José María Paz
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Brigadier General José María Paz y Haedo (September 9, 1791 – October 22, 1854) was an
Childhood
Born in
Battles for the War of Independence
José Paz was sent to
Paz then participated, along with his brother, in the battles of
Civil wars
In 1817, Belgrano was sent to fight the civil war that opposed
Arequito revolt
On January 8, 1820, General
They returned to Córdoba Province where Bustos attempted to take control of the province, against the will of Paz and others who intended to reach the northern border that was threatened by the Spanish and other Royalists. Paz, already a General, was separated from the army and sent to Santiago del Estero, where he spent two years away from politics. In 1823, he went to Catamarca Province to give instruction to some 200 soldiers, whom he had already led in battle in Salta Province, calling them the "Hunter Battalion" (Batallón de Cazadores), and he would again command during the war against Brazil.
War against Brazil
The Cisplatine War (known in Brazil as the Guerra da Cisplatina) pitted the two countries against each other for the territories at that time called Provincia Oriental (nowadays Uruguay) and the Misiones Orientales, occupied by the Brazilians since their victory of the Battle of Tacuarembó over José Gervasio Artigas in 1820. The war between Argentina and Brazil started in 1825 and it was concluded on August 27, 1828, with the Treaty of Montevideo by which Brazil and Argentina recognized Uruguay's Independence.
In the Battle of Ituzaingó, and in numerical inferiority, Paz gained terrain over the Brazilian forces, and later obtained their surrender. By order of president Bernardino Rivadavia he was named Commander General, the first one from military school in Argentina.
After the end of the war with Brazil, Paz returned to Buenos Aires, where General
Caudillos
In his writings, especially in Memorias, Paz tells about his astonishment to see farm owners fighting and declaring war against the central government, and the population supporting them.
Paz decided to start his campaign against the caudillos in Córdoba Province with a small force (about 1000 men strong), many of them veterans who served under him in the Cisplatine War. He defeated Bustos in the Battle of San Roque on April 22, 1829, and took the seat of provincial governor. Bustos fled west to La Rioja, ruled by his friend and ally Facundo Quiroga and asked for help, but Quiroga was also defeated at the Battle of La Tablada on June 23; the superior military skills of Paz neutralised the caudillo's irregular and improvised methods of warfare.
Quiroga returned a year later, leading a larger, more powerful and disciplined army, only to face defeat a second time at the
Prisoner of López
The
General Paz was delivered to López in the city of Santa Fe, where he spent four years in prison, before being handed over to Juan Manuel de Rosas to spend yet another three years prisoner in Luján. Rosas had previously asked for Paz's head, but López refused to kill him. Yet upon the assassination of Facundo Quiroga in Córdoba, Paz was handed to Rosas, perhaps due to López' poor health condition.
Life in prison
During his time as a prisoner in Santa Fe, Paz started writing Memories ("Memoirs"). He also married on March 21, 1835, his niece Margarita Weild, who served him while in prison and became pregnant. He was then moved to Luján, to receive privilege freedom in April 1839, under oath of keeping away from Rosas' opponents. Fearing for the life of his wife and children, he escaped to Montevideo on April 3, 1840. In order to keep Paz from restarting his military activities, Rosas offered him a diplomatic mission in exile. Paz declined the offer and went to Corrientes to join the Unitarian army that was under the command of Juan Lavalle.[2]
Paz in Corrientes
By the time Paz arrived, Lavalle had been already defeated by the Federal caudillo Pascual Echagüe in the Battle of Sauce Grande (July 16, 1840). He decided to cross the Paraná River with the remnant of his forces to invade Buenos Aires and asked Paz to join him. Realizing that such a move would leave Corrientes undefended, Paz refused and decided to stay to help Governor Pedro Ferré organize the resistance to Echagüe. The two Unitarian chiefs (who were also close friends) said farewell to each other, never to meet again.
Once in Corrientes Paz had to deal with a number of shortcomings. The province was impoverished by years of civil struggle and so he had to build an army called Ejército de Reserva (Reserve Army) mostly with youngsters and teenagers, two hundred flintlock muskets, some gunpowder, and only a few of his old Hunters veterans of the war against Brazil. For this reason his green recruits were nicknamed by his enemies Escueleros de Paz ("Paz schoolboys"). However, he was greatly favored by Echagüe's timidity and indecisiveness, who gave him much needed time to organize his forces.
Both armies camped on opposite banks of Corrientes River, which roughly divides the province in half. After several months of inconclusive skirmishing and guerrilla warfare, by November 1841 Paz reckoned his Escueleros were battle-hardened enough to give his enemy a nasty surprise. Moreover, a small group of Lavalle's men who managed to escape the ultimate disaster of their leader returned to Corrientes and joined him. He crossed the river in full force by night on November 26, 1841, and engaged Echagüe the following two days, routing him completely in the
In 1842 he invaded Entre Ríos, pursuing the battered remains of Echagüe's forces (who resigned his office as governor) and took La Bajada (present
Exile
While in Montevideo, Paz was named commander chief of the reserve army that faced Manuel Oribe's siege on Montevideo, which was supported by Rosas. Paz coordinated that army until mid 1843, when he returned to Corrientes through Brazil, to become Director of War against Rosas by the new governor of Corrientes, Joaquín Madariaga, and was given the command of the Fourth Army.
Corrientes again
Knowing that Rosas intended to annex Paraguay as a province of the Confederation, Paraguayan president Carlos Antonio López signed with Madariaga and Paz on November 11, 1845, a treaty (Tratado de Alianza y Convicción Adicional). Together they planned to attack Entre Ríos, debilitated by Justo José de Urquiza absence and, if possible, reach Buenos Aires.
Yet Madariaga and Paz did not trust each other. Madariaga took away Paz's command, but Paz already expecting such move, attacked and defeated Madariaga, taking him prisoner at Laguna Limpia. Paz moved to the Ubajay swamps at Easter Entre Ríos, and Urquiza, fearing to face Paz, fell back to the west of the province.
Last years
Political instability forced him to leave Corrientes and start a journey to Paraguay that would extend to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Submersed in poverty, he settled as a farmer. His wife died on June 5, 1848, while giving birth to their ninth child, leaving Paz the task of raising the children, of which six died at a young age. Paz continued during those years his memoirs that he had started while imprisoned.
When news of Urquiza's uprising against Rosas reached him, Paz travelled to Montevideo to await Urquiza's triumph. On September 11, 1853, already in Buenos Aires, Urquiza named him, yet unconvinced, General Brigadier, and governor Manuel Pinto asked him to talk the provinces into favoring Buenos Aires' position. Buenos Aires abstained from participating in the Constitution and prepared an attack. Paz was named General-in-Chief and moved to the border with
Later Hilario Lagos besieged Buenos Aires and Paz had to organise the resistance. General Pinto thus named him Minister of War and Navy of the State of Buenos Aires. In spite of Paz's visible position against the Buenos Aires Constituent Congress, he was elected member of the convention, which he did not attend regularly due to health problems. On April 11, 1854, day of the approval of the constitution, he was present to express his disagreement with the document that declared Buenos Aires an independent state.
That was his last political act; he died a few months later, and was buried with highest honours for his patriotism. During
The highway that separates the federal capital, Buenos Aires, from Buenos Aires Province was named General Paz Avenue after the cordobés who organised the defence of Buenos Aires.
Notes
- ^ María Tiburcia Haedo Roldán genealogíafamiliar.net
- ISBN 978-9-870-21648-3p. 107
- ISBN 978-0-872-89775-5p. 137