Rosas's government tried to stop the practice by declaring the Argentine rivers closed to foreign shipping and barring access to Paraguay and other ports in the process.

The British and the French governments did not acknowledge that declaration and decided to defy Rosas by sailing upstream with a joint fleet, which set the stage for the battle.

[9] The main Argentine redoubt was located on a cliff rising between 30 and 180 m over the banks at Vuelta de Obligado, where the river was 700 m wide, and a turn made navigation difficult.

[10] Argentine General Lucio N. Mansilla, the commander of the confederation forces, and Rosas's brother-in-law, set up three thick metal chains suspended from 24 boats completely across the river, to prevent the advance of the allied fleet.

There were also 2,000 men in trenches under the command of Colonel Ramón Rodríguez, together with the brigantine Republicano and two small gunboats, Restaurador and Lagos,[13][8] with the mission of guarding the chains across the river.

[12][15] The third gunboat and the armed barges also survived the action, but the dismantled brigantine Vigilante was scuttled by its crew, and the remaining launches were destroyed by the combined fleet on 28 November.

[8][14] Meanwhile, 40 km to the north, a small Argentine naval force composed of the sloop Chacabuco, the gunboats Carmen, Arroyo Grande, Apremio, and Buena Vista kept watch over a secondary branch of the Paraná whose control gives full access to the ports of Entre Ríos.

They acknowledged Argentina's legal right over the Paraná and other internal rivers and its authority to determine who had access to it in exchange for the withdrawal of Rosas's army from Uruguay.

[22] The Paris Métro had a station named Obligado for this battle until 1947, when it was renamed Argentine as a goodwill gesture after the visit of Eva Perón to France that year.

The General José de San Martín (1778–1850) expressed from his exile in France to his friend Tomás Guido:I already knew about Obligado's action; what an inequity!

To such a course of action we have no other choice but not to look to the future and to fulfil our duty as free men, whatever fate may be in store for us, which in my intimate conviction would not be for a moment doubtful in our favour if all Argentines were persuaded of the dishonour that will befall our homeland if the European nations triumph in this contest, which in my opinion is as important as that of our emancipation from Spain.This battle – despite being a tactical defeat – resulted in a diplomatic victory for the Argentine Confederation, due to the high cost of the operation.