Major General Limbano Sanchez Rodriguez Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Limbano Sanchez Rodriguez (1845-1885) also known as 'The Holguin Lion' due to his extensive participation in the actions for the independence in that zone had an important role during the War of Restauration of the Dominican Republic (1863-1865), where he achieved the rank of Gunnery Sergeant of the Dominican Patriots Army. He was one of the main leaders in the Ten Years War, fighting under the command of Maximo Gomez and Calixto Garcia. He fought in Holguin, Baracoa, and on July 5, 1872 in the Combat of El Yanal as a Commander. On January 18, 1873 he was ascended to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was the chief of the Holguin Regiment.  Limbano later attacked Guacamayos, in Jiguani, where he defeated the Bailen Regiment guerrilla; he was wounded in Guabino in 1876. Sanchez Rodriguez supported the sedition of Santa Rita on May 11, 1877 and upraised himself in Holguin ignoring his bosses: the then Lieutenant Colonel Juan Rius Rivera and Major General Antonio Maceo, demanding reforms, however, the opportune intervention of Major General Maximo Gomez made him go back to the obedience. Limbano supported the instauration of Canton Independiente de Holguin in its beginning, but later he changed his mind. He rejected the Pacto del Zanjon and was one the protesters of Baragua. The provisional government of Major General Manuel de Jesus Calvar granted him with the title of Colonel on March 17, 1878 and named him Chief of the Western Holguin Brigade to continue with the war. During the Little War he fought in Sabana de Duaba, Baracoa in 1879 and remained chief of the zone. The next year he battled in Renacas, Baracoa and once Sanchez Rodriguez realized that war had already failed, he presented a list of demands conditioning his rendition, and although they were accepted by the Spaniards and he deposed the arms on June 25, 1880, Limbano was betrayed and deported to Spain. There, he was incarcerated in Chafarinas and other places where he suffered difficulties, abuse and any kind of vicissitudes since his arrival in1880 until 1884, when he escaped with Ramon Gonzalez and other Cuban patriots in a combined plan with Francisco Varona Tornet (Panchin), who in representation of the Cuban Revolutionary Committee of New York and the Club Independence Number 1, had contacted him from the United States to request him to be in charge of an armed expedition for the independence whose destination was Cuba. After enormous sacrifices and difficulties to get the armament, munitions and the vessel that would take them to Cuba, Limbano and his men decided to exit the north American territory due to the rigorous and constant surveillance and persecution of the agents and spies in service of Spain and United Sates of America. That way, and with a great stealth, the expedition left the coasts of Dominican Republic on May 17, 1885. At midnight the expeditionaries, convinced that were just 5 miles away from the Cuban coasts, threw two boats to the ocean; the first one carried Limbano and Francisco Varona Tornet (Panchin) and the second one to Brigadier Ramon Gonzalez (Mongo) and the other half of men. But unfortunately, they were 20 miles away so they had to row all night in the middle of the darkness and disembarked separately. So, since the moment the Limbano's boat landed, the anguished search for Gonzalez and his group, fearing that the enemy had them. They were not found until May 27 and by then Limbano had already lost part of the reserved armament and was restless pursued by the Spanish military, with whom he had combated just few hours later his arrival to those coasts. In order to avoid the contact, help and incorporation of the people of the zone to the expeditionaries, the colonial authorities had taken some actions, however, they could not completely achieve their objectives because some men of the zone joined the insurrects; however, some agents working for Spain got infiltrated to inform the movements of the patriots. That is how, regardless the brave resistance to the enemy, the revolutionaries were either dying in combat, made prisoners and then murdered or condemned to prison. Besieged for the enemy, Limbano Sanchez moved to the zone of Mayari with Brigade General Ramon Gonzalez and once refugee in an estate of Cayo Rey that belonged to his 'compadre', they were betrayed by him and poisoned with coffee. The informer called the Spanish troops, who took the cadaver to a near road in where they simulated that Limbano Sanchez had died in the combat in Palamarito. His trajectory had led him achieve the rank of Major General and converted him, due to his intransigency, in a polemic character.