Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre (13 June 1804 – 18 July 1875), nicknamed "the Gloved Centaur",[A] was an army officer, politician and abolitionist of the Empire of Brazil.

He played a decisive role in saving the provincial capital from the Ragamuffin rebels, allowing forces loyal to the legitimate government to secure a key foothold.

In the postwar years, Porto Alegre turned his attention to politics, retiring from his military career as a lieutenant general, the second-highest rank in the Imperial Army.

Owners of large landholdings such as Marques de Sousa's father and grandfather provided food, equipment and protection for themselves and families living in areas under their control.

[9] Marques de Sousa grew up in that hostile environment, and from a very young age he listened to war stories recounting the exploits of his relatives against Hispanic-American invaders.

[17][18] The young alferes was an apt choice for the task; he was well connected in the imperial capital (his uncle, married to a paternal aunt, was Minister of War),[19] cultured, and well educated.

Part of the army, led by Dom Álvaro de Macedo (later Count of Ilha da Madeira), entrenched itself in Montevideo and remained loyal to Portugal.

Following his return from the imperial capital, Marques de Sousa served under his father's command, taking part in the siege and later fighting in the successful Battle of Las Piedras on 18 May 1823.

For his acts of bravery during the ill-fated battle, he was promoted on 20 March to captain, and, on 16 August, he was assigned as adjutant to the now Viscount of Laguna, commander-in-chief of Brazilian land forces in the conflict.

Marques de Sousa was sent to Montevideo to serve under field marshal (present-day divisional general) Manuel Jorge Rodrigues, who commanded a Brazilian force temporarily stationed in the new country.

[28][29] Marques de Sousa was taken prisoner and removed to Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, which had been under rebel control since the beginning of the conflict.

During his imprisonment, with the aid of the people of Porto Alegre,[30] he managed to convince some of the rebel soldiers to switch sides, taking control of the entire town during the early hours of 15 June and arresting the remaining Ragamuffins.

[32] The long, strenuous walk from Pelotas to Porto Alegre and the hardships endured in the presiganga ruined Marques de Sousa's health, and he was afflicted with articular rheumatism for the rest of his life.

[38][39] The course of the conflict took a radical turn when the central government charged Luís Alves de Lima e Silva (then Count and later Duke of Caxias) with putting an end to the rebellion in late 1842.

[51] The government in Rio de Janeiro had prepared against the threat and formed an anti-Rosas alliance consisting of Brazil, Uruguay and dissident Argentine provinces.

[53][54] On 17 November, while the army was camped in the village of Santa Lucía near the Uruguayan capital, Marques de Sousa was promoted to a higher command, the 1st division.

The only person among the allies with whom he shared his thoughts, and guardedly at that, was Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (later president of Argentina): "We [Brazilians] form in here a separate group; we do not talk to anyone; no one approaches us and we could say that we walk among enemies.

[59][60] Soon after, on 24 September, the Baron of Porto Alegre was removed from that post and made comandante das armas (military commander) of Rio Grande do Sul, a position he held until he requested to be relieved on 5 March 1853.

[74] The Baron of Porto Alegre offered to return to active duty, and on 21 July 1865, the government gave him command of the Brazilian land forces in Rio Grande do Sul.

On 2 September, Flores suggested an immediate attack on Uruguaiana, an option rejected by Porto Alegre and Joaquim Marques Lisboa (then Viscount and later Marquis of Tamandaré), the commander-in-chief of the Brazilian navy.

As a result of a suggestion by Tamandaré—though Mitre had not issued orders for the move—Porto Alegre boarded his army onto Brazilian ships and instead brought them up to the positions occupied by the other allied troops.

[85] Nor was the situation among the allied forces improved once Porto Alegre and Tamandaré found common ground in their distaste for the Brazilian commander of the 1st Corps, Field Marshal Polidoro Quintanilha Jordão (later the Viscount of Santa Teresa).

[B] Tamandaré was replaced by Caxias' fellow Conservative Chief of Fleet Joaquim José Inácio (later the Viscount of Inhaúma), but Porto Alegre was kept on as head of the 2nd Corps.

[102] Around the same time, the count focused on two other projects: the first grew out of his longstanding interest in promoting literature and sciences, and the second, more ambitious aim was to fight for the gradual abolition of slavery.

When in 1867 Pedro II openly asked for the gradual eradication of slavery in his Speech from the Throne, Porto Alegre was one of the few individuals who supported him, sending him a letter of congratulation.

[103] On 18 June 1869, the Partenon Literário (Literary Parthenon), a spiritual successor to the Historic and Geographic Institute of the Province of São Pedro, was created and Porto Alegre was made an honorary member.

[108] He spent his time either attending Parliament or in the house of his sister Joaquina Marques de Sousa, who had married a member of the influential Carneiro Leão clan.

[111] Among the men who carried his coffin in the imperial capital were Caxias, Rio Branco, Tamandaré and Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, Viscount of Mauá.

The celebration was accompanied by popular joy and an artillery salute, and was attended by Dona Isabel, daughter and heiress of Pedro II, and her husband Prince Gaston, Count of Eu.

[118][119] In the late 1890s, historian Afredo Ferreira Rodrigues lamented that it was the "testimony of one day's passing gratitude and of the indifference, of the abandonment, of the ingratitude, in which we [Brazilians], a people without civic education, know how to prize the services of the great men of the past.