of Estigarribia, were limited to camp near the city without being attacked by the Paraguayans. On August 2 Duarte occupied the village of San José de Restauración, now the town of Paso de los Libres. A week later he advanced and was defeated, suffering 20 casualties in the Battle of Capí Quisé. Given the news that all enemy forces were in his pursuit, Duarte sought help from his superior, general Estigarribia, who answered: Insulted, Duarte was prepared to give battle without any help. On August 13 Paunero avoided the army of Duarte and joined Flores, whose forces then numbered 12,000 men, nearly four times the force of Duarte. Duarte moved away from Paso de los Libres and took positions on the banks of the Yatay stream, near the village. There was a brief encounter on the afternoon of August 16, and at dusk the two armies were facing each other from half a mile off. Battle Both the Yatay and Uruguay rivers had recently flooded, leaving much of the battlefield underwater. Most Paraguayan infantry forces were entrenched among trees and ditches in the area of the nearby village estates and protected by mud that protected them from frontal approaches, but the stream behind them made it impossible to retreat in case of a defeat, which was considered very likely by Duarte. Duarte's forces consisted of 1,980 infantry and 1,020 cavalry, with no artillery. The Allies had a total of 5,550 infantry, 5,000 cavalry and 32 pieces of artillery. Among the leaders of the allied army were experienced commanders such as Flores and Paunero, León de Pallejas, Ignacio Rivas, Enrique Castro and José Gregorio Suárez and Argentines Juan Bautista Charlone, José Miguel Arredondo, José Giribone Ignacio Segovia, Joaquin Viejobueno, Leopoldo Nelson, Simón Paiva and Madariaga. The battle began at 10:00 am, with an early attack on the Paraguayan positions by the infantry division commanded by León de Pallejas. Duarte seized the opportunity and counterattacked with almost all his cavalry, causing hundreds of casualties and forcing them to retreat. Faced with an increasingly bad situation, the cavalry division of Segovia attacked the Paraguayan cavalry, supported by Castro's eastern and Suárez. For two hours the battle was fought exclusively with cavalry. Duarte ordered a withdrawal maneuver, which finally enabled the allied infantry to go into action, and although their (the allies) numerical superiority was overwhelming, the Paraguayans fought with tenacity. When the battle