Battle of Curupaity
1866 CE.
Shown on the map at -27.113°, -58.574°.
The Battle of Curupayty was a key battle in the Paraguayan War. On the morning on 22 September 1866, the joint force of Brazilian, Argentine, and Uruguayan armies attacked Paraguayan fortified trenches on Curupayty. The Paraguayans were led by general José Eduvigis Díaz. This position was held by 5,000 men and 49 cannons, some of them in hidden places out of the attackers view. The Imperial Brazilian Navy gave support to the 20,000 assailants, but the ships had to keep some distance from the guns at the fortress of Humaitá, which led to the lack of accuracy and impact of the ship's fire. The navy's failure was crucial at the later ground battle result. The Paraguayans were also successful in misleading their foes: a trench drew most of the Brazilian fire, but the Paraguayan troops were located elsewhere. Paraguay easily repelled the assault, and the battle lasted less than a day. Around 20 percent of the almost 20,000 allied (Brazilian and Argentine) troops involved in the attack were lost; Paraguay lost less than a hundred men. The utter failure resulted in the change of the Allied command.
Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Curupayty, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.