The History of Cuba, vol. 4Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
The History of Cuba, vol. 4
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Cuba -- Economic conditions; Cuba -- History
The war was on. Marti and his comrades had planned to have a
simultaneous uprising in all six provinces on February 24. In each a
leader was appointed, an organization was formed, and such supplies as
could be obtained were provided. But in only three provinces did an
actual insurrection occur. These were Oriente, or Santiago as it was
then called, Santa Clara, and Matanzas; the extreme eastern and the two
central provinces. In Oriente uprisings occurred at two points, under
Henry Brooks at Guantanamo, and at Los Negros under Guillermon Moncada.
In Matanzas there were also two uprisings; one at Aguacate, on the
Havana borderline, under Manuel Garcia, and one at Ybarra. In Santa
Clara the chief demonstration was near Cienfuegos, under General
Matagas. The uprising in Havana was to have been under the leadership of
Julio Sanguilly, but in some way never satisfactorily explained he was
betrayed and arrested and the outbreak did not occur. There were not a
few who at first suspected and even charged that Sanguilly himself had
betrayed the cause, for Spanish money, but his sentence to life
imprisonment by the Spanish authorities seemed abundantly to disprove
this charge.
The insurgents naturally made most headway at first in Oriente. There
were fewer Spanish troops in that province and there were more mountain
fastnesses for refuge in case of enforced retreat, than in the more
densely settled and populated central provinces. We have already seen
that a numerous company of patriots marched from Baire to Santiago to
present to the Spanish commander there, General Jose Lachambre, their
demands for the independence of Cuba. That officer of course rejected
their demands, and on their retirement sent Colonel Perico Perez after
them with 500 troops, to capture or disperse them. But Perez and his men
did neither. Instead, they joined the insurgents under Henry Brooks, and
were among the foremost to do effective work against the Spaniards. Maso
Parra recruited a strong band near Manzanillo, but instead of fighting
there proceeded to Havana Province, accompanied by Enrique Cespedes and
Amador Guerra, in hope of raising the standard of revolution where
Sanguilly had failed. The Spanish forces were so strong there, however,
as to overawe most of the Cubans, or at any rate to make it seem more
expedient to put forward their chief efforts in other places. In
Matanzas the earliest engagements were fought by troops under Antonio
Lopez Coloma and Juan Gualberto Gomez, with indifferent results. Another
sharp conflict occurred at Jaguey Grande, and there were yet others at
Vequita; at Sevilla, where the patriots defeated 1,500 Spanish regulars
commanded by General Lachambre; at Ulloa, at Baire, and at Los Negros. A
belated uprising in Pinar del Rio under General Azcuy came speedily to
grief, as did another near Holguin. By the early days of March the
entire movement seemed to have subsided save in the southern parts of
Oriente.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account