A mambi victory that consolidated the triumph of the invasion

On December 29, 1895, the Invading Column led by Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo fought a battle in Calimete, in the province of Matanzas, that closed the so-called Invasion Loop, based on partial retreat intended to deceive the Spaniards by making them believe that the Liberation Army's march to the West had failed.

Indeed, the top brass in Havana told Madrid that the Cuban pro-independence fighters “were quite exhausted”, optimistic as they were that the fleeing mambises would soon be defeated.

Considering the traditional military thinking of the time, the Spanish officers had good reasons to be unconcerned, since they led one of the most powerful armies in the world in Cuba, a long, narrow island in which 250,000 troops had been deployed.

Opposing them was an invading force of about 2,000 men led by Generalissimo Máximo Gómez and Lieutenant General Antonio Maceo, who had left from Mangos de Baraguá on October 22, 1895 and got around a 68-km-long fortified military line built by Spain to prevent the pass of insurrectionist forces to the western part of the island.

Then came their victory in Mal Tiempo, where they beat a force of more than 10,000 Spanish soldiers on December 15, 1895. However, Gómez and Maceo, careful not to underestimate the enemy, devised the strategic counter-march and arrived in the region of Calimete in the early hours of December 29, where around 1,000 Spanish troops had formed a square to block their way.

The Cuban leaders launched their whole cavalry against their right flank while using the infantry to protect their own in case the enemy counterattacked, but the mambi cavalrymen managed to open a breach through the Spanish formation, which was bristling with bayonets and resisted heroically but eventually had to fall back.

In the end, Maceo and Gomez won the battle of Calimete, where 22 Spanish soldiers died and 75 were wounded. And even if it was the Liberation Army’s most costly victory during the invasion—with 16 dead and more than 80 wounded—the Cubans had managed to deceive the enemy and soon resumed their march towards Havana.

While the Generalissimo fought the enemy and destroyed its riches on his way to Havana, the Bronze Titan took the invasion to the farthest corners of western Cuba to bring to an end the most important military feat of the century, according to army chiefs of the time.