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Battle of Rodeo del Medio
	Part of the Argentine Civil Wars
Date	24 September 1841
Location	Rodeo del Medio, center of Mendoza Province, Argentina32°58′0″S 68°41′0″W / 32.96667°S 68.68333°W
Result	Federalist victory
Belligerents
Federalists	Unitarians
Commanders and leaders
Ángel Pacheco	Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid
Strength
Total: 2.000-3.000; Cavalry: 1.200-1.500y; Infantry: 1.600-1.800; Cannons: 10-13	Total: 1,150-1.600; Cavalry: 800-1.200; Infantry: 400; Cannons: 8-10
Casualties and losses
Dead: 18 wounded: 30	Dead & wounded: 400; Prisoners: 300

The Battle of Rodeo del Medio, fought in Mendoza Province, Argentina on 24 September 1841, took place between the Federalist army of Ángel Pacheco and the Unitarian army of Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid during the Argentine Civil Wars. The consequences of the Federalist victory would last for a decade.

Background

In 1840 the Northern Coalition had formed an alliance of almost all the northern provinces against the governor of Buenos Aires Province, Juan Manuel de Rosas, and his allies. General Juan Lavalle had spent more than a year fighting Rosas in Entre Ríos and Corrientes, when he had invaded Buenos Aires Province. But he failed in the invasion, retreating to Córdoba Province, where he was defeated at the Battle of Quebracho Herrado.

Lavalle joined forces with Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid, and together they retreated to Tucumán Province. From there, Lamadrid marched towards the Cuyo provinces to open a new war front, thinking José Félix Aldao only had 800-1000 troops from Mendoza at the time, as Lavalle believed.^[7]^[8] Lavalle entrenched in Tucuman with 1,500 militiamen.^[9] Yet, at that time reinforcements under Manuel Oribe began arriving adding up to 9,000 troops,^[10] but only 6,000 ended up part of the final push as the rest remained defending the Cuyo region.^[11]

Lamadrid's vanguard led by Mariano Acha had 900^[12] to 1,000 soldiers and two cannons.^[13]^[a] Acha faced the Federalist armies of José Félix Aldao and Nazario Benavídez, governors of the provinces of Mendoza and San Juan, in the Battle of Angaco, one of the bloodiest of the Argentine civil wars. After Acha had won, he occupied the city of San Juan, but two days later was defeated by Benavídez in the Battle of La Chacarilla, and was shot by order of Aldao. Lamadrid reoccupied San Juan with 1,500 troops,^[12]^[b] and from there went to Mendoza, entering the city on 3 September 1841, where he was elected governor.

Development

Three weeks later general Ángel Pacheco came to Mendoza accompanied by Aldao, with 2,000 men, 1,500 horses and corresponding artillery.^[1] Lamadrid went out to meet him in Rodeo del Medio, near the city, on the morning of 24 September. The Federalists had 3,000 men and the Unitarians only 1,600. The armies were separated by a flooded area that could only be passed by a bridge. From the beginning, Lamadrid failed to prevent Pacheco from seizing the bridge. His left wing, led by Ángel Vicente Peñaloza, was prevented from moving by a counter-order. When he finally did move, he was quickly repelled by the infantry. The defeat of the Unitarians was evident from the start, and soon all were fleeing to the mountains.

It was a very bloody battle, with hundreds of deaths on each side, followed by a terrible persecution of the vanquished, led by the "monk" Aldao, causing many hundreds of additional deaths. Aldao ordered 1,000 men to follow up to Catamarca to the north, while the rest remained in La Rioja to prevent an attempt by Lavalle to advance to Cuyo.^[10]

Aftermath

The defeated crossed the Andes, long before the thaw would allow a safe crossing, and more than a hundred men died. It is said that a few of the losers hid in a village near Mendoza, then called Coquimbito. The losers did not yet know, but five days before, General Lavalle had been defeated in the Battle of Famaillá in Tucumán, and would be dead within days from an accident in San Salvador de Jujuy. Pacheco ordered Aldao to pursue Lavalle north with 1,500 men,^[13] and subsequently Oribe provided the troops of Mariano Maza in support.^[13] Aldao's troops totaled over 2,700 soldiers with two howitzers directed by Maza, Nazario Benavídez, Pablo Lucero and Pablo Alemán.^[15]

These two battles were the end of the Northern Coalition, and guaranteed Rosas almost unchallenged rule over the country for another ten years, until the Battle of Caseros in 1852.

