Pedro Ríos (1798–1811), better known as the Tambor de Tacuarí (Drummer boy of Tacuarí in English) was a boy soldier who participated as a

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Manuel Belgrano Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano (3 June 1770 – 20 June 1820), usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano (), was an Argentina, Argentine public servant, economist, lawyer, politician, journalist, and military leader. He to ...

's expedition to Paraguay (1810–11). He was killed in action while encouraging the troops at the

battle of Tacuarí The Battle of Tacuarí (9 March 1811) was a battle in Southern Paraguay between revolutionary forces under the command of General Manuel Belgrano, member of the Primera Junta government of United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Argentina, a ...

, where he also assisted a blinded officer. The drummer of Tacuarí became an iconic figure of the

Argentine War of Independence The Argentine War of Independence () was a secessionist civil war (until 1816) fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine patriotic forces under Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli, Martín Miguel de Güemes, Martin Miguel de Guemes and José de ...

Early life

Ríos was born in Yaguareté-Corá (today known as Concepcion, in

Corrientes Province Corrientes (, ‘currents’ or ‘streams’; ), officially the Province of Corrientes (; ) is a Provinces of Argentina, province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia, Argentina, Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by (from the north, cl ...

), the son of an aging rural teacher. On 25 November 1810, Belgrano's troops arrived in Yaguareté-Corá. Ríos, then a 12-year old boy, offered his services to Belgrano, who denied the request. It was after the intervention of Ríos father, Antonio, that the general accepted the boy in the ranks of his army. He was assigned to the company of Mayor Celestino Vidal, a blinded officer, in order to become Vidal's guide.

Expedition to Paraguay

The first time that Ríos saw action in Paraguay was during the

battle of Paraguarí The battle of Paraguarí took place on January 19, 1811, in Paraguarí, Paraguay, between the patriot army led by Manuel Belgrano and the Royalist army located in Paraguay led by Bernardo de Velasco. The battle would end with a Paraguayan vi ...

, in January 1811, where Belgrano's troops were routed. The boy Ríos was in charge of the artillery wagons and also help the wounded in the field hospital, but later in the engagement he guided the march of the soldiers as a drummer, ignoring the risks of being exposed to enemy fire in the first line of battle. In the battle of Tacuarí, on 9 March 1811, Ríos assisted his blinded mayor, leading in the meantime the company's troops with his drumbeat. He was eventually hit by two bullets in the chest and fell. Mayor Vidal, feeling that the drummer was wounded, attempted to save him, but to no avail. Vidal claimed that he owed his own life to Ríos, who received the shots that were actually aimed to him.

Iconic figure of Argentine independence

In his late years, Manuel Belgrano recalled the death of the Drummer of Tacuarí as one of his most poignant memories. In 1912, Argentina's National Council of Education established that the drummer must be remembered in the anniversary of the battle in all elementary schools as an example of gallantry and self-denial. A 1909 poem composed by Rafael Obligado commemorates the drummer boy's deeds. There are monuments to the drummer both at the

Colegio Militar de la Nación The National Military College () is the institution in charge of the undergraduate education of officers of the Argentine Army. It is located at El Palomar, Buenos Aires. Established on October 11, 1869, by President Domingo Sarmiento at the he ...

and at his native city of Concepción.

Revisionism

Historian Daniel Balmaceda put in question the very existence of the drummer boy, arguing that the children is not present in the battle reports and that the first mention to the drummer of Tacuarí is found 45 years after the Paraguayan campaign, and depicted shortly after in a painting with a 50-year-old blind man; however, Vidal was nearly 21 years old when the battle took place.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drummer boy of Tacuarí 1798 births 1811 deaths Argentine drummers Argentine military personnel killed in the Argentine War of Independence Cultural depictions of Argentine people People from Corrientes Province