Juan without showing the least discouragement, though his best officers had fallen, and all his stores were at the mercy of his victorious rival. He was retreating without haste to Mendoza, when he met a small reinforcement, and with this aid, little as it was, he conceived the possibility of a triumph, and determined to take immediate advantage of circumstances. Hastily returning, therefore, he attacked his unsuspecting conquerors, and after three days of vain resistance, took Acha himself prisoner, thus recovering all that he had lost, and winning as great renown as the battle of Angaco had given to his prisoner. When Madrid had been deprived of his vanguard, of the recruits which San Juan might have furnished, and of the chivalrous Acha,—a host within himself,—it was easy to strengthen the forces of Rosas under command of Pacheco. The battle of Rodeo del Medio was a corollary of the triumph at San Juan, and entirely owing to Benavides.
As to Aldao, his cowardly flight from the field of Angaco, had placed him in a humiliating position; all his former military fame seemed to have been transferred to Benavides, and in his own province he was regarded with open contempt. He made a journey to Buenos Ayres for the purpose of complaining to his master, and was rewarded by a magnificent reception. But this was followed by no attention from Rosas; he waited many months without obtaining an interview, and was then obliged to return to his own territory, which the army of Rosas had in the meantime despoiled of all implements of war. Henceforth Aldao had no other power than that obtained through Rodriguez and his band; this, however, was enough to enable him to
