The battle was fought on November 7, 1808, at Palo Hincado savanna, near El Seibo in the colony of Santo Domingo. A force of 1,800 pro-Spanish Dominican troops, led by General Juan Sánchez Ramírez, defeated a force of 500 troops of French Army of Napoleon, led by Governor General Jean-Louis Ferrand.[2]
They were backed by the Spanish Royal Governor of colonial Puerto Rico, General Toribio Montes. Ramírez sent a letter via a Spanish ship anchored in Samana on September 17 to Governor Montes. On November 28 the Spanish schooner "Monserrate" arrived in Puerto Rico from Macao with the news that the supply aid requested by Ramírez would soon reach Montes.
With this encouragement General Ramírez redoubled efforts—while French Governor General Ferrand was preparing to quell the impending rebellion. It was easy for Ramírez take possession of the town of El Seibo on Oct. 26, 1808.
With their positions quickly forming, twenty nine soldiers, including General Ramírez, reached the port at the mouth of the river at Boca de Yuma to receive the military aid sent from Puerto Rico by Governor Montes. The war materials had been shipped in a brig and a schooner—and consisted of a gunboat, four rifles with bayonets, a hundred sabers, and corresponding ammunition. In addition, two hundred volunteers arrived, mostly Creole emigrants. The brig, named "Frederick", and the schooner, named "Render", then left the Port of Higuey to return to Puerto Rico.
At that time, General Ramírez received the news that Governor General Ferrand was directed towards El Seibo with a respectable force, and determined to master the revolt. The timing was bad for the revolutionaries. He urged taking the French garrison at Samaná (Sabana de la Mar) for making a stronghold, because without the possession of this port the Reconquista forces could fail. Ramírez took note of the presence of allied British warships off the Santo Domingo coastline, and dispatched a messenger to Charles Dashwood who was commanding the frigate HMS Franchise. Dashwood agreed to attack the French garrison at Samaná, and informed Ramírez that he could count on the cooperation of the Commander of Arms for Samaná, Diego de Lira, who had become committed to the Reconquista cause.
Of those who landed in Boca de Yuma/Port of Higuey from Puerto Rico, the only true military leader among them was Lieutenant Francisco Diaz. He joined the forces of General Ramírez. As one of the few reconquistadores that had knowledge of war tactics, Ramírez was entrusted to direct the transfer of weapons and baggage to El Seibo from the port. Then Diaz was in charge of organizing the conflict's meeting site, the enlistment of weapons, and choosing the most advantageous position to wait out the approaching enemy. After a study of the whole area, Diaz chose the site of Magarín.
On the morning of November 3, Lieutenant Diaz began organizing and distributing arms and ammunition to his forces at the Port of Higuey in Boca de Yuma. Very early the troops gathered in front of the Shrine of Our Lady of Altagracia and heard mass. After the ceremony they received the news that Governor Ferrand and the French were very close to El Seibo. General Ramírez gave the order to march westward to meet the enemy.
November 5 dawned on Lieutenant Diaz in El Seibo. Here he continued organizing and incorporating the new volunteers into his Spanish 'makeshift army.' The preparation and distribution of arms and ammunition was also in charge of Lieutenant Diaz.
That night General Ramírez had "a terrible vision of French Governor General Ferrand's emissary", who it was announced that the battle would go overwhelmingly in favor of the French in El Seibo on the 7th. Through Ferrand's envisioned emissary, Ramirez 'replied,' letting him know his forces were prepared to measure their strength against the French. "To the emissary of Napoleon's forces these intentions sounded like a bluff, and the envisioned Ferrand could not help but smile."
The weapons and tactical superiority of the French forces looked to easily beat the Spanish, who were untrained and poorly armed. Ferrand ignored the real warnings that Ramírez's forces were not to be underestimated, especially in their deft handling of the knife, and happily prepared to give battle.
