On the morning of December 6, 1868, Marshal of the Brazilian Army, Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Marquis (later Duke) of Caxias, moved with 13,000 men in two columns to take Villeta, a Paraguayan city, as a plan to make further attacks on the Paraguayan Army rear. Nevertheless, Paraguayan president and commander-in-chief of the army Francisco Solano López was aware of the landing the Allies had made in the rear of his army.