[2] During his administration, his government minister Marco Avellaneda started a movement to overthrow the regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas.
In response, Rosas commissioned General Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid to withdraw arms from Tucumán that remained from the war against the Bolivia-Peru confederacy.
[5] Lamadrid, who was appointed head of the rebel troops, took the city of Córdoba and waited there to be joined by Brigadier Juan Lavalle.
But General Manuel Oribe, who had left Buenos Aires with 10,000 troops, reached Lavalle on 28 November 1840 and defeated him in the Battle of Quebracho Herrado, virtually destroying his army.
[3] At this critical period, on 1 December 1840 the Tucumán House of Representatives accepted Piedrabuena's resignation as Governor and appointed Pedro de Garmendia in his place.