One of the most notorious military actions directed by Major Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz was fought against Spanish forces stationed in Puerto del Principe, in the month of July 1870. To tell the truth, El Mayor did not set out to destroy or set fire to the hometown marked by traditional architecture and its very unique lifestyle, actually, some of those buldings where related to him; Nor did he propose to disrespect the religious group made up of a dozen churches and less where he had been baptized and then married his idolized Amalia; he didn’t ment to profane the sacred field that kept the bones of their ancestors. His tactical thinking would lead him to inform the colonialist command that the struggle in Camagüey was strong and vigorous. And that would give merit to the revolution in the second of the three revolutionary cores raised up against the colony, and further consolidate the first of the uprisings that had broken out in Cuba with the guidance of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y del Castillo from Bayamo, who, with his marriage to Ana de Quesada Loynaz, from Camaguey, had strengthened the political unity between the two historical regions.

El Major would assure to his wife Amalia Simoni, on June 9, 1870, that the cavalry squadron that he was forming would leave the Spanish behind. Shortly after, on the 17th, in a communication to Colonel Pedro Recio Agramonte he told him to transfer 30 men to reinforce the squad that had been arranged for the operation that he would wage in the following month. Without loss of time, from the Mamanayagua farm, he would pass a report to Colonel Rafael Bobadilla ordering him that his 100 men will pass to his subordination and that the attack on the city should begin in the neighborhood of La Ermita de La Caridad, at 5:00 a.m. dawn, “trying to draw all the attention of the enemy to that point and avoid causing harm to peaceful neighbors as much as possible.” So the strategic objective was to take the main direction of the attack through La Plaza de la Caridad to let the colonialist command, sheltered in the Convent of La Merced, know that the war in the region under their command was going into full revolution and that nothing would stop her until she reached her ultimate goal, which was attached to Céspedes’s ideas.

Planning

Meanwhile, as planned in his barracks, in the west of the city, Colonel Manuel Agramonte would carry out a simulated assault on the Cavalry Barracks in La Vigía. In the aforementioned letter, Agramonte had indicated to Bobadilla that, if the enemy tried to leave their barracks to fight, it would be the moment when the dismounted infantry had to inflict a large number of casualties and finally the cavalry squadrons would come into action to annihilate them. On the other hand, another squad would defend the flank of the artillery located in the land of the old Tejar Carrasco and the El Pollo stream, near the Camino Real de La Habana, where the Mambisa intelligence moved with support that Rafael Barreto offered. El Major, at midnight, would travel with his escort to La Yaba store, at the crossroads of the Santa Cruz del Sur and Yaguabo roads, where he would receive information about the attack from “practical and trustworthy men.” Thus, at dawn on July 20, he would order the simultaneous assault on the five neighborhoods of the city. At that moment the cavalry led by Brigadier Julio Sanguily Garrite would harass the garrison of La Caridad with rifle fire.

The right time

At that time, the neighbors must have been overwhelmed by the deafening noise of the rifles when firing, no one dared to leave their houses. It is worth remembering that in a letter sent on July 17 to his relative Manuel Agramonte Porro and another to Commander Antonio Rodríguez, El Mayor required them to make a feint of attack with 100 men on horseback to the Vigía neighborhood, a skirmish that had the objective of attracting the enemy towards that point and not towards La Caridad, a maneuver to incite him to leave the barracks in search of him, a precise moment that would be used to ambush the dragons and annihilate them. As punctilious as he was, in his written lines to his officers it was warned that “the strictest secrecy had to be kept regarding this movement”, among other reasons, given the shortage of ammunition, which the enemy should not know, and that only he would distribute before midnight on the 19th. It is known that not too far from the city, along the Tínima River, in land near the Tejar de Carrasco, in the El Pollo farm, the French brigadier Eloy Beauvillers would fire 17 shots from the 24-caliber Parrow cannon in the direction of the fortified post set up in the Convent and church of La Merced where the politico-military governor Juan de Mena had taken refuge, who was accompanied by the Police Corps, the Volunteers, the Military Administration, the War Auditor and other military and government agencies.

