Civil War Confederate Army Officer, Cuban Revolutionary. He was revolutionary who figured prominently in both his native country's struggle against Spain and the Confederacy's fight for secession. He served as the second-in-command of the filibuster invasion of Cardenas, Cuba, on May 19, 1850, led by General Narciso Lopez. Immortalized as the first Cuban to shed blood in the effort to oust the Spanish, he managed to place himself in the center of hostilities in both his homeland and in the United States. He authored a manifesto on Cuban annexation to the United States in 1852. With the failure of the 1854 filibuster attempts, he settled in the United States and married into South Carolina's prominent Elliott family. Appointed a Colonel in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, he was chief of artillery for the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida from 1862 to 1865. He had a significant role in Confederate coastal defenses and his finest hour as a Confederate as an artillery commander at the Battle of Honey Hill. Following the war, he pursued a variety of vocations, all of which were marginally successful, but like many others he never provided the security he sought for his extended family. His sons, Narciso and Ambrose, founded "The State" newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina.
Civil War Confederate Army Officer, Cuban Revolutionary. He was revolutionary who figured prominently in both his native country's struggle against Spain and the Confederacy's fight for secession. He served as the second-in-command of the filibuster invasion of Cardenas, Cuba, on May 19, 1850, led by General Narciso Lopez. Immortalized as the first Cuban to shed blood in the effort to oust the Spanish, he managed to place himself in the center of hostilities in both his homeland and in the United States. He authored a manifesto on Cuban annexation to the United States in 1852. With the failure of the 1854 filibuster attempts, he settled in the United States and married into South Carolina's prominent Elliott family. Appointed a Colonel in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, he was chief of artillery for the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida from 1862 to 1865. He had a significant role in Confederate coastal defenses and his finest hour as a Confederate as an artillery commander at the Battle of Honey Hill. Following the war, he pursued a variety of vocations, all of which were marginally successful, but like many others he never provided the security he sought for his extended family. His sons, Narciso and Ambrose, founded "The State" newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina.
Bio by: Antonio de la Cova
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