Pressured, the Federal government sent a new expedition under General Arthur Oscar de Andrade Guimarães, assisted by four other generals, and with the direct involvement of Carlos Machado de Bittencourt, the Minister of War, who went with his entire staff to Monte Santo, the nearby city which had served as the gathering point for the army and where the large military force was being assembled. Machine guns and large artillery pieces, such as mortars and howitzers, including a powerful Whitworth 32 (nicknamed Matadeira (Killer)) went with the 3,000-man force, and had to be hauled with enormous effort through the unforgiving roadless landscape.
