Generalissimo Máximo Gómez Báez, the master strategist of the wars for Cuban independence, was born in the Dominican Republic, but he was Cuban at heart.
by Marta Gómez Ferrals
On June 17, 1905, 120 years ago, Generalissimo Máximo Gómez Báez, the master strategist of the Cuban independence wars, died in Havana at the age of 68. He was born in the Dominican Republic but was Cuban at heart.
He died as a result of generalized sepsis caused by an initial infection in his hand. His funeral procession was the largest demonstration of popular mourning seen in Havana in those years, a testament to the pain and respect Cubans felt for the man who fought tirelessly for freedom and opposed foreign occupation until his death.
The epithet "Generalissimo," still used with admiration, recognizes not only his uncompromising eagerness for discipline, organization, and ethics within his troops but also his commanding voice, earned by always being in the vanguard, and his continuous generation of effective combat tactics to beat the enemy.
Scholars estimate that he gained the status of a military genius during the liberation campaigns he initiated in 1896, and he was officially recognized as such in 1995. At the behest of José Martí, he was named General in Chief of the Mambi troops, alongside the Bronze Titan Antonio Maceo, who served as lieutenant general during the extraordinary invasion from east to west.
He settled on the El Dátil estate in Bayamo, Cuba. In 1866, he left the metropolis's army. He gained experience participating in the Dominican militias against Haitian incursions and in the Restoration Revolution that began in 1861 but later failed.
Céspedes granted his promotion to major general in the wilderness, promptly recognizing his proven merits. In the battle known as Tienda del Pino, he employed the first machete charge of the Mambí wars—a tactic that combined the bold momentum of fierce horsemen with the formidable blade that had become a weapon of war.
These charges and his combat strategies developed throughout that campaign and later in the Necessary War organized by José Martí in 1895 were devastating and highly effective. They coexisted with the use of rifles and cannons, which the Cuban freedom fighters generally had to seize from the Spanish, as military expeditions and landings with war supplies were scarce.
In 1878, at the end of the Ten Years' War, he went into exile. For a time, he accepted a high-ranking military post offered by the president of Honduras. From 1884 to 1886, he joined Antonio Maceo, who was also in exile, in a conspiracy named after them both, which revived the drive for independence. However, the conspiracy was aborted, and they suffered reprisals.
Exile brought years of poverty, sacrifice, imprisonment, and family losses for the two patriots. However, many abroad recognized their great prestige and brilliant military strategies.
The fame of their feats had crossed oceans. Yet, they never chose the path of dishonor nor served ignoble causes.
Gómez's campaign record is also marked by his numerous crossings of the Júcaro-Morón military line.
Following José Martí's death at the start of the War of 1895, Gómez and Maceo began a military campaign in late 1895. Starting from Mangos de Baraguá in Oriente, they advanced to Mantua in Pinar del Río, achieving their goal of invading the west.
Following Maceo's death in combat in 1896, Gómez invigorated the Las Villas campaign (1897–1898). Experts regard this campaign as reflecting a mature and well-developed military mind, an extraordinary intelligence that also shone through in the literary flourishes of his writings and reasoning.
However, the U.S. occupation thwarted his aspirations, which essentially aligned with those of José Martí. He withdrew from politics, though not before expressing his opposition to the intervening government's plans, which humiliated the liberators and imposed a neocolonial regime. (Source: ACN)
