Blond, with silky and curly hair, blue and lively eyes, he had a slim body, and agile gestures, cultured and intelligent, and graceful in dealing with others, friendly and reliable. He was born in Brooklyn County, New York City, United States of America, on April 4th, 1850, the son of a married couple made up of devout Protestant Alexander Reeve and Maddie Carrol. He had two sisters. He was a bank employee.
Reeve “The Englishman” or “The American”
Reeve had received military training to fight in the Civil War on the side of the anti-slavery and industrial Army of the North, engaged in achieving the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. He was a drummer in the troop. He was fifteen years old. At the end of the war, he worked as a bookkeeper, which must have provided him with instructive readings to enrich his general culture.
He had, since February 1868, the nickname “Henry Earl” for responding affirmatively to the call for armed struggle made by the Cuban Revolutionary Board in New York, in which Francisco Javier Cisneros Correa and northerner Thomas Jordan worked, and he enlisted in the expedition of the Perrit steamship loaded with weapons and ammunition and made up mostly of Cubans, 80 North Americans, Venezuelans, Mexicans, a Hungarian and a Pole, who would disembark in Cuba, on the Ramón Peninsula, in May 1868.
Henry Earl and Major Ignacio Agramonte
On May 19th, 1869, he had his baptism of fire against a Spanish force in the battle on the road to Canalito. General Jordan praised his fighting ability and rewarded him with a rifle. He would then go to Júcaro, in the jurisdiction of Holguín. The combat of La Cuaba would come, which would be followed by that of Las Calabazas, where he and other insurgents lost in the savannah of the place, surrounded by enemy infantry, were captured and shot, from which he miraculously managed to survive while already in the camp of the Brigadier Luis Figueredo, in the Mijial. On June 13th, he was promoted to second sergeant.
After fighting several fights, he would ask Félix Figueredo and Donato Mármol Tamayo to transfer him to Camagüey; what would happen in October 1869, when General Jordan’s transfer to Camagüey was ratified. In Ciego de Najasa Figueredo would introduce the newly promoted lieutenant to Major Ignacio Agramonte.
«Agramonte, -Martí would point out-, regarded H. Reeve with special esteem». Indeed, he would take him by his side as part of his Escort, in combat actions that he led, in the camps where El Mayor installed a Military Training Academy, in the rescue of Brigadier Sanguily, and to the pasture where Ignacio Agramonte would fill his glory, that May 11th, 1873. In all the episodes of the Revolution, Reeve proved his absolute loyalty to the Major and his sincere solidarity with the Cuban patriots.
The anecdote is known by which Brigadier Reeve rebuked a Camagüeyan officer for improperly announcing the arrival at the Mambí camp at La Aurora del “Mayor” Gómez farm. For The Englishman there was only one Mayor, and that one had bravely fallen in Jimaguayú for Cuba and for America. Finally, when Major General Máximo Gómez assumed command of Camagüey and arrived at H. Reeve’s camp, at La Aurora farm, on June 5th, he would later outline in his condolence letter to his widow Amalia Simoni, on September 30th 1891: «I have been received by this Chief and his small Cavalry Squadron with admirable attention and official courtesy (…). Lieutenant Colonel Reeve gives me a horse. Reeve is a purely military character, he unites a proven value with an uncommon rectitude and seriousness in his way of command. Hence, his soldiers not only had a deep respect for him but also loved him as a father ».
Enrique Earl or El inglesito would continue riding in combat through the plains of Camagüey, faithful to the spirit of the fight and victory imbued in his men by Major Agramonte; and with that same spirit to see a Free Cuba he would fall in Yaguaramas, on August 4th, 1876.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
