Capture of Las Tunas | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Second Eastern Campaign of the Cuban War of Independence | |||||||
Calixto García's cavalry charge during the engagement | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Cuban rebels Supported by: United States | Spain | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Calixto García Mario García Carlos García José M. Capote Frederick Funston [1] | Unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1,200 soldiers, 300 horsemen and 6 cannons [1] | 350 soldiers and 100 volunteers, with artillery | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
29 killed, 60 wounded | 161 killed, 176 wounded, 409 captured |
The Capture of Las Tunas was a military engagement of the Cuban War of Independence. It took place from August 27 to 30, 1897 at Las Tunas, Oriente.
In the final days of August 1897, the forces commanded by Lieutenant General Calixto García laid siege to the important military plaza of Victoria de Las Tunas which was almost uninhabited, since most of its inhabitants had gone to the jungle. [1]
After three days of bloody combat, the Cuban forces managed to make the Spanish garrison surrender and capture the plaza, after which they set it on fire, but not before seizing important caches of weapons and ammunition, as well as food and medicine. [2] The casualties of the battle consisted of 29 killed and 60 wounded for the Cubans and 161 killed, 176 wounded and 409 captured.[ citation needed ]
The Capture of Las Tunas represented a very important military victory for the Cuban Liberation Army, as well as a demoralizing defeat for the Spanish Army. At the media level, it served to discredit the propaganda campaign that Captain General Valeriano Weyler carried out about his supposed "pacification" of Cuba and the supposed "success" of his feared and despised Reconcentration of him. [1] It represented one of the last Spanish military defeats, before the dismissal of Weyler as head of Cuba and the promulgation, in November of the same year, of the Autonomic Charter which sought to placate independence spirits by granting autonomy, something that didn't work either. Spain would end up losing Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam in 1898 at the hands of the United States.
The Ten Years' War, also known as the Great War and the War of '68, was part of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. The uprising was led by Cuban-born planters and other wealthy natives. On 10 October 1868, sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed independence, beginning the conflict. This was the first of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Little War (1879–1880) and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). The final three months of the last conflict escalated with United States involvement, leading to the Spanish–American War.
Calixto García Íñiguez was a Cuban general in three Cuban uprisings, part of the Cuban War for Independence: the Ten Years' War, the Little War, and the War of 1895, itself sometimes called the Cuban War for Independence, which initiated the Spanish–American War, ultimately resulting in national independence for Cuba.
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Captain General Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí, 1st Marquess of Tenerife was a Spanish Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the Governor-General of the Philippines and the Governor-General of Cuba, and later as the Minister for War.
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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.
Pedro Betancourt Dávalos (1858–1933) was a medical doctor, major general, diplomat, Secretary of Agriculture, politician, and Cuban revolutionary in the Cuban War of Independence.
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The La Reforma Campaign was a campaign of the Cuban War of Independence which was waged for 16 months with the Cuban forces under the command of Máximo Gómez against the Spanish forces under the command of Valeriano Weyler. Despite the Spanish outnumbering the Cuban forces by 40,000 to 600, Gómez's guerrilla warfare tactics as well as the weather caused over 40 Spanish soldiers to die each day throughout the campaign. His approach was to divide his forces into tiny guerrilla groups and fight alone with his General Staff while continuously moving.
The Second Eastern Campaign was a military campaign that took place between August 1 to 12, 1898, in the Oriente Province of Cuba during the Cuban War of Independence. It was the shortest military campaign of the entire war and it was the one that marked the end of Spanish reign in Cuba and the Spanish Empire in Latin America.
José Manuel Capote Sosa (1836–1934) was a Cuban Major General and politician who participated in the Cuban War of Independence. He was known as the mayor of Bayamo and the brother of Colonel Gonzalo Capote of the Cuban Liberation Army.
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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 Majors-General 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".
Augusto Arango was a Cuban revolutionary and mambí General who was assassinated by Spanish authorities in Cuba during the Ten Years' War.
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