March 24, 2004
Dear Editor:
I must admit to feeling a little puzzled when I read Charles J. Esdaile’s review of my book, The Paraguayan War, vol. 1, Causes and Early Conduct (HAHR 84, no. 2, pp. 374–75). Simply put, the study he describes is not the one I wrote. First, as the subtitle indicates, my work covers the causes of the Paraguayan conflict and the first 12 months of actual combat. It does not address the great battles of Tuyutí and Curupayty, the long siege at Humaitá, the death of Francisco Solano López, and the demographic disaster that overwhelmed his country. The proper place for these topics will be in volume 2, which I am now writing. Knowing this, Esdaile still focuses on the number of Allied casualties at Curupayty and the stubborn defense of Humaitá by a shrinking garrison of starving men in 1867. He thus...
