Manuel Luís Osório, Marquis of Erval

Early life

Manuel Luís Osório was born on 10 May 1808, in lands that belonged to the village of Nossa Senhora da Conceição do Arroio (Rio Grande do Sul). Osório was raised on his maternal grandfather's farm. His father, Manuel Luís da Silva Borges, son of the Azorean descendant couple Pedro Luís and Maria Rosa da Silveira, both native of the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Lagoa, on the island of Santa Catarina, was a distinguished and decorated military man, in the army of Dom Diogo de Sousa, captain-general of the Rio Grande, to fight in the Eastern State (present Uruguay) in the wars of 1811 for the control of the Rio de la Plata, having also fought in the period of 1816 to 1821. His mother, Ana Joaquina Luísa Osório, daughter of Lieutenant Tomás José Luis Osório and Rosa Inacia Joaquina Pereira de Sousa, was a native of Santo Antônio da Patrulha and came from a family that owns land. The land of his parents was located near Lagoa dos Barros, where the Marechal Osório Park is today.^[3]

On 15 October 1835, he married Mrs. Francisca Fagundes, having as godfather Emilio Mallet, who would later fight alongside him in the Campaign of the Triple Alliance. He had four children: Fernando Luís Osório (1848-1896), Adolfo Luís Osório (1847-?), Manuela Luísa Osório (1851-1930) and Francisco Luis Osório (1854-1910).

Early career

Lithograph by Osório on cigarette label.

Fourth son of a humble family of 14 children, he learned to read and write without regular studies. On May 1, 1823, with fifteen incomplete years, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Cavalry of the Legion of São Paulo, current 5th Mechanized Cavalry Regiment, and accompanied his father's regiment in the fight against the Portuguese troops of Brigadier Álvaro Da Costa, stationed in Cisplatina (present - day Uruguay), during the War of Independence of Brazil (1822-1824). He was only 15 years old when he had his baptism of fire on the banks of the Miguelete stream (May 13), near Montevideo, in a battle against Portuguese cavalry. A year later, he was appointed cadet and, later, second lieutenants of the 3rd Regiment of Cavalry of the first line.

In 1824, he enrolled in the Military School. He was preparing to pursue military studies when his registration was canceled because of the imminent war in the south of the country. He had to face a new campaign in the Cisplatine War between 1825 and 1828. On October 12, 1825, near the stream Sarandi, under the command of Bento Manuel, Alferes Osorio fought the Lavalleja Orientals to the forehead of his spearmen and stood out Not only because he was the only officer in his squadron to survive the Battle of Sarandí but also to save the life of his commander, who said: "I will give you my spear, Ensign, for he will take you where I have taken you".

At the beginning of 1827, Osório continued campaigning in the region of Santana do Livramento. On February 20, 1827, at the Battle of Ituzaingó, his lancers were the only Brazilian troop that was not disrupted during the battle. In October, he was promoted to lieutenant and participated in the peace talks with the detachment of Cisplatina and recognition of Uruguay's independence, following General Lecór. When peace was established, he retired with his regiment to Rio Pardo, where he moved in, consecrating himself to politics by the Liberal Party.

Ragamuffin and Platine Wars

Cigarette label with the osorio liography that fought all the war of the south region.

In 1835, the Ragamuffin War broke out in the province of Rio Grande do Sul, characterized by separatist agitation which, for ten years, threatened the unity of the Empire. Lieutenant Osorio, at the time, served the 2nd Light Cavalry Corps, in the Village of Bagé under the command of Captain Mazzaredo, who left the square and handed it to rags. Osório led his superior to the border and then presented himself to Colonel Bento Manuel Ribeiro.

