Luso-Brazilian Army (Part 2)

Armament

As a result of the maritime blockade to which they were subjected and even lack of support from Portugal, due to blockade, their firearms were small and variable, obtained mainly from the Dutch in the previous battles of Monte das Tabocas, Casa Forte and several ambushes.

In addition, they used clubs, staffs, spears used as pikes and, mainly, the sword, on which they based their shock power, and the one responsible for numerous Dutch casualties in both battles of Guararapes, taking advantage of success and in pursuit. After the Dutch first musket volley, the Luso-Brazilians, taking advantage of the difficulty of reloading and closing with the enemy's frontline, carried the sword with all the offensive force. 

In several actions against the Dutch, they had taken possession of considerable artillery. This artillery was used mainly in its fortified strongholds and, presumably, they carried it in campaign in the 1st Battle of Guararapes, numbering 7 ox tractioned guns.

The cavalry was present in a small number in the 1st Battle; it is known that Fernandes Vieira fought on horseback and Captain Antonio Silva commanded the fraction of cavalry.

Training

It was developed to a high degree and during the long period of 18 years of Dutch occupation the technique of ambush attack.

In this type of attack, the surprise, the speed, the initiative, the courage, the judicious use of the terrain and the hand to hand with the sword were fundamental.

It is known that Sergeant Major António Dias Cardoso, when he was secretly sent to Pernambuco to organize the Restoration Army, "Cellula Mater" of the Luso-Brazilian Army, trained for six months the Portuguese-Brazilian civilians. The result of this training was the huge victory they obtained in Monte das Tabocas. With the arrival of the Dutch relief fleet, the Luso-Brazilians organised training areas south of the Jaboatão River (Fort Nazareth, Cape and Muribeca), the rearguard area of ​​the patriots.

Logistics

Because of the maritime blockade, abandonment of agricultural activities to make war, and difficulties of logistical support from Bahia, the patriots experienced serious logistical openings.

For a long time, the daily ration of a patriot soldier consisted of an ear of corn, or a small ration of manioc flour. To compensate for this food crisis, logistics expeditions to Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Bahia, and north and south of Pernambuco were frequently sent to obtain food from the population that supported the Restoration Army.

In this type of operation, the figure of the "Shipowner of the Arraial", Dias Cardoso, frequently stands out, and in long trips under the command of the Field Master General Barreto de Menezes, with the mission to buy, or seize of Dutch supplies, destroying what it could not carry. ("Restauradores de Pernambuco", J.A.G. de Mello).

The patriots stoically endured food deprivation. It was a great humiliation for them, the fact that they were forced to walk barefoot. This situation was compatible only for slaves and Indians, and the use of footwear served as an indicator of the social status of the then man. To nullify the effect of this humiliation, the officialdom democratically, and as an example, throws off shoes and starts walking barefoot. This solved the sociological problem.

From Queiroz Siqueira's report, it is concluded that the population of Pernambuco supplied the soldiers of Pernambuco and Bahia with 5000 daily rations. From the same source is evidenced the "lack of meat for the patriots, who had slaughtered the whole herd, sparing only the oxen destined to draw artillery, as well as lack of clothes and swords, gunpowder and bullets. The artillery guns were 7, and destined for any action, and of the following calibres: 3 of "24", one of "20" and three of "12".

Morale

The moral to fight was very high, because they were patriots defending what they considered their homeland, despite the concerted truce between Portugal and Holland and, in defense of Catholicism, against Calvinism.

The following examples serve to illustrate the moral uprising of these brave, doubly rebellious patriots of Brazil.

From Colonel Waerdenburch (Dutch), in an official document:

"It is difficult to submit by force a people made up of living and impetuous soldiers, to whom nothing short of good direction, and who are in no way like lambs."

This colonel did justice to the soldiers, but he underestimated the chiefs who were going to lead them, magnificently, in the Battles of Guararapes. The reply of the Portuguese-Brazilian patriots to King João IV of Portugal, ordering them to cease their reaction, in fulfillment of the truce treaty signed with Holland and referred to in the beginning was:

"We will not end the reaction until the expulsion of the invader from Pernambuco, and only after, will we go to Your Majesty to pay for the crime of our disobedience."

