Julio Argentino Roca devises a "tentacle" move,…
1878 CE
Julio Argentino Roca devises a "tentacle" move, with waves of six thousand man-cavalry units stemming coordinately from Mendoza, Córdoba, Santa Fé and Buenos Aires on July 1878.
At the end of 1878 he starts the first sweep to "clean" the area between the Alsina trench and the Negro river by continuous and systematic attacks to the Indian settlements.
Elements of the Puán Division under Colonel Teodoro García clash with a war party at the Lihué Calel heights on December 6.
In a brief but hard fought battle, fifty natives are killed, two hundred and seventy are captured, and thirty-three settlers are freed.
Numerous armed encounters follow.