The cavalry and the attack

Meanwhile, near the place known for the roof of Carrasco, 100 horsemen led by Commander Antonio Rodríguez would patrol in order to avoid surprises from the enemy. In coordination with said force, Colonel Manuel Agramonte had to initiate the attack on Vigía with the support of the cavalry picket under the command of Puerto Rican Ricardo Estevan y Ayala. All ready, on July 20, the Camagüey’s Cavalry Squad burst into the streets of the city. The attack began at 4.45 am and would last for half an hour. One of the squads attacked along the path of roof tiles known as Vigía street, making its way through la Cucaracha alley to join said street with the picket led by Lieutenant Simón Reyes, shooting the post of the Cavalry Barracks, until they entered through San Ramón and La Merced streets until arriving at the square of the same name, where he fired at the gunners and the garrison that protected the convent and church of La Merced.

Another of the groups approached the large house that served as an infantry checkpoint in the Aguada de José Pineda, which supplied water to the steam locomotives of the Nuevitas – Puerto Príncipe train, firing on its garrison. Simultaneously on the Santa Cruz bridge near the Sabana de los Marañones, the Mexican commander Ramón Cantú with 80 horsemen forced the withdrawal of a Spanish guerrilla after causing several casualties. [2] Further to the southwest, another picket of the brave stood over the Plaza del Cristo, shooting its garrison at the front of the General Cemetery. At the other end, to the east, El Mayor took action to challenge the Volunteers of the Liberal Union and the Infantry Corps, refugees in the convent of San Francisco and San Juan de Dios. [3] The Spanish soldiers were neutralized by not being able to undertake any counter-attack action, leaving them very badly before the colonialist military command.

A resounding success

The attack on Puerto del Príncipe had successfully served its purpose. The surprise factor worked perfectly. The military imteligence of Major Agramonte was proven. Undoubtedly, it was a feat that should have instilled greater confidence in President Céspedes in the people of Camagüey, while waiting to collect more laurels of victory for the revolution in Camagüey; of course, counting on men of proven audacity and courage as his partner and loyal friend Major General Ignacio Agramonte. With him the Revolution could spread to the Cuban West.

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[1] Cento Gómez, Elda: From the first envestida. Correspondence of Ignacio Agramonte (November 1868 – January 1871). Communication to Rafael Bobadilla, Mamanayagua, July 17, 1869. Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, La Habana, 2014, p. 151.

On land that would later be occupied by the Colonia Española Sanatorium, currently the “Eduardo Agramonte Piña” Pediatric Hospital of Camagüey. The Mexican commander Ramón Cantú came to Cuba on the first expedition of the El Salvador steamer, disembarking in the Nueva Grandes cove on May 14, 1869. This expedition was led by Lieutenant Colonel Rafael de Quesada Loynaz, brother of the general in chief. of the Liberation Army. Days later, Rafael de Quesada and 25 men under Cantú’s orders would enter the Camagüey region, joining Major Agramonte. This fraternal companion of the people of Camagüey was among the 20 Mexican officers who arrived on the island in said expedition, becoming one of the bravest leaders of the mambisa cavalry. Moreover, with Cantú, the Mexican Francisco Mendoza Durán came to Camagüey. Another of the Mexican patriots in that expedition was Modesto Corvisón who would marry one of the sisters of General-in-Chief Manuel de Quesada. In: Gálvez Aguilera, Milagros: Naval Expeditions in the Ten Years’ War. 1868 – 1878. Verde Olivo Editions, Havana City, 2000, pp. 108 – 110. [3] Betancourt Agramonte, Eugenio: Ignacio Agramonte and the Cuban Revolution, Havana, Imprenta Dorrbecker, 1928, p. 140. [4] Ibid., P. 154