This double disobedience was a very negative factor in the morale of the patriots, but even so, between two fires, they did not fade.

Fernandes Vieira, Vidal de Negreiros, Henrique Dias and Felipe Camarão used as a means to discredit the promises made by the Dutch, several arguments:

They recalled the recent facts of the Dutch having committed sacrileges against the images of a church in Igaraçu, where they destroyed the images of the saints by the sword.

This profoundly affected the deep-rooted religious sentiment that existed here and achieved with the Holy Inquisition, as can be seen from the "Confessions of Pernambuco, (1594-1595)", 1st Visitation of the Holy Office, by José Antônio Gonsalves de Mello.

And the brave restorers argued:

"Who to the gods makes war, what peace will you keep with the humans?"

Episodes were remembered in Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, in which some patriots surrendered, under the word of the Prince of Orange, to save their lives, and then were barbarously slaughtered by allied Indians of the Dutch and by order of these.

The many sexual violence carried out by the Dutch against helpless Luso-Brazilian women, robberies and systematic fires, lives sacrificed in the defense of mills and farms, as well as innumerable temples violated by Calvinist Protestants have not been forgotten.

And they concluded with this argument:

"If the enemy, when he had submitted to us, committed barbarities of every order, what can we expect of him as insurgents?"

After the arrival of the relief squad, the Dutch, disbelieving the power and value of the local patriots, promote a great campaign through pamphlets, in order to undermine the morality of the restorers.

This campaign was carried out shortly before the 1st Battle of Guararapes and motivated the following reactions of the restoration leaders (Lopes Santiago).

From André Vidal de Negreiros:

"We know of no inferiority to whom we shall soon overcome.[...] Come out to the campaign, where we have waited for a long time. [...] Be assured that our maxim is to overcome them or die."

From João Fernandes Vieira:

"Do not deceive yourselves, sirs: Brazil was not made for you."

From Henrique Dias:

"If you have weapons, it is unnecessary to launch pamphlets. My soldiers know little of them, and of the numerous and great muskets they possess, and they handle with great speed and courage, as you always feel. "

From Antônio Felipe Camarão:

"We do not need papers, except for the making of cartridges for our weapons, in which my soldiers believe in more than mere written papers. Come out now for the campaign, which we have discovered in it."

With this patriotic reaction from the restorers to the Flemish pamphlets, the Dutch government of Recife writes disappointed to the Netherlands:

"Even though they endure almost daily setbacks at sea and have a great need for clothing, meat, etc., and to live in a continual uproar, they have rejected the forgiveness that has been offered them."

It was the moral uprising of the restorers, resulting from religion and patriotism, as defined by D. Augusto Álvaro da Silva, Archbishop of Bahia and Primate of Brazil (Revista do Arquivo Público de Pernambuco, 1949).

"Religion and patriotism are two sister concepts, two correlative pulsations of the same heart. [...] Brother Concepts: that brings to mind the mountain of the beatitudes, this one, points the altar of holocausts, one promises and guarantees heaven, the other redeems and sanctifies the Fatherland. [...] Two correlate modes of pulsating the same heart: that is the strongest diastole of the natural irradiation of the human being, this is the most concentrated and decisive systole of freedom and honor of a people, one elevates to the infinite the prize of virtue, the other, conditions to the present the peace and happiness of the future."

Religion and patriotism are brother concepts, different ways of pulsating the same heart. The religious aspect, Roman Catholic apostolic, was a preponderant aggregating aspect of the unity of thought and action of the patriots. This feeling can be concluded from the Confessions of the Holy Office, in Pernambuco, from the end of the sixteenth century, to which we refer. In addition to defending the homeland against the invader, the patriots defended their God and saints threatened by Protestants.

The struggle in Brazil took on an aspect of prolonging the religious wars of Europe, culminating in the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). These strong arguments nullified the effects of the intense psychological warfare waged by the Dutch before leaving Recife to be beaten in the 1st Battle of Guararapes. The report Queiroz Siqueira thus referred to the morality of the patriots to the King, before stating their difficulties:

"What is not lacking to the inhabitants of Brazil is a great courage and courage, to immolate their lives in the service of God, Your Majesty and their Country, to which they are very willing and resolute."