ORDER OF BATTLE // October 28, 1867
Battle of Potrero Obella
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
1 sides catalogued · combined 5,000 estimated
Empire of Brazil
5,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
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.
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