Upon the US American general Thomas Jordan’s arrival, who was named Chief of the High Command and later Head of the Liberation Army in the Camagüey region, W. O’Ryan was named inspector and chief of cavalry, before attaining the rank of general. He was sent on a mission to the United States, from where he set out to return to Cuba at the end of October 1873. He sailed aboard the American steamship Virginius as part of the leadership of an expedition also led by the generals Bernabé Varona Borrero (Bembeta) and Pedro Céspedes Castillo, as well as the colonel Jesús del Sol.

The Virginius was captured by the Spanish warship Tornado off Cuban waters and was towed into the bay of Santiago de Cuba on 1 December. Five days later, by order of the Spanish authorities, all the leaders of the revolutionary expedition were executed, O’Ryan among them. On 7 December the ship’s captain, Joseph Fry, and 36 members of the crew, were executed, causing a diplomatic and political conflict between Spain and the United States. In honour of the independence fighter O’Ryan a street of the Sagarra subdivision in Santiago de Cuba was given his name.

Rafael Fernández Moya

Notes

[1] The author is a Specialist in Commercial Management at the tourist company Habaguanex, and in the Historian’s Office of Havana.

References

- Atlas de Cuba (Havana: Instituto Cubano de Geodesia y Cartografía, 1978).

- Bacardí, Emilio, Crónicas de Santiago de Cuba (Santiago de Cuba: Tipografía Arroyo Hermanos, 1925).

- Bustamante, Luís Jorge, Enciclopedia popular cubana (Havana: Editorial Lex, 1942-48).

- Calcagno, Francisco, Diccionario biográfico cubano (New York: Impr. y Librería de N. Ponce de León, 1878).

- Dollero, Adolfo, Cultura cubana, la provincia de Matanzas y su evolución (Havana: Impr. Seoane y Fernández, 1929).

- Ely, Roland T.,.Comerciantes cubanos del siglo XIX, 2nd ed. (Havana: Editorial Librería Martí,1961).

- García del Pino, César and Alicia Melis Cappa, eds. Documentos para la historia colonial de Cuba (Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1988).

- González del Valle, Francisco, La Habana en 1841 (Havana: 1948).

- Lloyd, Reginald, Impresiones de la República de Cuba en el siglo XX (London: Lloyds Greater Britain Publishing Company Ltd., 1913).

- Madden, Richard R., La Isla de Cuba (Havana: Editora del Consejo Nacional de Cultura, 1964).

- Marrero, Levi, Cuba, economía y sociedad (Madrid: Editorial Playor, 1978).

- Pérez-Beato, Manuel, Habana antigua, apuntes históricos (Havana: Seoane y Fernández, 1936).

- Pezuela y Lobo, Jacobo de la,  Diccionario geográfico, estadístico, histórico de la isla de Cuba (Madrid: Imprenta del Establecimiento de Mellado, 1863).

- Ramírez Corría, Filiberto, Excerta de una isla mágica o biografía de un latifundio. (México City: Editorial Olimpo, 1959).

- Rovira González, Violeta, ‘Apuntes sobre la organización de la economía cienfueguera y significación de los franceses fundadores en ella: introducción a la historia de Cienfuegos, 1819—1860’, Revista Islas, 52-53 (Septiembre 1975-Abril 1976), pp. 3-98.

- Santa Cruz y Mallen, Francisco Xavier, Historia de familias cubanas (Havana: Editorial Hércules, 1943).

Documents

- Archivo Nacional de Cuba

- Fondos Gobierno General Gobierno Superior Civil

- Junta de Fomento

- Realengos

- Escribanías

- Comisión Militar