He was born in
Weinheim, in the
Electorate of the Palatinate, a territory that is now part of
Baden-Württemberg,
Germany. Rauch gained military experience in the
Prussian Army under the command of Field Marshal
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, who played a decisive role in the defeat of
Napoleon at the
Battle of Waterloo. After Napoleon’s fall, Rauch emigrated to the Río de la Plata region. Federico Rauch arrived in the
United Provinces of the Río de la Plata on 23 March 1819 and immediately joined the army with the rank of
Second lieutenant, by commission signed by the
Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata,
Juan Martín de Pueyrredón. He was later promoted to
captain on 7 September 1820 and to
major on 13 June 1821. Upon his promotion to major, he was transferred to the Húsares de Buenos Aires regiment, where he remained for the rest of his military career and eventually attained the rank of colonel at the age of 33. Rauch’s campaigns against Indigenous peoples formed part of the earlier frontier conflicts that preceded the later
Conquest of the Desert in the late nineteenth century, which was carried out under
Adolfo Alsina and
Julio Argentino Roca. On 4 August 1827, Rauch married Narcisa Pérez Millán at the San José de los Arrecifes parish church. == References ==