Battle of Palo Hincado
On November 6, General Ramírez and the troops moved up to the strategic position of Magarín, well chosen by Lieutenant Díaz. Here a temporary hut held the few tough firearms and ammunition at their disposal. The site at Palo Hincado savanna was half a league west of the town of El Seibo. General Ramírez issued orders to wait for the enemy advance.
Lieutenant Díaz resolved to take on preparatory measures himself on the night of November 6, before the morning date announced by Governor General Ferrand for French entry into El Seibo. The rain did not stop during the night, with adverse consequences. In the early morning of November 7, it cleared however. General Ramírez and Lieutenant Díaz provided guns with dry amunicionar ammunition and bayonets, for the foot and horsemen troops. They were all reconquistadores ready "to fight with fury and rage Napoleon's infesting the 'Prime of the Indies' for the infamy of the Spanish Crown."
The reconquistadores reached Palo Hincado between nine and ten o'clock. Lieutenant Francisco Díaz was in position at the top of the savanna, in front of the nearly three hundred soldiers carrying rifles. Located in the center of his army, on the eminence above, General Ramírez distributing orders to his troops. He placed on his right Manuel Carvajal, and his left Pedro Vásquez. Miguel Febles served as adjutant. The "Milicias Españolas" (Spanish Army) was under the command of Capt Tomás Ramírez Carvajal.
From the eminence above General Ramírez gave a speech to the troops. He warned that their action would be decisive, since coming to the front of the French enemy with their governor's cream of the forces at his disposal, whose defeat would mean the triumph of the Reconquista campaign. Ramírez recommended assault with their knives after the first shot was spent, to avoid the response of the best tactical rifle the French used. He ended the speech announcing that he ordered the death penalty, to shoot any retreating Spanish soldier, even himself. In this way everyone was forced to realize that it was better to die fighting than by being dishonorably shot. His final exclamation was "long live Fernando VII, a Prince personified in those moments the best Spanish hopes."
The General's speech was followed by tense moments of silence and attention. The French advanced and opened fire at about noon. A Gallic horse line pounced left to cut the Spanish forces off. Riders led by Captain Antonio Sosa wasted no time and ran to meet them, forcing the attackers to pull in the flanges.
Among many other provisions, José de la Rosa was to ambush thirty riflemen at the rear of the enemy to distract attention after the fire broke out front. De la Rosa was one of those who came to Boca de Yuma on October 29 from Puerto Rico. The first shock was bloody melee.
General Ramírez gave the cavalry of his right wing, led by Captain Vicente Mercedes, the order to advance, an operation that was executed very quickly, overwhelming the French enemy. Ten minutes of fighting enough for the field covered with corpses remain.
The tactic of Spanish forces was to quickly capture the distance of duel shot in combat. They executed with such alacrity and boldness that they lost only seven, while the French casualties were heavy.
Among the Spanish who died were the two cavalry units leaders, Cpt. Antonio Sosa and Cpt. Vicente Mercedes. They are both buried in El Seibo.
The Battle of Palo Hincado concluded on November 7, 1808—with a Spanish victory over the Napoleonic French.
Aftermath
With the displayed waste of their battalions, French Governor General Ferrand ordered a hasty return to the city of Santo Domingo with a group of surviving officers. They were chased by a squadron commanded by Spanish Colonel Pedro Santana, namesake of the future leader of the Republic. The French escaped by crossing a torrential river, that the squadron was unable to follow. The French stopped to rest in Glen Guaiquía. Meanwhile, it was here the unhappy Governor Ferrand, dominated by depression, took his own life with a pistol shot to the head.
The Assembly of Bondillo ("La Junta de Bondillo), presided by commander of Santiago de los Caballeros and Cibao troops Capt. Don Diego Polanco, was formed to appoint as acting governor Sanchez Ramirez and to recognize King Ferdinand VII as sovereign of the colony conquered.
