Having served with distinction, by the end of the conflict Vargas had reached the rank of colonel and gained recognition as a war hero.

After the war he left the army and settled as a rancher (estancieiro) in São Borja, in the Argentine border, and in 1872 married Cândida Dornelles, member of a powerful local family.

[5] On the proclamation of the Republic in 1889, Vargas became the head of the Rio-grandense Republican Party (Partido Republicano Riograndense) in São Borja.

[3] In 1907 he was appointed municipal intendant (equivalent to modern mayor) of São Borja by state governor Borges de Medeiros, an office he held until 1911.

[7] Vargas died on 21 October 1943 at Guanabara Palace, his son Getúlio's official residence as president of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro.