By Florencio Lugones Andrés 

On September 19, 1873, Major General Maximo Gómez (*), the Dominican career soldier that decided to fight for the independence of Cuba, ordered the highest rank officers of the Las Villas Division –in the center of the country – to concentrate their troops at Pencacola, on September 26th.

Gómez repeated these orders to the West Brigade, of the first Division and that of the chivalry of Camagüey, in the centereastern portion of Cuba.

With these units Gral. Máximo Gómez gathered a force of 450 infantrymen and 170 horsemen, and decided to attack the Camagüeyan town of Santa Cruz del Sur, in the early hours of September 28th, 1873.

The main burden of responsibility fell on Colonel Gregorio "Goyo" Benítez who entered Santa Cruz through the western part of the town with 100 men, and supported by Colonel José González Guerra’s men occupied the barracks near the quay and the magazine, where the Spaniards stored the ammunition and the armament.

To assure the main mission, Gómez ordered to make distraction maneuvers. The first of them was accomplished by Lieutenant Colonel Bernardo Montejo with 50 infantrymen, who crossed the town through the Royal Road, from west to east. Shooting fiercely and moving rapidily, the Cubans occupied an important position in “El playazo.”

The second maneuver was carried out by 150 riders of the Camagüeyan chivalry headed by Colonel Henry Reeves, the American who fought for the Cuban pro-independence cause. “El Inglesito”, as Cubans identified Reeve, and his men burst into the town by the north and moved forth to the enemy’s southernmost defensive post.

The Spanish garrison was reduced to the fortified constructions, for which the attackers, after capturing the war plunder, burned down the village.

The success of the battle of Santa Cruz del Sur was a determining factor for Gral. Máximo Gómez’ eventual invasion campaign, because a vast quantity of the ammunitions and weapons captured there were put in safe places and later distributed among the mambi soldiers that marched westward.

From that moment “el Generalísimo” considered that everything was ready for the invasion to Las Villas, Camagüey’s neighboring province, in order to continue the struggle for his adoptive homeland.

Note of the translator:
(*) Major General Máximo Gómez, also known as El Generalisimo