Liberal-minded, Osorio had sympathy for the Farroupilha (raggamuffin) cause, initially fighting alongside the rebels, until the proclamation of the Riograndense Republic in 1836, when the movement took a separatist character, which he did not accept, which integrated to the Imperial Brazilian Army, in which it remained until the end of the revolt. He also participated in the fighting against the rebels in Porto Alegre, Caçapava and Erval. He became captain in 1838 and major in 1842. In 1844 he applied for his retirement, but the Army did not want to dismiss him, nominated him lieutenant colonel, commander of the 2nd Line Cavalry Regiment. He aided Caxias in the Poncho Verde Treaty, which sealed on 25 February 1845. After the Raggamuffin Revolution, the Emperor Pedro II, still very young, had decided to visit the Province with the purpose of consolidating the signed peace. Caxias entrusted to Osorio the delicate mission: "The 2nd Regiment, reorganized and trained by Osório himself, escorting the Emperor through the campaign, from Vila de Cachoeira to São Gabriel, on the way to and from the" He was elected provincial deputy in the 2nd Legislature of the Provincial Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul."

In 1851, as a lieutenant colonel, Manuel Osório was sent once again to Montevideo due to new instability in the region of the river plate, intervening with his regiment against the Argentine President Juan Manuel de Rosas and Uruguayan Manuel Oribe. It was evidenced in the Battle of Monte Caseros, which occurred in the suburbs of Buenos Aires on 3 February 1852, when, at the head of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, in the vanguard of the Brazilian troops, it inflicted on the Argentine dictator the rupture of his defense device and Commands decisive operations to take advantage of success and persecution. Promoted to Colonel on the battlefield, by merit, on 3 March 1852, he served for a few years in Rio Grande do Sul.

At the beginning of 1855, after a brief installation in the garrison of the Jaguarão, Osório was appointed to command the border of São Borja. Promoted to brigadier-graduated in December 1856, soon after was commissioned to organize an expedition to discover rich herbs, between the rivers Pindaí and Sebolati, in the Upper Uruguay. Successful in the mission, he later received the nobiliarchic title: Marquis of Herval. Later, he was appointed cavalry inspector of the North of Brazil, where he remained for a short time.

He participated, in charge of a division of the army commanded by Marshal João Propício Mena Barreto, of a new intervention in Uruguay to help the colorados of Venancio Flores, allies of Brazil, to assume the power in the Eastern State. The invasion of Uruguay served as a reason for the Paraguayan military intervention in the politics of the river plate.

War of the Triple Alliance

The surrender of Uruguaiana, by Victor Meirelles.

The aggressions of Solano Lopez to Brazil and to Argentina motivated, in 1865, the Treaty of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina) against Paraguay. At the outbreak of the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870), Osorio was the most prestigious military man in the platine region, having acted uninterruptedly for 42 years in successive campaigns. On 1 March 1865, he received command of the 1st Corps of the Imperial Army, setting up his headquarters in Paysandú. Under the agreement of the Triple Alliance, however, the general command of the operations was handed over to the Argentine general and president Bartolomé Mitre, with whom Osório did not always understand well.

On 8 July 1865, he was promoted to Field Marshal and participated in the Siege of Uruguaiana. On 18 September in the presence of Emperor Pedro II, the Count of Eu and several general officers, including Osorio and Caxias, the Uruguayan Surrender takes place.

On 2 May 1866, he participated in the Battle of Estero Bellaco, a depression of terrain by which the waters of the Paraná River join the waters of the Paraguay River, where the enemy began to delay the allied troops, seeking a better position to fight. On 24 May 1866, he was present at the Battle of Tuyutí, the largest combat in South America, in which he played an important role in commanding the center of the Brazilian army's military device against the Paraguayan attack. He recorded on the Order of the Day #56: "Glory is the most precious reward of the brave." On 15 July 1866, still in Tuyuti, the allies awaited the arrival of the forces of General Count of Porto Alegre, while the enemy whipped daily. Seriously wounded in the battle and dissatisfied with the long period of the parked troop, Osório passed the command of the Brazilian troops to General Polidoro da Fonseca Quintanilha Jordão.

Manuel Luís Osório, Marquis of Herval.

