Manuel de Quesada y Loynaz

Mexican Army

Quesada left Cuba in the mid-1850s and relocated to Mexico, joining the Army of Mexico as a second lieutenant in 1856. During the Reform War from 1857 to 1861, he fought on the side of the Mexican liberals and Benito Juárez, and was promoted to colonel. In 1860 he served under Juárez as Chief of the Armed Forces. Despite being outnumbered and under-equipped, he fought under Ignacio Zaragoza and Porfirio Díaz at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, a victory commemorated by Cinco De Mayo, and was promoted to divisional general.

When Juárez's government was ousted from the capital by the French invasion, Quesada provided protection for President Juárez during the evacuation to San Luis Potosí in 1863. He later served as Military Governor of Tlaxcala, Coahuila, and Durango. In 1865 he relocated to New York.

Ten Years' War

In the summer of 1868, Quesada and Cuban patriot Pablo Perez were covertly in Camagüey to help coordinate an insurrection and address shortages in military supplies. When conditions for an uprising had not materialized, he returned to the United States, then traveled to Nassau as an agent of the Cuban Republic until news of the Cry of Yara and uprising. At the outbreak of the Ten Years' War in October 1868, he organized an expedition with men, arms, and ammunition.

On December 27, 1868, the first expedition on the schooner Galvanic landed at La Guanaja beach with 83 men and thousands of weapons and ammunition; La Verdad reported $31,000 was collected. The Revolutionary Committee of Camagüey appointed him General-in-Chief of the Camagüeyan forces, replacing Augusto Arango. His guerrilla campaign secured important towns between Nuevitas and Puerto Príncipe. On February 18, 1869, a Spanish expedition under Gen. Juan de Lesca landed at La Guanaja beach with four steamers and 3,600 troops heading for Puerto Príncipe.

Cuban Liberation Army

By March 1869, Quesada ambushed Lesca in the Battle of the Sierra de Cubitas, attempting to prevent Lesca's advance. On April 12, 1869, the Guáimaro Constitution was drafted and the first Cuban government established in Guáimaro. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes was sworn in as its first president, and Quesada was appointed by the Guáimaro Assembly as the first General-in-Chief of the Cuban Liberation Army, with Gen. Thomas Jordan as his chief of staff.

The division's first battalion had 320 foot soldiers and 80 cavalrymen. Quesada wore a black or grey suit, a white shirt, a Cuban cockade with 'V.C.L.' initials in gold, and a sword with an eagle-shaped gold hilt. His staff wore red flannel shirts, patent leather boots, Panama hats, and cockades with silver 'V.C.L.' initials. His personal escort, led by Bernabé Varona, consisted of 300 cavalrymen in blue flannel shirts, white or black pants, and Panama hats.

Did You Know?

• In 1925, his nephew and the 6th President of Cuba, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada, wrote a book titled Manuel de Quesada y Loynaz.