Last of the Eighteen

Brazilian hearts beat faster last week at the news that Private Oscar Correa dos Santos had been awarded 17 years' back pay. For Oscar Correa dos Santos, as every patriotic Brazilian knows, is one of two remaining survivors of the heroic Dezoito do Forte (Eighteen of the Fort).

Early in the morning of July 5, 1922, a few hours after Brazilians had finished celebrating U. S. Independence Day (declared a holiday that year by President Epitacio Pessoa), the people of Rio de Janeiro were awakened by the boom of cannon, the rattle of machine guns, the noise of troops tramping through the streets. News spread that Fort Copacabana had revolted, was shelling Rio's other forts and the Ministry of War. Artillery Lieutenant Siqueira Campos became the first hero of the Revolution of 1922 by dropping a shell squarely into a wing of the Ministry of War, in the heart of the city, six miles from Copacabana.

The Revolution of 1922, first of a series of uprisings, lasted only a few hours. The rest of the Army remained loyal and Fort Copacabana was surrounded. After holding out for four hours, the commander of the Fort, whose name has long since been for gotten, decided to surrender. The Fort's flag was hauled down.

There were 17 men in the Fort who preferred death to surrender. Siqueira Campos grabbed the flag, tore it into 17 pieces. Each of the 17 pinned a strip of the flag to the breast of his tunic, and together they marched out. At the gate they were met by a man in a dark blue business suit, who said his name was Octavio Correa and who wanted to join the band. Siqueira Campos tore his strip of flag in two and gave half to Octavio Correa.

The Eighteen of the Fort marched the length of Copacabana's Avenida Atlantica to meet more than 2,000 loyal troops armed with machine guns and small cannon. The Eighteen took to the beach, dug trenches in the sand, made one of the bravest stands in the history of any army. One by one they were picked off--some killed outright, some desperately wounded. Octavio Correa was one of the first to die; his blue suit made him an easy mark.

Of the five in whom life still remained after the loyalists had stormed the trenches, two died in a hospital. President Epitacio Pessoa went to visit these two before they died. He praised them for their bravery, but lamented the fact that their cause had been unworthy of such sacrifice. Upon hearing this insult to his cause, one of the men, who had been wounded in the head by a bayonet, tore the bandages from his head and bled to death before he could be subdued.

The hero of the uprising, Siqueira Campos, had a street named after him in Copacabana and a ship, which last month was the subject of a diplomatic incident. He died in an airplane accident ten years ago. The two remaining survivors are Private Santos and Colonel Eduardo Gomes. Colonel Gomes is Chief of Military Aviation. He is expected soon to be named Secretary General of the Ministry of Aviation which President Getulio Vargas created last week.

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