References

Notes

^ Others sources consider that Acha had only 300 infantry, 200 cavalry and artillery.^[14]
^ Other sources say Lamadrid had 600-1000 men with 8 guns^[14]

Citations

^ ^a ^b ^c Ferrá 2007, p. 1211.
^ ^a ^b Breve Descripción de Batallas Argentinas.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Marley 1998, p. 491.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e La batalla del Rodeo del Medio - Granaderos.
^ Campana 2011.
^ Maza 2011.
^ Ferrá 2007b, p. 924.
^ Magariños Cervantes 1854, p. 177.
^ Groussac 1882, p. 227.
^ ^a ^b Lacasa 1870, p. 189.
^ Lacasa 1870, p. 190.
^ ^a ^b Quesada 1965, p. 64.
^ ^a ^b ^c Quesada 1965, p. 118.
^ ^a ^b Ferrá 2007b, p. 1200.
^ Diaz 1878, p. 197.

Sources

"Breve Descripción de Batallas Argentinas".
Campana, Carlos (25 September 2011). "Rodeo del Medio, la más sangrienta de todas las batallas - Suplemento Estilo". Diario Los Andes. Archived from the original on 14 October 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
Díaz, Antonio (1878). Historia política y militar de las repúblicas del Plata: desde el año de 1828 hasta el de 1866. Vol. II. Buenos Aires: Hoffmann y Martínez.
Diaz, Antonio (1878). Historia politica y militar de las repúblicas del Plata desde el año de 1828 hasta el de 1866. Vol. V. Buenos Aires: Imprenta de "El Siglo".
Ferrá, Margarita (2007). Archivo Del Brigadier General Nazario Benavides (1841-1851). Vol. III. San Juan: Universidad Nacional de San Juan. ISBN 978-9-50605-496-0.
Ferrá, Margarita (2007b). Archivo Del Brigadier General Nazario Benavides (1836-1841)]. Vol. II. San Juan: Universidad Nacional de San Juan. ISBN 9789506054946.
Groussac, Paul (1882). Memoria histórica y descriptiva de la provincia de Tucumán. San Miguel de Tucumán: Imprenta de M. Biedma.
"La batalla del Rodeo del Medio". Granaderos.
Lacasa, Pedro (1870). Poesias y escritos del coronel don Pedro Lacasa. Buenos Aires: Imprenta de la Discusión.
Magariños Cervantes, Alejandro (1854). Estudios históricos, políticos y sociales sobre el Río de La Plata. París: Tipografía de Adolfo Blondeau.
Marley, David (1998). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present. Santa Bárbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 0-87436-837-5.
Maza, Juan Isidro (2011). "Rodeo del Medio". Archived from the original on 20 February 2010.
Quesada, Ernesto (1965). Acha y la batalla de Angaco. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Pampa y Cielo.

Further reading

Aráoz de Lamadrid, Gregorio, Memorias, Bs. As., 1895.
Aráoz de Lamadrid, Gregorio, Observaciones sobre las memorias póstumas del brigadier general d. José María Paz, Bs. As., 1912.
Academia Nacional de la Historia, Partes de batalla de las guerras civiles, Bs. As., 1977.
Quesada, Ernesto, Lamadrid y a la Coalición del Norte, Ed. Plus Ultra, Bs. As., 1965.
Quesada, Ernesto, Pacheco y la campaña de Cuyo, Ed. Plus Ultra, Bs. As., 1965.
Ruiz Moreno, Isidoro J., Campañas militares argentinas, Tomo II, Ed. Emecé, Bs. As., 2006. ISBN 950-04-2794-X
Beverina, Juan, Las campañas de los ejércitos libertadores 1838-1852, Bs. As., 1923.
Saldías, Adolfo, Historia de la Confederación Argentina, Ed. Hyspamérica, Bs. As., 1987.
Hudson, Damián, Recuerdos históricos sobre la provincia de Cuyo, Bs. As., 1898.
Larraín, Nicanor, El país de Cuyo, Santiago de Chile, 1906.
Sosa de Newton, Lily, Lamadrid, Ed. Plus Ultra, Bs. As., 1973.