Symbolism
"This became the third major war event symbolizing "the triumph of Dominican will." The first had been the siege in 1655, and the second had been the Battle of the Sabana Real in 1691."[3]
El Seibo, alternatively spelt El Seybo, is a province of the Dominican Republic. Before 1992 it included what is now Hato Mayor province.
Samaná is a province of the Dominican Republic in the Samaná Peninsula located in the eastern region. Its capital is Santa Bárbara de Samaná, usually known as Samaná.
Higüey, or in full Salvaleón de Higüey, is the capital city of the eastern La Altagracia Province, in the Dominican Republic, and has 415,084 inhabitants, according to the 2022 census. The Yuma River flows through the urban areas of Higüey.
Pedro Santana y Familias, 1st Marquess of Las Carreras was a military commander and royalist politician who served as the president of the junta that had established the First Dominican Republic, a precursor to the position of the President of the Dominican Republic, and as the first President of the republic in the modern line of succession. A traditional royalist who was fond of the Monarchy of Spain and the Spanish Empire, he ruled as a governor-general, but effectively as an authoritarian dictator. During his life he enjoyed the title of "Libertador de la Patria." Aside from Juan Sánchez Ramírez, he was the only other Dominican head of state to serve as a governor to Santo Domingo.
The Dominican Restoration War or the Dominican War of Restoration was a guerrilla war between 1863 and 1865 in the Dominican Republic between nationalists and Spain, the latter of which had recolonized the country 17 years after its independence. The war resulted in the restoration of Dominican sovereignty, the withdrawal of Spanish forces, the separation of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo from Spain, and the establishment of a second republic in the Dominican Republic.
Boca de Yuma is a town of La Altagracia province in the eastern region of Dominican Republic. It is situated west of the mouth of the Yuma River, near the Caribbean Sea. The word Yuma is an indigenous Taíno name.
Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo was the war for Spanish reestablishment in Santo Domingo, or better known as the Reconquista, and was fought between November 7, 1808, and July 9, 1809. In 1808, following Napoleon's invasion of Spain, the criollos of Santo Domingo revolted against French rule, which caught the attention of British forces, who were engaging in other campaigns in the Caribbean. The struggle culminated in 1809 with a return to the Spanish colonial rule for a period commonly termed España Boba.
The Haitian occupation of Santo Domingo was the annexation and merger of then-independent Republic of Spanish Haiti into the Republic of Haiti, that lasted twenty-two years, from February 9, 1822, to February 27, 1844. The part of Hispaniola under Spanish administration was first ceded to France and merged with the French colony of Saint Domingue as a result of the Peace of Basel in 1795. However, with the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution the French lost the western part of the island, while remaining in control of the eastern part of the island until the Spanish recaptured Santo Domingo in 1809.
In the history of the Dominican Republic, the period of España Boba lasted from 9 July 1809 to 1 December 1821, during which the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo was under Spanish rule, but the Spanish government exercised minimal powers because its resources were attenuated by the Peninsular War and the various Spanish American wars of independence. The period ended when Dominican officials declared a short-lived independence on 30 November 1821. In February 1822, Haiti annexed former Santo Domingo, leading to an occupation that lasted until 1844.
In the history of the Dominican Republic, the period of Era de Francia occurred in 1795 when France acquired the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, annexed it into Saint-Domingue and briefly came to acquire the whole island of Hispaniola by the way of the Treaty of Basel, allowing Spain to cede the eastern province as a consequence of the French Revolutionary Wars.
The Dominican Army, is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic, together with the Navy and the Air Force.
The Miss República Dominicana 2010 was celebrated on April 17, 2010 at the Teatro La Fiesta, Hotel Jaragua in Santo Domingo.
Juan Sánchez Ramírez was a Dominican general who was the primary leader of the War of Reconquista. He is known for leading the troops in the Battle of Palo Hincado. The decisive Dominican victory resulted in the end of French rule in eastern Hispaniola in 1809. He was the first Dominican to serve as governor of Santo Domingo.
