Battle of Ceja del Negro | |||||||
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Part of Cuban War of Independence | |||||||
The main cavalry charge during the battle | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Cuban rebels | Spain | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Antonio Maceo [2] Juan Rius Rivera Vidal Ducasse | Colonel Granados | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1,000 Mambises [3] | 2,000 Infantry [4] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | Around 500 [1] |
The Battle of Ceja del Negro was a battle of the Cuban War of Independence that took place on October 4, 1896. During the battle, the forces of all three different land armies participated: infantry, cavalry and artillery. The Cuban troops were commanded by Major Generals Antonio Maceo and Juan Rius Rivera, while the Spanish troops were led by Colonel Granados.
The Cuban troops were lagging behind as a result of a large number of civilians that they carried with them. [3] The fighting began around eight in the morning and lasts until around five in the afternoon when Maceo's troops are dedicated to harassing the last Spanish strongholds with the most notable stronghold being one known as El Guao, in one of the foothills of the hill known as Ceja del Negro. [1]
The Spanish forces, far superior in number and military power, did not manage to win the battle, but Colonel Granados bombarded the river pass with artillery, where the Cubans were passing, causing large numbers of casualties, especially among the civilian population with the elderly being the most affected. [3]
The victory of General Maceo in Ceja del Negro caused the Captain General of the island, Valeriano Weyler, to hasten his plans for reconcentration against the Cuban civilian population, in order to defeat the pro-independence troops, depriving them of the vital support of the peasants. [4]
The Battle of Boyacá (1819), also known as the Battle of Boyacá Bridge was a decisive victory by a combined army of Venezuelan and New Granadan troops along with a British Legion led by General Simon Bolivar over the III Division of the Spanish Expeditionary Army of Costa Firme commanded by Spanish Colonel José Barreiro. This victory ensured the success of Bolívar's campaign to liberate New Granada. The battle of Boyaca is considered the beginning of the independence of the north of South America, and is considered important because it led to the victories of the battle of Carabobo in Venezuela, Pichincha in Ecuador, and Junín and Ayacucho in Peru. New Granada acquired its definitive independence from the Spanish Monarchy, although fighting with royalist forces would continue for years.
Lt. General José Antonio de la Caridad Maceo y Grajales was a Cuban general and second-in-command of the Cuban Army of Independence.
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The Cuban War of Independence, also known in Cuba as The Necessary War, fought from 1895 to 1898, was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Little War (1879–1880). The final three months of the conflict escalated to become the Spanish–American War, with United States forces being deployed in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands against Spain. Historians disagree as to the extent that United States officials were motivated to intervene for humanitarian reasons but agree that yellow journalism exaggerated atrocities attributed to Spanish forces against Cuban civilians.
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The Cuban Liberation Army, colloquially known as the Mambí Army was an insurgent army which was formed in the last third of the 19th century and fought for independence from Spain and the abolition of slavery. It first saw combat in the Ten Years' War (1868-1878) under the command of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Ignacio Agramonte, and Carlos Roloff. The independentists were decentralized and operated within their own regions autonomously of each other, until the Assembly of Guáimaro established the Republic-in-Arms of Cuba and the Liberation Army's command structure. After the Pact of Zanjón, a brief uprising called the Little War saw Major-Generals Calixto García and Antonio Maceo lead the Army of Liberation in another attempt at independence and the abolition of slavery, though unsuccessfully. Finally, during the War of Independence, the Liberation Army was once again organized to fight against the Spanish colonial government. The Liberation Army would reach its highest count of active members in the Spanish-American War, when an imminent Cuban-American victory caused hitherto anti-independence elites to join the Liberation Army. These recruits were nicknamed "Sunflowers" because they "point to where the sun is shining".