Political disputes confronted him with Bolívar and cost him time in prison, which is why he decided to return to the Río de la Plata where his mentor, Bernardino Rivadavia, was president of the Argentines. The young republic had promised to reconquer the Banda Oriental, seized ten years earlier by the Portuguese.
Brandsen was placed in command of the 1st Cavalry Regiment. His experience and prestige among the comrades soon made him a consulting officer. The differences with the general in chief Carlos Maria de Alvear they did not take long to appear, as Brandsen himself recorded in the diary he kept throughout the entire campaign against Brazil. However, Brandsen tried to calm down the hotheaded officers who wanted to replace Alvear. He well knew that an army dominated by anarchy behind enemy lines was easy fodder for beasts.
The republican and imperial armies met on the banks of the Passo do Rosario (as the Brazilians know this battle) in a place called Ituzaingó.
Before the final battle, Alvear explained his tactics. The weight of the combat fell on Brandsen’s regiment, who had to lead it in a frontal attack against the core of the Brazilian infantry that included two thousand mercenaries brought from Europe. The cavalry had to cross a ravine, a difficult obstacle to overcome, which made this attack an almost suicidal act. This is what the Frenchman told Alvear who, with the arrogance that characterized him, replied “When Napoleon gave you an order, you did not argue with it.”
Brandsen looked out over the battlefield, the grasslands already burning with brush fire, the canyon, the troops lined up waiting for his orders, the horses stumbling.… The sun beat down that month of February casting an almost unreal light on the plain. That was his day to die after twenty years of struggles that had taken him from the German hills to the top of the Andes, passing through the city of viceroys from his native Paris.
Brandsen bowed his head and addressed his regiment in the medal-studded uniform of the French army. Formed the troop, he gave the order to advance. It was then that he realized that Alvear was following in his footsteps. Brandsen reined in his horse and faced him: “General, it offends me…” Alvear doubted that he would carry out his orders, but the colonel was there, leading his men.
The horn called for throat-cutting and Brandsen charged at the head of his regiment. Just as he had said, his body fell into the ditch along with the soldiers who followed him in this suicidal charge. Lavalle, Paz and Soler took the initiative and charged against the Imperials, while Iriarte harassed the enemy with artillery. Seeing themselves outmatched, the Brazilians left the battlefield. The Argentines and Orientals had won at Ituzaingó.
Hours later his comrades recognized Brandsen’s body lying naked where he had fallen. Enemies had plundered the colonel’s uniform. A short distance away was the body of Ignacio, Lavalle’s younger brother.
Aware of his death in Buenos Aires, Rivadavia ordered that both Brandsen and Commander Manuel Besares, also killed in action, always dress as “present” in their respective bodies.
A year later, at the request of his wife, the colonel’s body was recovered from the battlefield and transferred to Buenos Aires, where he was buried in the Recoleta cemetery, under a work by the sculptor Camilo Romairone (author of many of the busts of the presidents in the Casa Rosada), commissioned by Torcuato de Alvearthen mayor of Buenos Aires.
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Brandsen’s remains lie a few meters from General Alvear, who issued the order that condemned him to die early, honoring the words of the hymn that they sang so many times “Crowned with glory let us live, or let us swear with glory to die.”
Source: Ambito
