War of the Triple Alliance

The naval Battle of Riachuelo was a key point in the Paraguayan War. By late 1864, Paraguay had scored a series of victories in the war; on June 11,... 1865, however, its naval defeat by Brazil began to turn the tide in favor of the allies. The Paraguayan fleet was a fraction of the size of Brazil's, even before the battle. It arrived in Humaitá on the morning of June 9. Paraguayan president Francisco Solano López prepared to attack at Riachuelo the ships supporting allied land troops. Nine ships and seven cannon-carrying barges, totaling 45 guns, plus 22 guns and two Congreve rocket batteries from shore troops, attacked the Brazilian squadron, totaling 58 guns. Paraguay planned to attack before sunrise since most Brazilian troops would leave the steamers in order to sleep on land, leaving thus very few men to guard and handle their fleet. The original plan had been that, under the cover of the night, the Paraguayan steamers would approach the docked Brazilian ones and board them. No confrontation other than the one carried out by the boarding party was planned, and the Paraguayan steamers were only there to provide cover from the inland forces.
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The Battle of Tuyutí was a Paraguayan offensive in the Paraguayan War. The allied victory added to the Paraguayan troubles that began with a... failed offensive and continued with the loss of its fleet in the Battle of Riachuelo. In early May 1866, a Paraguayan attack at a marsh called Estero Bellaco failed. As the allies camped for over two weeks before resuming their advance, Paraguayan leader Francisco Solano López ordered a May 24 surprise attack on Tuyutí, a "a swampy, scrub-brush savannah". The Paraguayans attacked in three columns, and soon the battle turned into "a series of charges and countercharges, a Latin American version of Waterloo". The Paraguayan columns continued to attack, but never could overcome the allied firepower. Tuyutí was the last major Paraguayan attack. Ultimately, it was a devastating Paraguayan defeat: Of the 6,000 men wounded after the battle, a large percentage would die subsequently. The Paraguayan military was decimated. The May 24, 1866 battle of Tuyutí is known as the First Battle of Tuyutí; the second battle occurred on November 7, 1867, and was an indecisive and less consequential battle in which each side lost about 2,400 men.
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The Mato Grosso campaign was an early Paraguayan offensive in the Paraguayan War. Paraguay captured the Brazilian province of Mato Grosso, but it was... a pyrrhic victory, since the attackers obtained little gain in it. The province of Mato Grosso was scarcely populated, with no more than two hundred soldiers and officers to defend it in 1864. Two bodies of Paraguayan troops invaded Mato Grosso simultaneously. Due to the numerical superiority of the attackers, the province was invaded quickly. Five thousand men, transported in ten ships and commanded by colonel Vicente Barrios, went up the Río Paraguay and attacked the fort of Nova Coimbra. The garrison of 155 men resisted for three days under the command of lieutenant-colonel Hermenegildo de Albuquerque Porto Carrero, later baron of Fort Coimbra. When the munitions were exhausted the defenders abandoned the fort and withdrew up the river towards Corumbá on board the gunship Anhambaí. After they occupied the empty fort the Paraguayans advanced north taking the cities of Albuquerque and Corumbá in January 1865.
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The so called Piquissiri Maneuver was a tactic used by Brazilian marshal Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias, during the Paraguayan War.... It is considered the most daring and creative strategy of the entire conflict. After the fall of the Humaitá fortress in July 1868, Francisco Solano Lópes centered his troops in a strong position at the Piquissiri stream, which runs on the left margin of the Paraguay River. To circumvent it, Caxias decided to build an 11-kilometer-long road on the right bank of the Paraguay River, passing through the Gran Chaco swamps, and leading to the Paraguayan rear. With the aid of the Brazilian Imperial Navy, Caxias carried 23,000 troops to the beginning of the road, from where they advanced along the right river bank, outflanking the enemy's fortified position. The Navy ships, after reaching Angostura pass, sailed north, where they re-embarked the troops from the road and carried them to the left bank in San Antonio, north of the enemy position. Solano Lópes, believing that the allied troops could not cross Chaco, was caught by surprise when the allied troops assaulted his rear, being forced to retreat with his surviving troops.
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