insurgent epic

CAMAGÜEY.- With the scope of a famous mythological narration we have received the events of the rescue of Julio Sanguily. It is almost impossible to tell it, from orality and literature, without adding the epic tones of the Song of Roland, the turbulence of The Odyssey or the bravery of Saint George against the dragon. On October 8, 1871, Ignacio Agramonte’s cavalry surpassed fiction with a lightning attack that freed the mambí brigadier from a fatal fate.

Before galloping off, a plan consistent with the circumstances was needed. Antonio Zambrana referred that El Mayor “organized the forces of his district in such a way that he could easily, shortly, keep them united or scattered at his discretion, achieved which, the victory for the patriots was certain”. He had assumed the strategy of unifying and withdrawing his men quickly, learned from a wise man on the battlefield, such as Major General, Tomás Jordán.

The Consuegra paddocks, in Jimaguayú, were the setting for the meeting. Jimaguayú, a curious enclave that expanded the light of glory of Agramonte, and then saw his physical death, on May 11, 1873. The writer Alfredo Mestre Fernández illustrates how Agramonte, at the head of 60 horsemen, entered the region “(…) with the light of day, after a tour of mountains, savannahs and maniguals (…)”.

This author points out that upon hearing the news of the capture, the Diamond with the soul of a kiss, as our National Hero, José Martí, called the Mambí leader, became “a spring of muscles and nerves (…) Julio Sanguily was more than a friend, he was a brother and a patriot (…) necessary to Cuba (…)”. He orders his horse saddled and picks 35 of his best riders. He then he prepares the attack.

We can imagine him tracing the combat on the ground, drawing circles, correcting possible gaps in the skirmish and looking for those of the enemy, placing small stones to represent the risky positions of El Inglesito Reeve, and the riflemen. Within that scheme, perhaps perched on a small branch, the officer Pancho Palomino, who fearlessly asked to be integrated into the North American commander’s detachment. The risk was enormous, but they were not under the command of any leader.

PRISONER

“No!” Agramonte told Sanguily. The brigadier wanted to visit a young woman from Villarreal who lived on the Santo Domingo farm so that he could wash and sew her clothes, which had been frayed by the continuous marches. However, says Eugenio Betancourt Agramonte, that “(…) such was the persistence that permission was finally granted and on the morning of October 8, 1871, he left the camp and arrived at the ranch of Doña Cirila, who was confidante and nurse of the insurgents”.

Sanguily, a bit of a rogue, a bit of a bohemian, with a certain attachment to playfulness and persecuted by controversy, “was surprised by Sergeant Mont’s Spanish guerrilla in the mountains of Matehuelo, without the few Cubans who accompanied him being able to attempt any resistance. , and only his assistant, the dark-haired Luciano Caballero (…) tried to save the Brigadier, who could not walk without an instrument that made up for the kneecap that was missing as a result of injuries from other combats”, Betancourt Agramonte refers.

El Mayor’s grandson emphasizes that “his loyal assistant, who was the only one who had accompanied him at great risk to his life, because being taken prisoner and being killed by a machete or shot was the same thing, firmly clung to the branch of a tree , letting go of the knight, and begged him to flee since it was impossible for him to save himself. Thus hanging from a tree, the Spaniards caught up with him (…)”.

FEAT…

Grinning from ear to ear, Mont transferred the captive to his superior, Commander Cesar Matos. This, once satisfied with the spoils of war, organized a troop composed of 120 soldiers who would lead him to Jimaguayú, before Colonel Sabas Marín.

While the Iberians were passing through the Antonio Torres estate, Agramonte harangued his warriors: “The General is a prisoner in that enemy column, and it is necessary to rescue him dead or alive, or everyone stays there”, and, immediately, he ordered to play the slaughter . With that clarion call, history would begin to be woven with threads of eternity. They pounced on a troop three times higher.

“At this time the most brilliant episode occurred, (…) due to its martial beauty and precision, waged in all the annals of our wars, which is a lot to give,” historian Gerardo Castellanos described it in this way. On the other hand, the poetry of Rubén Martínez Villena also captures the heroic lights of the episode: “The rifle squad marched slowly (…) / they carried, as proof of their cruelty, / Sanguily, crippled and a prisoner, / And in that group wrought by Homer, / thirty-five chosen of the deed, / lit up the valley and the mountain / to the lightning flash of steel.

The vision of the most universal of Cubans briefly and eloquently complements the outcome of the action: “Ignacio Agramonte fell on the column, he ran through it with his thirty men, he ripped Julio Sanguily from a sergeant’s chair… between the rest of the column the horsemen fast as the instant”. The mambí, with humility, highlighted the courage of his troops that “without hesitation before the number, nor before the persistence of the enemy, impetuously threw themselves on him, defeated him and recovered Brigadier Sanguily wounded in the arm and five other prisoners (. ..)”.

At the end of the confrontation, the rival left on the field “11 corpses, including a lieutenant, (…) nine precision weapons, two boxes of capsules, three revolvers, two swords, a saber, a tent, sixty horses, forty mounts and all the baggage (…)”, Agramonte pointed out, but the legacy exceeded the numbers.

ECHOES OF VICTORY

In the book Life of Ignacio Agramonte, JE Casasús, highlights that “it fundamentally changed the Spanish strategy which, from then on, organized strong columns (…); and (…) it raised the morale of the Cuban army, because it proved (…) the high degree of its offensive power.”

For the historian Gustavo Sed Nieves, “the circumstances (…) demanded an act of arms that evidenced the resurgence of order and discipline in the insurgent hosts of Camagüey subjected, for almost a year, to the continuous offensive deployed by the Spanish military high command ”. In addition to the rescue of a comrade in arms, a waste of spirituality, of commitment to the Homeland, as Ricardo Muñoz Gutiérrez assures in his article Agramonte, the virtue of changing to serve better.

“The rescue of Brigadier Julio Sanguily has gone down in history (…) as a pattern of the boss’s commitment to the subordinate whom he cannot leave abandoned, even if his life depends on it,” the specialist states. And with extraordinary lucidity, the Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro Ruz, again evokes the height of the event and calls it “(…) an insurmountable feat, (…) one of the greatest feats written in our struggles (…), it even woke up the admiration of the Spanish forces”.

They perpetuate and glorify the unique charge to the machete artistic creations such as the march To the rescuecomposed by the daughter of the Diamond with a Kissing Soul, Herminia Agramonte Simoni, and synthetic, but substantial passages within the literary world, such as the novel Generals and Doctors, by the well-known writer Carlos Loveira.

The main character, named Ignacio, recognizes and describes in body and soul a “man dressed as a warrior and white pants (…)”, with a “raised blond mustache, (…) a bright look that humiliated the other (…) Erect , martial, fascinating”. It was Julio Sanguily. “In his presence I felt the truth (…) of the famous feat of Camagüey. Seeing him, I sensed that, despite certain stories, no one would dare to approach him except to obey him and pay him homage”, he confesses.

They say that after consummating the victory over the colonialists, and securing the main objective, Agramonte approached Sanguily, hugged him, and said: “Julio I told you that the least expected day you were going to fall into the power of the Spanish, but I did not believe.” that it was so soon”. I suspect that even under a certain effect of guilt, the Brigadier must have confirmed that he had in front of him a man-history, an outstanding figure, one of those epic writers who border on myth.

insurgent epic