From July of this year to July of the following year, he stayed in Rio Grande do Sul, gathering new contingents for the Army. On 1 June 1867, he was promoted to Lieutenant General, second to last in the military hierarchy. On 25 July, Osorio returns to the Allied vanguard, as commander of the 3rd Corps of the Imperial Army. At that time, the Field Marshl Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, then Marquis de Caxias, was the commander of the Brazilian forces in the theater of war. The relationship between them has always been good and cordial since they were longtime friends. Osorio also took part in the planning of operations against the Fortress of Humaitá, which blocked the advance of Allied forces towards Asuncion. In command of his troops, Osório directed the march of Tuiuti to Tuiu-Cuê, advancing against the trenches and strengths that surrounded Humaita and protected against attacks. On 25 July Osório occupies the Fortress of Humaitá and replaces the abandoned flag by the Brazilian flag, installing there the headquarters of the 3rd Army Corps and its new base of operations.

Manuel Luís Osório at the Battle of Avaí.

With the return of the war of movements after the fall of Humaitá, Osório also participated of the Battle of Ytororó and Battle of Avaí in December 1868. In this last, when taking all the position of enemy artillery, it is shot in the face by an enemy of stunner, breaking the lower left jaw, a wound he hid with a poncho, continuing to encourage his men to fight, until the hemorrhage forced him to stop. At the time, he said: "Courage, comrades! Stop this rest!" In order for his soldiers to assume him in command and not to be discouraged, his empty warship was kept at the head of the troops. Osorio was replaced by General Polidoro da Fonseca and returned to Brazil to recover from the wound, and it was not possible to witness the fall of Asuncion in January 1869. On his coat of arms there are three golden stars representing the wounds suffered on his face during the Bloody Battle of Avaí.

On 22 March 1868, Gaston of Orléans, Count of Eu, son-in-law of the Emperor Pedro II, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the forces in operation in Paraguay. At the invitation of the new commander of the Brazilian forces, Osório, who had been seriously wounded in the combat of Avaí and retired to Rio Grande do Sul, returned to Paraguay, assuming, on June 6, the 1st Army Corps, stationed in Piraju, to start the Mountain Campaign. The Count of Eu, one of his great admirers, would become Osório's ally in the incessant battles for the modernization of the Brazilian Armed Forces throughout the 1870s.^[4]

On 12 August, there was the assault and capture of the Peribebuí Fortifications, defended by 1,500 men and 15 fire hydrants. On 24 November 1868, Osorio leaves the campaign definitively, forced by the worsening of his health. On his return, on his way to Montevideo, he receives news of the death of his wife.

Later life

Osorio obtained the title of baron in May 1866 and the one of viscount with greatness in 1868. The following year, before ending the war, received the title of Marquess of Herval. In August 1871, Deodoro da Fonseca solemnly presented to Porto Alegre a costly sword of honor, a masterpiece of goldsmithing, carved in gold and adorned with diamonds, paid for by the officers commanded by Osorio in the war. On the steel blade were recorded the battles and battles in which Osorio had participated.

Cigarette label dedicated to the Marquis of Herval.

After the war, in the first four decades that followed, the victory in the Battle of Tuyutí, considered the most important of the campaign, was the main Brazilian military celebration, and in the commemorations, the main hero was Osorio.^[5] Only in the decade of 1920 the military movement rescued the figure of the Duke of Caxias as leader of the Paraguayan War.^[6] Although military and influential politician, crossed the decade of 1870, the last decade of its life, under the pressure of debts.^[7]

With peace, on 11 January 1877, Osorio was nominated by Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil and then regent, as Senator of the Empire for the Province of Rio Grande do Sul, his native land. In a speech in the Senate, he states: "The uniform does not smother the citizen in the soldier's bosom." Although a Republican in his youth, he eventually converted to the monarchist creed, becoming one of his most ardent supporters, as he made clear to Baron of Cotejipe on 15 April 1879:

"I am, for a long time, a liberal monarchist, unionist of the Empire of Brazil. Do not think that I am going to the Republic, or to despotism; But I will tell the noble senator that in matters of public service I do not inquire what Brazilians are in politics, but, yes, if they fulfill their duty for the good of the country."

By decree of 2 June 1877, he was granted the rank of Marshal of the Army. With the rise of the Liberal Party to power, Osório was appointed Minister of War in the Sinimbu's cabinet in 1878. He remained in office until his death on 4 October 1879, in Rio de Janeiro, at the age of 71, sick With pneumonia.

Footnotes

References