Battle of Potrero Obella

Overview

The Battle of Potrero Obella was a battle between a Paraguayan Army of 300 against 5,000 Brazilians. Although the Paraguayans took heavy losses, they inflicted 395 casualties on the Brazilians.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

At Potrero Obella, a Paraguayan force of roughly 300 men engaged a Brazilian column of 5,000 under Mena Barreto. Despite suffering approximately 500 casualties, the Paraguayan defenders inflicted 395 casualties on the significantly larger Brazilian force. The engagement illustrates the pattern of Paraguayan resistance during the later stages of the Paraguayan War, where numerically inferior Paraguayan units continued to contest Brazilian advances at considerable cost to both sides. The ability of so small a force to impose meaningful losses on an army more than fifteen times its size reflected the attritional character the war had assumed by late 1867.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (1)