Irish and German Mercenary Soldiers' Revolt
Encyclopedia
The Irish and German' Revolt was a revolt of German and Irish peoples in 1828 during the Argentina-Brazil War
Argentina-Brazil War
The Cisplatine War or the Argentine–Brazilian War was an armed conflict over an area known as Banda Oriental or "Eastern Shore" in the 1820s between the United Provinces of River Plate and the Empire of Brazil in the aftermath of the United Provinces' emancipation from Spain.-Background:Led by...

 of 1825–1828. The immigrants, who were recruited in their homelands to come to Brazil, discovered that the promises made to them by the Brazilian government were not fulfilled. In the revolt, the Irish and Germans took control of large parts of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, Brazil. Citizens of the town and marines from French- and British warships suppressed the revolt.

Historical Situation

The Argentina-Brazil War
Argentina-Brazil War
The Cisplatine War or the Argentine–Brazilian War was an armed conflict over an area known as Banda Oriental or "Eastern Shore" in the 1820s between the United Provinces of River Plate and the Empire of Brazil in the aftermath of the United Provinces' emancipation from Spain.-Background:Led by...

 (1825–1828) between Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 over Cisplatina
Cisplatina
The Cisplatina Province was a Portuguese and later a Brazilian province in existence from 1815 to 1828...

 (now Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

), was not going well for either side. An Argentine land victory on the plains of Cisplatina was offset by Brazil's effective Rio de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...

 naval blockade.

The Recruitment

Dom Pedro I, the Brazilian emperor, sent Colonel William Cotter back to Cotter's native Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 to recruit Irish mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...

 soldiers. Cotter arrived in early January 1827, no mention was made to the Irish of their beig recruited as mercenaries. In stead it was suggested that they would be needed to join a militia in Brazil but that this would NOT interfere with their farming endeavors.

Advertisements were run in local newspapers, and notices were posted on numerous church doors, mainly in County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...

 and in County Waterford
County Waterford
*Abbeyside, Affane, Aglish, Annestown, An Rinn, Ardmore*Ballinacourty, Ballinameela, Ballinamult, Ballinroad, Ballybeg, Ballybricken, Ballyduff Lower, Ballyduff Upper, Ballydurn, Ballygunner, Ballylaneen, Ballymacarbry, Ballymacart, Ballynaneashagh, Ballysaggart, Ballytruckle, Bilberry, Bunmahon,...

. The Colonel promised free passage, free land – 50 acres for each family, six shillings per day, and military training, (local militia only) No mention of the war against the Argentinians was ever made.

Almost 3,000 mostly poor and illiterate people quickly volunteered to make the long and dangerous sea voyage. Some sold what little they owned to buy farm implements for their new life in Brazil. Most apparently did not realize that they had been recruited to fight as mercenaries. 2,700 people actually showed up on sailing day, and boarded the nine ships anchored in Cork Harbor.

The voyage to Brazil

The first ship sailed for Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 in August 1827, and the rest of the fleet soon followed.

Among the volunteers were the John Clancy family, from near Waterford
Waterford
Waterford is a city in the South-East Region of Ireland. It is the oldest city in the country and fifth largest by population. Waterford City Council is the local government authority for the city and its immediate hinterland...

 in Ireland. The family consisted of John Clancy and his wife, Mary (or was it Elizabeth) Clancy, née Ahearn, along with their two daughters, Nancy and Ellen, and a son, name unknown. It was from newspaper interviews with Nancy Clancy on her birthdays in her latter years (she lived to be 95), that the hardships of their voyage came to light. While at sea, the young Clancy son died of yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

. His body was used as bait to catch the shark that had been following the ship. The boy was then removed from the shark's stomach and given a proper Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 burial. Afterwards, the shark was divided up among the hungry passengers. (??SOURCE??) Then their ship was wrecked off Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...

 with the loss of more than half of the passengers. The replacement ship had to make an emergency stop on an island off the coast of South America, where only the hospitality of the local natives saved them from starvation. The replacement ship reached Rio de Janeiro in late January 1828, when most of the other ships arrived.

The uprising

Once ashore in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, the Irish were assigned to several barracks buildings. They complained of poor food, and of no replacement clothing for the sea voyage rags that had largely rotted off of them. Some of the Irish simply refused to join the Brazilian Army, rightly saying that they had been falsely recruited. Several hundred of these holdouts and their families were finally sent, in March 1828, to provincial Taperoá
Taperoá
Taperoá is a town and municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil. It was founded in 1569.-References:...

, Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

 to farm. Those who did join the Brazilian Army were subject to drilling under unpopular officers offset by endless hours of idleness. Relief, and trouble, were readily available to all the mercenaries at the local grog shops in the form of a cheap and powerful rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...

, called cachaça
Cachaça
Cachaça is a liquor made from fermented sugarcane.It is the most popular distilled alcoholic beverage in Brazil. It is also known as aguardente, pinga, caninha and many other names...

.

