Victoria de paraguay

Overview

The Battle of Acosta Ñu, also known as the Children's Battle in Paraguay and the Battle of 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.

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

Significance

The Battle of Acosta Ñu, fought on 16 August 1869, was the last major engagement of the Paraguayan War between the Triple Alliance and Paraguay. By this stage of the war, Paraguay's military manpower had been so severely depleted that its force of roughly 3,600 consisted predominantly of boys aged nine to fifteen, alongside old men and wounded combatants. Facing 20,000 veteran Brazilian and Argentine soldiers under Gaston of Orleans, the Paraguayan force under Bernardino Caballero suffered casualties nearly equal to its entire strength. The engagement illustrated the terminal exhaustion of Paraguayan resistance and marked the effective end of organized military opposition, closing the active campaign phase of a war that had devastated Paraguay's population and armed forces.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)