LT. GENERAL ANTONIO MACEO GRAJALES - MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENT SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: GENERAL MAXIMO GOMEZ Y BAEZ - HFSID 218076

ANTONIO MACEO and MAXIMO GOMEZ
General Maceo gives a promotion to a soldier by granting him with the title of "Lieutenant" and says the letter can be use by him as a credential. General Gomez co-signs the document
Manuscript Document Signed: "A. Maceo"and "Maximo Gomez" in iron gall ink. Fully Translated in English: "Republic of Cuba. Invader Army of Leadership. The Chief General due to proposition of the barracks has granted Ensign Alfredo Nodarse with the title of 'Lieutenant' due to his services given to the cause of the Independence, taking effect on june16. In order for him to use it as a credential, I issue this letter in Fatherland and Liberty. La Carba, December 18, 1895. The General Lieutenant. A. Maceo. Chief General. M. Gomez." Lieutenant general Antonio Maceo (1845-1896) was second-in-command of Cuba's Army of Independence, and as so one of the most noteworthy guerrilla leaders of nineteenth-century in Latin America. The son of a Venezuelan mulatto and an Afro-Cuban woman, Maceo began his fight for Cuban liberation by enlisting in the army in 1868 at the beginning of the Ten Years War; within five years he had been promoted to the rank of general due to his bravery and strategic prowess. Although most believed that Cuba could not defeat Spain, Maceo refused to surrender without independence and the abolition of slavery, ultimately being forced to leave Cuba. He returned when the war with Spain began again, and is best remembered for his invasion into Western Cuba when his troops (Afro-Cuban soldiers on horseback) covered more than 1,000 miles in 92 days and fought the enemy in 27 separate encounters. On December 7, 1896 Maceo was captured and killed as he attempted to aid Maximo Gomez' forces, and his death prompted yet another congressional resolution for belligerent rights for Cuba. Maximo Gomez (1836-1905) was a Dominican Major General in the Ten Year's War (1868-1878) and also Cuba's military commander in the War of Independence (1895-1898). During his teenage years, he participated in the battles against the frequent Haitian incursions of Faustin Soulouque in the 1850s. He was trained as an officer of the Spanish Army at the Zaragoza Military Academy and had originally arrived to Cuba as a cavalry officer- a Captain- in the Spanish Army and fought alongside the Spanish forces in the Dominican Annexation War, but after the Spanish troops were defeated he left the Dominican Republic in 1865 by mandate of Queen Isabel II and moved to Cuba where he actively participate in the fight for its freedom since 1868. He helped to transform the Cuban Army's military tactics and strategy and gave the Cuban 'Mambises' their most feared tactic: the "Machete Charge". In the interlude between the two Cuban independence wars Gomez had odd jobs in Jamaica and Panama but remained being an active member for the cause of Cuban independence and also for the rest of the Antilles. Maximo Gomez rose to the rank of Generalisimo of the Cuban Army due to his superior military leadership and at the end of the Cuban Independence War in 1898 he retired to a villa outside La Habana. Gomez was offered a presidential nomination in 1901 and was expected to win because they were not opponents but he refused the offer mainly because he never liked politics and after 40 years of living in Cuba he still felt that being Dominican-born he should not be the leader of Cuba. Multiple mailing folds. Heavily worn and soiled. Pin size holes at left edge. Pin size hole at center. Minor notches at edges. Corners lightly worn. Left bottom corner torn. Pencil note (unknown hand) at top edge. Mounting residue on verso.