Events that Occurred During the Paraguayan War which Involved Pará-class Monitors
Napoleão João Baptista Level, who was assisted by Carlos Braconnot and Henrique Antonio Baptista, oversaw the construction of six monitors of the Pará-class during the Paraguayan War. Pará , Rio Grande , Alagoas , Piauby , Ceará and Santa Catharina were built at the Arsenal do Marinha de Rio de Janeiro. Level designed the monitors, which were constructed between the December of 1866 and the March of 1868, to operate on the system of waterways that connected with the Río de la Plata. Pará , Rio Grande and Alagoas were the first members of their class to join the Brazilian Squadron on the Paraguay River. The trio, which arrived at Curuzú between the December of 1867 and the February of 1868, joined the ironclad division at Port Elizario after they forced the battery of Curupayty. Commodore Francisco Cordeiro Torres Alvim commanded the First Division at Curuzú while the Second Division at Port Elizario, which was supplied by a tramway that ran through the Chaco, was commanded by Rear-a