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Group of officers of Regimiento Mallorca no. 13. Cuba, circa 1898

The uprising was being organized from months earlier by the Cuban independentist leaders, both those who were in Cuba and those who were outside the Island. All of them had accepted the political leadership exercized by José Martí from exile in New York. By the end of January 1895 the order for the uprising which had to take place during the second fortnight of February, not earlier, to allow time for the disembarking of the troops which were outside the Island.

Initially it was thought that the rebellion would be quickly suffocated, since the only places where the independentist rebellion could not be tackled were Baire and Santiago de Cuba (Orient). General Calleja, Commander-in-Chief of Cuba, considered the events as simple actions carried out by parties composed by a few bandits, and he felt that he was capable to take the situation under control with the approximately fourteen thousand men under his command. Therefore he did not bother with asking for reinforcements. His self-secureness and his passivity were, to say the least, worrying.

The news that arrived in the Peninsula from individual sources caused the alarm, and the President of the Government, Sagasta, on March 3rd decided to send immediately to the Island an expedition of 8500 men on board of the cruiser Reina Mercedes, plus another 1500 waiting to be sent as quickly as possible.

Sagasta presented his dimission with character of irrevocability, and the Regent Dna. María Crisitina asks Cánovas to nominate a new government, which he does on March 23rd. General Calleja is fired and he designates General Martínez Campos as his substitute.

On March 29th the brothers Antonio and José Maceo disembark at the beach of Duaba, and on April 11 José Martí and Máximo Gómez arrive to Playitas. The arrival of the main leaders give the insurrection a new strength.

The new Commander-in-Chief believed that it was possible a negotiated way out, which he expects to achieve combining a policy of good will and a wide indult, with the military action. On May 11th he goes to Santiago de Cuba to take the command in person of the army of operations.

The insurrect army, also known by the name of army mambí, enforced the guerrilla war, which meant that they had to perform continous marches and counter-marches, prepare ambushes, and look forward to surprising, to take advantage on the terrain, and to exhaust the enemy on a constant state of fighting in which not a single combat or confrontation was decisive.

In Dos Ríos took place a confrontation of great importance on May 21st, between the column commanded by Colonel Ximénez de Sandoval and a party of rebels commanded by Máximo Gómez. The importance of this fight was that the rebell leader José Martí was counted among the fatal casualties, and the independentist cause lost his main leader only three months after the start of the insurrection.

The dead corpse of Martí was taken to Santiago de Cuba. After the formal identification, the coffin was carried to the cementery accompanied by many troops. There, Colonel Ximénez de Sandoval enquired if any of the civilians was willing to say some words. After a long silence, Colonel Ximénez de Sandoval pronounced some words which are testimony of his noble character:
"Sirs: When men of gentle condition like us fight, the hatred and rancours vanish. No one who feels inspired by noble feelings must see in these lying corpse an enemy. The Spanish military men fight to the death, but they have consideration to the defeated and they honour the dead."

The insurrection, however, was growing in strength, and from Oriente it extended to the center of the Island. The army of the rebels practiced a systematic sacking and devastation, achieving with it that the majority of the rural population, by their own will or fear, gave them their support.

General Martínez Campos was in Manzanillo on July 12th when he received news that Maceo was near Bayamo with more than 7000 mambises under his command. Despite having only 400 men, the Spanish general decided to meet them. During the march, General Santocildes joined him with 1000 other men. On July 19th, in the savanah of Peralejo, the clash took place and, after five hours of a very harsh combat, Maceo was forced to retreat and the Spanish troops could reach Bayamo. There, at the head of his column, General Santocildes lost his life.

On September 16th the upraised Cubans passed their Constitution, the first code of the Cuban Republic which was being born.

The combats, ambushes and bruishes were constant. The violence and cruelty are on the rise. Except for some small Spanish victories, the initiative is in the hands of the insurrects. By the end of October, Antonio Maceo decides to constitute a column that will take the war to the westernmost part of the Island, where there were the richest and most populated areas, and to try to get the triomph and uprising in them. After a long march which was joined by Máximo Gómez in San Juan, and leaving after him a trail of destruction, on December 23rd Maceo meets face to face General Martínez Campos in the surroundings of Coliseo. The Commander-in-Chief of Cuba is forced to retreat. This victory of the mambí army raised the alarm in Havana. The relief was not only necessary, but urgent.

General Martínez Campos only realized his error of trying to come to a negotiated peace after the battle of Peralejo. The insurrection could only be put to an end with the military defeat of one of the two fighting sides. They needed, thus, more than good intentions for it.

On July 25th, from Manzanillo, he addresses Cánovas on a letter telling him among other things: "The few Spaniards who are in the island only dare to openly say it in the cities: the rest of inhabitants hate Spain. When one walks through the shacks in the fields no men can be seen, and when the women are asked for their husbands or children, they answer with a frightening naturality: in the mounts with the rebels."
Next he goes on saying that it would be necessary to take some drastic measures, but that he doesn't have the moral conditions to do such a thing.
"Only Weyler has them in Spain, because he has also the intellegince, courage and the skills in war. Think it over, my dear friend, and if while talking to him about the system you prefer him, do not hesitate in replacing me. We are dealing with the fate of Spain here."

Cánovas finally decided to attend the advises of General Martínez Campos. Weyler disembarked in Havana on February 10th, 1896, with the firm will of pacifying the island, starting in the west and finishing in the east.

To defeat an enemy who controled the countryside and who counted on the support of the peasants and thereafter with a perfect information on the moves of the Spanish troops; who could move along a wide field of operations through the entire island with more freedom, who could choose the place and the moment to establish contact with the enemy, who had the ability to act in distant places simultaneously, who was able to survive on the terrain, ready to set places on fire, to destroy, to sack and to act without any mercy, ... it was required more than trying to just protect the properties and to avoid molesting the civilian population.

Group of officers on the deck, circa 1900

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