Rio de Janeiro's black slaves and the Irish did not get along. Taunts of 'white slaves' when the Irish first landed escalated into individual fights, then large scale brawls, and finally, into murders by roving bands on both sides in the dark streets.

Unrest among both the Irish and the German mercenaries due to rough treatment, non-payment of wages, general misery, and rumors of going into battle soon, grew. The similarly recruited (and deceived) German mercenary soldiers started the Great Mercenary Revolt on 9 June 1828. When one of their number was sentenced to fifty lashes for a minor infraction, which was quintupled to 250, after 210 lashes the Germans freed their comrade, and attacked the hated officer, who fled for his life. Word of the German revolt quickly reached the Irish, and about 200 Irish joined. Weapons and liquor were seized. Irish sources state that the homes of a few hated officers were looted and burned by marauding bands. Brazilian sources record that whole blocks of downtown Rio de Janeiro were razed.

By the second day, it was realised that the available Brazilian troops in Rio de Janeiro were insufficient to quell the armed and drunk mobs. Black slaves, who needed no coaxing, and other citizens, were given arms and sent against the mercenaries. The Irish and Germans were slowly pushed from the streets and back into their barracks, their best defensive positions.

The emperor requested and received help from marines aboard British and French ships in the harbor. Not wanting to fight against them, many of the rebel barracks surrendered on the third day. The final barracks building was only taken by storm on the fourth morning with very heavy casualties on both sides.

Results

The surviving people were rounded up. The Germans were sent to outlying provinces in southern Brazil. At Brazil's expense, 1,400 of the 2,400 Irish who had arrived in January 1828 were sent back to Ireland in July 1828. They arrived home even poorer than when they had left.

Others were sent to North America. The John Clancy family sailed directly from Rio de Janeiro to Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

 in America. On the way, they were shipwrecked and lost another child. Another ship from Rio de Janeiro landed more than 200 Irish passengers at St. John
Saint John, New Brunswick
City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...

 in New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and 32 of them made their way to St. Andrews
St. Andrews, New Brunswick
St. Andrews is a Canadian town in Charlotte County, New Brunswick.It is sometimes referred to in tourism marketing by its unofficial nickname "St. Andrews-by-the-sea".-Geography:St...

 in New Brunswick, Canada. Some arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs, while others had money to spend.

The mutiny virtually destroyed two of Dom Pedro's supposed best units and ended his hopes for a land victory to augment his successful naval blockade of Argentina. Brazil and Argentina both agreed to give up their stalemated war. Dom Pedro ratified the peace treaty on 28 August 1828, and Uruguay became an independent buffer state between the two South American giants.

Sources, and Further Reading

  • Armitage, John. The History of Brazil: From the Period of the Arrival of the Braganza Family in 1808 to the Abdication of Dom Pedro the First in 1831. 2 Volumes. London: Smith, Elder, 1836.
  • Baldwin, C.J. "To the Editor of the New York Ev. Post" in New York Evening Post, 6 August 1828.
  • Basto, Fernando L.B. Ex-Combatentes Irlandeses em Taperoa. Rio de Janeiro: Editorial Vozes, 1971.
  • Bruce, Donald Roger. "Irish Mercenary Soldiers in Brazil, 1827–1828" in The Irish Link, Issue 3 (1998), pp. 30.
  • Calogeras. Joāo Pandiá. A History of Brazil. Translated and edited by Percy Alvin Martin. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963.
  • "Dover Loses Oldest Resident: Mrs. Nancy Burns Had Passed 95th Milestone and Was Especially Active for Her Advanced Age". Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H. (12 December 1917).
  • Galogebas, Joao Pandia. A History of Brazil. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963.
  • Koebel, W.H. British Exploits in South America: A History of British Activities in Exploration, Military Adventure, Diplomacy, Science, and Trade in Latin America. New York: Century, 1917.
  • Macaulay, Neill. Dom Pedro: The Struggle for Liberty in Brazil and Portugal, 1798–1834. Durham, Duke University Press, 1986.
  • "Mrs. Burns 93 Years Old". Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H. (4 February 1915), pp. 1.
  • O'Maidin, Padraig. "An Irish Mutiny in Brazil and a Betrayal" in The Cork Examiner, 21 May 1981.
  • Rees, Ronald. Some Other Place than Here: St. Andrews and the Irish Emigrant. No location: New Ireland Press, 2000.
  • Von Allendorfer, Frederic. "An Irish Regiment in Brazil, 1826–1828" in The Irish Sword
    The Irish Sword
    The Irish Sword is the official journal of the Military History Society of Ireland containing articles on the military history of Ireland, book reviews, notes, notices, queries, illustrations and proceedings....

    , Vol. III, No. 10 (Summer 1957), pp. 18–31.
  • Walsh, Robert. Notices of Brazil: in 1828 and 1829. 2 Volumes. Boston: Richardson, Lord & Holbrook, 1831.
  • Worcester, Donald E. Brazil: From Colony to World Power. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973.
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