The chiefdoms of Hispaniola were the primary political units employed by the Taíno inhabitants of Hispaniola in the early historical era. At the time of European contact in 1492, the island was divided into five chiefdoms or cacicazgos, each headed by a cacique or paramount chief. Below him were lesser caciques presiding over villages or districts and nitaínos, an elite class in Taíno society.
Rafael Conti Flores, also spelled "Conty" was a Colonel in the Spanish Army who was in charge of the Puerto Rican Militia in the town of Aguadilla. In 1790, he captured 11 enemy ships involved in smuggling stolen goods. In 1797, he helped defeat Sir Ralph Abercromby and defend Puerto Rico from a British invasion in Aguadilla. In 1809, he organized a military expedition fight with the aim of returning Hispaniola, which now comprises the nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, back to Spanish rule.
The siege of Santo Domingo (1808) was the second and final major battle of the Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo and was fought between November 7, 1808 and July 11, 1809 at Santo Domingo, Captaincy General of Santo Domingo. A force of Dominican and Puerto Rican of 1,850 troops led by Gen. Juan Sánchez Ramírez, with a naval blockaded by British Commander Hugh Lyle Carmichael, besieged and captured the city of Santo Domingo after an 8 months garrisoning of 2,000 troops of the French Army led by General Joseph-David de Barquier.
The Battle of Sabana Real took place on January 21, 1691. An army of 700 Dominican raiders and 2,600 militiamen aboard five warships of the Armada de Barlovento, circled and overwhelmed 1,000 French defenders at Sabana de la Limonade; Governor de Cussy and 400 of his followers were killed.
Jean-Louis Ferrand was a French general and military commander. He made some campaigns in France at the beginning of the French Revolution, and took part in the failed expedition into Saint-Domingue. Unwilling to accept defeat, he widthdrew to Santo Domingo. As governor, he dealt with intense conflicts with Haitian Emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who enacted a failed siege of the colony in 1805. By 1808, his rule, as well as other ongoing conflicts in Europe, triggered anti-French uprisings and a desire for a return to Spanish rule. These conflicts would erupt into the Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo, which ended in his suicide on November 7, 1808, in the Battle of Palo Hincado led by the Dominican Criollo leader, Juan Sánchez Ramírez.
Joseph-David de Barquier was a French commander from the French Revolution. He would later take part in the affairs of the island of Hispaniola. The two occupying colonies of Saint-Domingue and Santo Domingo would each undergo their own revolutions against France: the Haitian Revolution and the Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo. As successor of Jean-Louis Ferrand, he continued the fight against Dominican insurgents under Juan Sánchez Ramírez in the latter conflict. But with the aid of British forces in Jamaica, the rebels defeated France, leaving de Barquier with no choice but to capitulate in 1809.
Ciriaco Ramírez was a Dominican military man, landowner and revolutionary. Materialist history presents him as a precursor of independence thought during the Reconquista War in Santo Domingo, however, there is not a single document that proves it. His activities following the war against France remains unknown. While some historians say that Ciriaco was imprisoned and confined to Ceuta for his independence activity, where he supposedly died, this shows that perhaps during the period known as España Boba, he was an officer in the army of the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo.
↑ Troncoso Sanchez, Pedro; "The drama of the national idea in Santo Domingo and its relationship with Puerto Rico"; Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic. 1977.
Delafosse, Lemonier; "Second Campaign of Santo Domingo — Dominican-French War of 1808" (translation of C. Armando Rodriguez); Editorial El Diario, Santiago (DR); 1946.
Guillermin, Gilbert; "Journal History of the Spanish revolution of Santo Domingo" (translation C. Armando Rodriguez); Dominican Academy of History; Imp editing PV Lafourcade, Philadelphia, U.S.; 1810.
Sánchez Ramírez, Juan; " Journal of the Reconquista"; Editor Montalvo, Santo Domingo (R.D.); 1957.
Clodfelter, M. (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015 (4thed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN978-0786474707.
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