Chema_Cagi
Civilian
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2008 5:53 pm

Spanish commanders

Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:22 pm

A cheerful salute to everyone, glad to join this forum :) .


After loading the Gálvez scenario, I've found with surprise Luis de Unzaga as commander in La Habana, and in the historical background Bernardo de Gálvez is reported as the spanish invader of Bahamas.


The Captain General and governor of La Habana at the time of the scenario was Juan Manuel de Cagigal y Montserrat (Santiago de Cuba 1738 - Valencia 1808) (sometimes written as "Cajigal", and not to be mistaken with his cousin Juan Manuel de Cajigal y Niño, also governor of La Habana from 1811). He was the son of general Francisco Antonio Cagigal de la Vega, a former Viceroy of Nueva España, and a cuban lady from the emerging colonial high society, so he's reported as the first creole ("criollo") cuban governor


Juan Manuel Cagigal was the second in command of Bernardo de Gálvez along the whole Louisiana campaign. In some sources he is reported as "the first to storm the breach at the walls of Pensacola"

And he was actually the organiser and leader of the spanish invasion of Bahamas in 1782, for what he was promoted to field marshall. Gálvez didn't intervene in the Antilles expedition

Cagigal was also the organiser of a massive collection of money among the social elite of La Habana to help the american insurgents, with the help of his friend and personal secretary Francisco de Miranda, considered by most historians as the most important precursor of south american independentist movement.

After receiving a letter from french admiral De Grasse asking for money to help financing the american insurgents, Juan Manuel de Cagigal asked the high society from la Habana and in barely 24 hours collected the amount of 1.200.000 pounds ("libras tornesas"). Some cuban ladies gave even some of their diamonds. The money was sent by De Grasse in a ship convoy to Yorktown, where a house had to be reinforced to support the weight of the silver coins

Some american historians (Orwin Rush) consider this late injection of money as crucial in determining the result of the battle of Yorktown, since it allowed Washington to equip 5000 additional minutemen (lastminutemen I would say :) )

Later, when Francisco de Miranda was reported as suspect by the spanish Inquisition, Cagigal defended him and helped to escape, for what he was imprisoned 4 years in a castle near Cádiz until he was personally indulted by the spanish king for all his previous services


Apart from being a direct ancestor of mine (for what I have the rights to claim being a Son of the American Revolution :) ), I think that the inclusion of Luis de Unzaga as the commander in La Habana in 1779 is just a plain error. The right dude should be my uber-mega-grandpa Juan Manuel de Cagigal :)

User avatar
arsan
Posts: 6244
Joined: Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:35 pm
Location: Madrid, Spain

Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:37 pm

Hi Chema!
Welcome aboard! :hat:
I remember having seen your grand-grand-grand-grandpa :D on the game files as a leader... did he don't show on the scenario at all?
Or does he appear but on some other stack?
This issue should be pretty easy to fix/mod by some of the regulars fixers/dodders around :)

Regards!

User avatar
lodilefty
Posts: 7616
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 3:27 pm
Location: Finger Lakes, NY GMT -5 US Eastern

Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:51 pm

Hi.

Yes, the model/unit for your ancestor does exist, but I find nobody named 'Unzaga' in the Database or the scenario :confused:

I see Jose de Langara in command at Cuba.

Easy to fix, just help me with the history and 'whom is whom' :blink:
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User avatar
Nikel
Posts: 2893
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:38 pm

Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:55 pm

No idea about what you said or whta appears in the game, just in case it is helpful, according to the wikipedia these are the dates for the commented military Governors at Cuba


1781 to 1782 Juan Manuel de Cagigal y Monserrat
1782 to 1785 Luis de Unzaga y Amezaga


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_heads_of_Cuba
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Gobernadores_coloniales_de_Cuba


In this document in spanish/english, it is said

On May 30 (1781), they arrived in Havana, where they were received
as heroes. There they found out that the king had appointed Juan
Manuel de Cagigal as governor of Cuba
, Bernardo de Gálvez as
lieutenant general of the army, and José Solano as squadron Chief.

http://www.seacex.com/documentos/legacy_10_toma_pensacola.pdf

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