I recieved a letter from Mr J. Meister during September with some details on Paraguayan troops in the "Triple Alliance War", the bulk of which I've typed up, for in my mind it is most helpful data.--TH

1. Most writers and historians fall into the trap of overestimating the Paraguayan population in 1864, there were not 1.3 million but only about 500,000, see page 454 of my book [told you about it in E.D. No.3. Vol.III. T.D.H.]. Therefore the armed forces were less numerous than most authors have wrote [mostly copied from each other].

2. Lopez peace-time army consisted certainly of only 8 Infantry Battalions, 2 Artillery Regiments [mounted] and 5 Cavalry Regiments, namely;

1st. Artillery Regiment stationed at Asuncion.
2nd. Artillery Regiment stationed at Humaita.
9th. Cavalry Regiment stationed at Concepcion.
10th. Cavalry Regiment stationed at Humaita.
11th. Cavalry Regiment stationed at Asuncion. [only 250 men strong, this was the "Acacaraya" Guard Cavalry Regiment.]
12th. Cavalry Regiment stationed at Concepcion.
13th. Cavalry Regiment stationed at Asuncion.

1st. Infantry Battalion, [Bogovantes = oarsmen] at Humaita, so were the 2nd. 3rd. and 5th. Battalions, while the 4th. and 6th. Battalions were stationed at Asuncion. Although the 6th was employed to lay the telegraph cable from Villa Franca to Pilar and during the war were given captured Argentine cutlasses and used as Naval Infantry at the Battle of Riachuelo aboard the warships.

The 3rd Infantry Battalion was also known under the name "Guarara" this contained some freed black slaves and also all soldiers for punishment. The 7th. Infantry Battalion was stationed at Patino Cue working on the railway line to Paraguari, while the 8th. Battalion were employed in the draining of the marshes near Yatay.

The 5th Battalion was at the beginning of 1864, for unkown reasons, "on leave". These units showed a strength of 2 Generals, 9 Jefes [Major and above] and 95 subaltern officers, with 7,363 men and nco's, altogether 7,469 men under arms. Add another 500 men for the 5th. Battalion [on leave] and less than 500 men for the Navy, the peace-time strength was about 8,500 men.

After mobilisation the Army contained 37 Infantry Battalions [of which the 11th. was on leave] with a strength of about 24,000 infantry. The Cavalry was enlarged to 25 Regiments, of these the 2nd Regiment was on leave, with a total of about 14,000 men on horseback, including the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. Lopez also formed a Foot Artillery Regiment, so that about 2,000 men served in the Artillery, plus about 4,000 men were in the Navy namely 500 onboard plus 6 Corps of Naval Infantry and 1 Naval Battery ashore.

In this way the armed forces of Lopez at the beginning of the war were, on paper, about 42,000 men strong, but one has to deduct from these figures all the men who died from illness and accidents during their training period, which was several thousand. During the war Lopez formed another 20 Infantry Battalions [more or less], some of these were simply replaced units lost at Yatay and Uruguayana. Lopez also formed another 20 Cavalry Regiments and at least 5 Artillery Legions of unknown composition. According to Paraguayan sources there were 38,173 men under arms on the 20th March 1865 while another 35,000 very young men [boys] and old men were on paper available, most of these were not trained and had no arms [see pages 46/47 and 427 to 436 of my book].

3. Sorry but I do not have any details on Paraguayan unit insignia or rank devices in use during this war [does anyone?].