewitness account of the battle in his book Recordações de Guerra e de Viagem (Memories of War and Travel).

Each year in Paraguay, August 16th is marked as "Día del Niño del Paraguay" (Children's Day of Paraguay) to commemorate the memory of the children who lost their lives in the battle. The holiday was first declared in 1948 by provisional president Juan Manuel Frutos.

References

1. ^ Hooker, Terry D. (2008). The Paraguayan War. Armies of the Nineteenth Century: The Americas. Nottingham, England: Foundry Books. ISBN 1901543153 – via Internet Archive.
2. Gabriele Esposito (2015). Armies of the War of the Triple Alliance 1864–70: Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay & Argentina. Osprey Publishing. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-4728-0725-0.
3. ^ Chiavenato, José Julio (1989) . Genocidio Americano: La Guerra del Paraguay [American Genocide: The Paraguayan War] (in Spanish). Translated by Pastor Benítez, Justo. Asunción, Paraguay: Carlos Schauman.
4. Clodfelter, Michael. "Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance): 1864–70". Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. Inc. p. 322 – via Google Books.
5. Rosa, José María (1964). La guerra del Paraguay y las montoneras argentinas [The Paraguayan War and the Argentine Montoneras] (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina: A. Peña Lillo, Editor.
6. Viscount of Taunay (2008). Recordações de Guerra e de Viagem [War and Travel Memories]. Edições do Senado Federal (in Brazilian Portuguese). Vol. 99. Brasília, Brazil: Conselho Editorial do Senado Federal. pp. 73–74.
7. Soso, Bianca (2022-08-16). "Día del Niño en Paraguay". Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-06-11.

• Conflicts in 1869
• Battles of the Paraguayan War
• Battles involving Argentina
• Battles involving Brazil
• Battles involving Paraguay
• August 1869 events
• 1869 in Paraguay
• Massacres in Paraguay
• 19th-century murders in Paraguay
• History of Cordillera Department