Émile Louis Mallet, Baron of Itapevi (10 June 1801 – 2 January 1886), was a French-BrazilianMarshal. He is the patron of artillery in the Brazilian Army, the Day of the Artillery being celebrated on his birthday.
Biography
A man of great physical bearing, at 2.01 m tall and weighing 120 kg, Mallet came to Brazil with his family at age 17 in 1818, initially living in Rio de Janeiro. In the city, he was invited to join the Army; he enrolled into the Imperial Royal Military Academy in 1823, where he joined the Artillery officer course.[1]
As a Second Lieutenant, Mallet commanded a battery of horse artillery in the Cisplatine War (the 1st Battery, 1st Mounted Artillery Corps), which lasted between 1825 and 1828. His first action was in the Battle of Ituzaingó, where he was promoted to captain, having commanded other gun crews after their officers were wounded.[1][2] After the war's end, he married Joaquina Castorina de Medeiros Mallet in Bagé in Southern Brazil; she was the daughter of a wealthy landowner, and a close relative of Manuel Luís Osório, a friend and companion to Mallet and, in the future, also a Marshal in the Army.
Mallet was dissmised from service in 1831, due to not being natively Brazilian, and took up farming in Bagé. In 1837, however, as the Ragamuffin War raged, he was called back to service under General Antônio Elisário de Miranda e Brito, as commander of a horse-drawn gun battery.[1] He was later in charge of important fortifications in Rio Grande, and, afterwards, as Major of the National Guard, Chief of Staff for Bento Manuel Ribeiro. After peace was made via the Treaty of Ponche Verde in March 1845, Mallet went back to a rural life.
He rejoined the Army permanently in 1851, during the Platine War, when he was summoned by the then Count of Caxias to participate in the Campaign against Argentina and Uruguay; he would remain in the Army until the Uruguayan War and the Paraguayan War started, fighting in both conflicts to their conclusion. In the conflict versus Uruguay, he commanded all the artillery in the key Siege of Paysandu.[3] In the last conflict, initially in command of the 1st Horse Artillery Regiment, he had a key role in the victories of Paso de Patria, Estero Bellaco and Tuyutí.
Specifically in Tuyutí, the largest field battle in South American history, his guns were called "revolver cannons", for both their accuracy and firing speed. Mallet had ordered a deep trench to be stealthily dug in front of his cannons, impeding both infantry and cavalry charges against his position. He is famously quoted as having said "Eles que venham! Por aqui não passam!" [They may come! Through here they shan't pass!] as the battle started.[4] Thanks to his performance in the battle, he was promoted to Colonel.
During the final phase of the conflict, the Campaign of the Hills, Mallet was commander-in-chief for the Army's artillery; when the war ended, in 1870, he was promoted to Brigadier, in 1884 to Lieutenant General, and, in 1885, to Marshal, in honor of his retirement from the army;[5] he had been ennobled as Baron of Itapevi in 1878.[1] He died in 1886, in Rio de Janeiro, at 84 years old. His body lies in a mausoleum which is maintained by the "Mallet Regiment", as the 3rd Self-Propelled Campaign Artillery Group is called, in Santa Maria in Rio Grande do Sul.
His battle sword is in a museum in São Gabriel, also in Rio Grande do Sul; his dress sword is in a museum dedicated to him in Santa Maria.
In March 1932 the Army created the Mallet Medal, which is granted to the officer cadets in the Agulhas Negras Military Academy who excel in the firing drills in the artillery officer course.
In Paraná, the city of Mallet owes its name to him; he is also mentioned in the city's hymn. In Curitiba, the state's capital, there is a Marechal Mallet street.
In São Paulo, in the neighborhood of Vila Zelina, there is a street named Marechal Mallet, and in the district of Guaianases there is a school named after him; in the state of São Paulo, in the city of Praia Grande, there is an Avenue Marechal Mallet, in the same neighborhood where there is the Itaipu Fortress and where the 6th Coastal Motorized Artillery Group was based until 2004; nowadays the 2nd Anti-Air Artillery Group is based there. In Campinas, the Marechal Mallet State School is of great regional importance.
In Fortaleza, capital of Ceará, there is a square named after him.
In São Gabriel in Rio Grande do Sul, where he lived for many years, one of the main thoroughfares of the city is named General Mallet. In Caxias do Sul, there is a General Mallet street; in Santana do Livramento, there is a Marechal Mallet avenue.
