A veteran of the Uruguayan and Paraguayan wars, in which he fought for the Imperial Brazilian Navy and received several commendations, later being made commander of the Upper Uruguay Flotilla, based in Itaqui.

Despite being welcomed as a hero by the population of Rio Grande do Sul, he was dismissed from service for participating in the incident, being moved to the reserve with the rank of frigate captain.

Afterward, he fought in the Paraguayan War, in which he was an officer in the ship Beberibe and commandeder of the Greenhalgh, serving with the Marquis of Tamandaré and participating in the Battle of Riachuelo and in the passages of Cuevas and Mercedes.

[5] In 1874, Pamphilo Manoel Freire de Carvalho, a doctor and lieutenant captain who came to help a Brazilian national in the neighboring Argentine city of Alvear, was attacked by two witchdoctors of Italian origin in front of the local police, who did not react.

[4] He was managing director of Companhia Norte Mineira, dedicated to colonization, agricultural industry and commerce in northern Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo and southern Bahia.

[15] On 12 June 1895, when he married Felicidade Perpétua Cardozo Pereira de Mello, niece of the Baron of São Marcos, the local population of Jaguarão held a soirée in which he was honored for "the noble and patriotic attitude he had taken in the Alvear Conflict".