Kill or die in Sagua de Tánamo

The history of Sagua de Tánamo during the War of 1868 hides several unanswered questions yet. One of them happened in the early months of the fight.

When the war for Cuba’s independence started, today’s municipality of Sagua de Tánamo, in Holguin province, was a pedestrian captaincy, then belonging to the jurisdiction of Guantánamo. It completely differed in that region; in the two other captainships there were a lot of slaves, according to a text on the history of that territory:

“Jurisdiction of Sagua de Tánamo shows a less developed structure, which rests on tobacco production and ranching, and to a lesser degree small sugar mills. The population for the most part were Cuban whites toiling isolated plots of land. For the type of its prevailing economy society was not amply linked to slave production”. (1)

There was a rise in Guantánamo against Spanish colonial rule in 1868. The colonial forces, with the support of locals in favor of Spanish colonialism managed to control the revolt. The insurrects were defeated in two of the three pedestrian captaincies belonging to the jurisdiction of Guantánamo. But one of them, Sagua de Tánamo, where independence fighters reached the triumph. Alberto del Villar, a local revolutionary leader occupied the town. The Cuban revolutionary forces had two small artillery pieces. They fought on the streets. In the war actions six mambi soldiers were killed. (2) It was not possible to set the exact date of those events, however, fundamentalist journalist Antonio José Nápoles Fajardo wrote in his pamphlet El sitio de Holguín (The Siege of Holguin):

“Day 26 arrived (November 1868) two cannons warned us at dawn that the enemy insisted on mistreating us; but the fire ceased to go little by little, later the bells tolled and music spread across the streets together with cheers and clamors. We knew at night by the Leaf that they threw us that those rejoicings were for the arrival of Marcano and because they had taken Sagua de Tánamo, insignificant party of the jurisdiction of Cuba”. (3)

Although Nápoles was wrong, Sagua de Tánamo was a pedestrian captaincy of the jurisdiction of Guantánamo. But in any case, it provides us with important information, since the town was taken before November 26, 1868. The capture of Sagua de Tánamo and the failure of the uprising in the jurisdiction of Guantánamo brought a quite singular situation.

Sagua de Tánamo, was an area of scarce population, that could not create by itself the necessary revolutionary structures to confront the Spaniards. In that situation the mambi soldiers of Sagua de Tánamo decided to join the jurisdiction of Holguin, where a revolutionary structure had been created, bound to the government of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, in Bayamo.

Julio Grave de Peralta, the leader of the Holguin revolutionaries, did not delay in designating Leon Sule as commander of arms of that place. He even ordered that, together with the revolutionaries from Mayari, they support the invasion of Guantanamo, prepared by General Donato Marmol from the jurisdiction of Santiago de Cuba.

This could not be done due to the beginning of the Spanish offensive known as the Valmaseda Crescent. This town remained in the hands of the insurgents until the first days of February 1869. A news published in the newspaper La Gaceta de La Habana, offers us information on the recovery of that locality by the colonial forces. Below we reproduce the text of the report:

“Oficial Report. General Staff (…)

It is informed by Captain General that a column under the command of the Captain of the Cuban Regiment Don Pablo Diaz Quintana, surprised a large guard that the insurgents had seven leagues from Sagua de Tanamo, dispersing them, causing eight dead and many wounded.

The following day the march continued in the direction of the mentioned point and after a combat with the insurrectionists, through the streets of the mentioned town, this was occupied by our troops with much rejoicing of its inhabitants.

The result of these operations has been the taking of two cannons, a flag and the one that carried, multitude of weapons of all kinds and ammunition, making forty-five prisoners, among them several chiefs and causing them nineteen dead: having presented themselves accepting (the invitation), laying down their arms two hundred insurrectionists and it is expected that the ringleader and others would do it.

The expressed authority also participates that the ensign of the squadron of Santa Catalina de Guazo, Don Felix Perez pursued with the force of his command in his flight, the ringleaders Parra and Anaya; as well as that the detachment of San Antonio attacked a group of fifteen insurrectionists of which eleven were killed and two taken prisoner.

Havana, February 6, 1869.

JEMI José de Chessa”. (4)

The document must be read with great care, because in war the first victim is the truth. The ten-year war was not an exception and almost everyone, Spaniards and Cubans, exaggerated the casualties of the opponents. But in this case we can consider that the Mambises fought defending Sagua de Tanamo.

The number of Cuban casualties is surely exaggerated as well as the number of those presented or surrendered to the colonial forces. The taking of the population did not mean the end of the revolution in the locality, in the report it is commented that different Hispanic forces pursued the Mambi guerrillas. This means that insurgent troops continued operating in the territory.

In March 1869 the Holguín division was structured in two brigades, the eastern and the western. The first was formed by the territory of Sagua de Tánamo and Mayarí. Dominican general Luis Marcano was placed at its head. Later, when Guantánamo was incorporated to the war by the invasion of 1871, Sagua was subordinated to the division formed in that territory.

Notes:

1–José Sánchez Guerra y Wilfredo Campos Creme. Los Ecos de la Demajagua en el alto oriente cubano, Editorial Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, 1996, p. 7.

2 Ibídem. p 26.

3–Nápoles Fajardo, El Sitio de Holguín.

4–Roberto Antonio Hernández Suárez, La guerra desde la Gaceta de La Habana 10 de octubre de 1868 -23 de abril de 1869, Pp76 y 77.

Old photo of Sagua de Tánamo. Photo: Taken from saguadetanamo.gob.cu