Ignacio Rivas
Ignacio Rivas Graces was a Uruguayan-born Argentine Divisional General of the Argentine Civil Wars and the Paraguayan War. He was notable for being one of the main general who sided with Bartolomé Mitre during the but when he was arrested he was discharged and after being pardoned, he was reincorporated into the Argentine Army in 1877. Family and Origin Ignacio Rivas was born on July 31, 1827, at Paysandú, which then had rejoined the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata two years ago after separating from the Empire of Brazil. Ignacio was the son of the Spanish-Andalusian landowner Andrés Rivas (b. ca. 1781 – Tacuarembó, Uruguay, ca. 1857) and his Portuguese-Brazilian wife Ignacia Graces (b. Captaincy of Rio Grande de San Pedro, ca. 1800 – Salto, Uruguay, ca. 1880). He had four siblings, the eldest was a paternal half-sister named Andrea Rivas (. 1820 – d. 1895) who married Rafael Bosch, Doraliza Rivas Graces (Paysandú, ca. 1826 – Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 20, 1908) who married in 1842 with the then infantry lieutenant Estanislao Panelo y Pérez de Saravia who would later be the Mayor of Concordia in 1849, and the minors were the Argentine-Uruguayan landowner Andrés Riva and Narcisa Rivas Graces. Uruguay and Caseros Rivas enlisted as a cadet as a defender of the Great Siege of Montevideo during the Uruguayan Civil War and became a personal friend of Bartolomé Mitre. He participated in the Battle of Caseros and in the fight against the federals of Buenos Aires, in 1852 and 1853. He served on the border with the Argentine Confederation and seconded Manuel Hornos during the Battle of El Tala on November 8, 1854, repelling the invasion of Hilario Lagos. Service with the Native Americans In 1855, he was sent to the southern border with the Amerindians in Azul. Months later, he established a camp called "Tapalqué Nuevo" on the western bank of the Tapalquén Stream. A short time later, the camp was frustrated due to the close defeats of Bartolomé Mitre in the Battle of Sierra Chica and Manuel Hornos in the Battle of San Jacinto. The area would not be populated by Christians until shortly before the official founding of the town of Olavarría at the end of November 1867. He participated in the Battle of Tapalqué, in which together with Hornos they repelled the attack of Juan Calfucurá. Months later in 1856, he repressed the uprising of the Redshirts of the Bahía Blanca Military Agricultural Legion, integrating an intervention commission, together with lieutenant colonels José Murature and Juan Susviela with the objective of dominating the state of subversion after the assassination of its commander, Colonel Silvino Olivieri. Battles of Cepeda and Pavón In 1858, he was promoted to colonel and appointed commander of the southern border. He fought in the Battle of Cepeda as head of a cavalry regiment. He returned to Fort Cruz de Guerra where he repelled a Native American attack from Calfucurá who helped the Federalists in their attempt to