Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre

Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre , nicknamed the Gloved Centaur, was an army officer, politician, abolitionist and monarchist of the Empire of Brazil. Born into a wealthy family of military background, Porto Alegre joined the army in 1817 when he was little more than a child. His military initiation occurred in the conquest of the Banda Oriental , which was annexed and became the southernmost Brazilian province of Cisplatina in 1821. For most of the 1820s, he was embroiled in the Brazilian effort to keep Cisplatina as part of its territory first during the struggle for Brazilian independence and then in the Cisplatine War. It would ultimately prove a futile attempt, as Cisplatina successfully separated from Brazil to become the independent nation of Uruguay in 1828.

Manuel Marques de Sousa was born onJune 1804 in Rio Grande. The town was located in Rio Grande do Sul, a southern captaincy of Brazil, then part of the Portuguese Colonial Empire. His parents were Manuel Marques de Sousa and Senhorinha Incia da Silveira. He had four younger siblings two sisters and two brothers. An archetypal leading family of Rio Grande do Sul, Marques de Sousas Portuguesedescended family was wealthy and influential, owning ranches and huge cattle herds. His father and his paternal grandfather, both also named Manuel Marques de Sousa, were seasoned soldiers who took part in the colonial wars. His grandfather, the elder Marques de Sousa, was the wealthiest person in Rio Grande do Sul.

Source: Wikipedia