José María Aguirre Valdés

Major General of the Cuban Liberation Army. He achieved the rank of colonel in the War of '68 in which he was taken prisoner and sent to Spain. Released after the Pact of Zanjón, he worked for the independence of Cuba alongside Calixto García and later alongside José Martí. In the War of '95 he fought in the province of La Habana where he died of pneumonia in 1896.

He was born in the city of La Habana.

When the War of '68 began, he departed for Nassau, in the Bahamas. There he enlisted in the expedition of the schooner Galvanic, which disembarked at La Guanaja, on the northern coast of Camagüey, under the command of General Manuel de Quesada, on December 27, 1868. He was designated for the position of standard bearer of the General Headquarters, under the orders of Quesada, who had been appointed Commander in Chief of the Liberation Army in April 1869.

In the attack on the hamlet of Maniabón, he kept the Cuban flag waving at all times under fire from enemy artillery. In January 1870, after Quesada had been removed from his position (December 17, 1869), he came under the orders of Major General Ignacio Agramonte, chief of the Division of Camagüey. Upon the latter's death in May 1873, he came under the command of Major General Máximo Gómez, with whom he participated in several combats, notably that of Palo Seco, on December 2, 1873, and the Battle of Las Guásimas, from March 15-19, 1874, in which he received minor wounds. He was part of the invasion contingent to Las Villas, with which he crossed the trocha from Júcaro to Morón in the early morning of January 6, 1875, at the head of the Expeditionary Regiment of Oriente, with the rank of commander.

On March 26, 1875, he attacked a Spanish force at Potrerillo and on May 9, 1875, a convoy between the Ruíz sugar mill and Sagua la Chica. The following day he fought at Pirindingo, and two days later, at Guajén. On the 23rd of that month he resisted an enemy attack at San Pedro. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on June 29, 1875. He participated in the combat at Cafetal de González (Loma del Jíbaro), on February 28, 1876. Subsequently, he was ordered to remain in the area of Sagua la Grande with the Narciso regiment, where he carried out the attack on the Guadalupe sugar mill.

He accompanied Brigadier General Henry Reeve to the vicinity of Colón, Matanzas, where he fell prisoner to the enemy on April 29, 1877, a few days after receiving the rank of colonel. After serving three months in prison on the Island, he was deported to El Hacho Castle, in Ceuta, and released when the Pact of Zanjón was signed in February 1878.

He went to the United States, where he impatiently awaited the opportunity to join the Little War. He enlisted in the expedition of the schooner Hattie Haskel organized by Major General Calixto García, but a lack of coordination in the notice prevented him from arriving in time at the boarding point.

On January 26, 1881, he obtained American citizenship and the following day embarked for Cuba with a passport from that country. He became one of the first organizers of the conspiracy directed by José Martí.

On February 24, 1895, he was surprised and detained by police at the Palatino stop, where he was waiting for the train that would take him to Matanzas to rise up. Confined in the fortress of La Cabaña, they attempted to subject him to a Court Martial, but he was released on September 10 of that same year, by virtue of his American citizenship, and deported to the United States, where he departed in early October. On November 17, 1895, he disembarked at Cabañas, Santiago de Cuba, together with the then Brigadier General Francisco Carrillo, at the head of 39 expeditionaries, and a large shipment of weapons, on the steamship Horsa. Ten days later he arrived at the camp of Antón, in Camagüey, the seat of the Government Council, where it is said that the president, Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, offered him the command of the Third Corps in that province, but he declined, expressing his desire to fight in the province of La Habana, so he requested permission to continue westward in search of the General Headquarters of the Liberation Army.

He was already a Brigadier General when on January 31, 1896, he arrived at the camp of La Luisa, in the province of La Habana. There, together with Gómez, he fought two days later, repelling an enemy attack. Four days later, on February 6, 1896, the Commander in Chief appointed him chief of the Second Division of the Fifth Corps, in the province of La Habana. Among the combats in which he participated that year, the following stand out: Juquetillo, in Canasí (May 29), alongside Major General José María Rodríguez Rodríguez; Jiquiabo (July 16), and those at El Plátano and El Volcán, on December 3 and 7, respectively.

While going to assist the transportation of the weapons cache from the fourth voyage of the steamship Three Friends on July 7, 1896, along the beach of Boca Ciega, La Habana, he contracted pneumonia that later became complicated. By the end of 1896, he was seriously ill. On December 18 of that year, he engaged in his last combat at San Francisco, in which he could barely participate due to the advanced state of his illness. He died from this cause on December 29, 1896, at Sitio Perdido, Escaleras de Jaruco, La Habana. The men of his general staff concealed his body in a cave at the site to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

On December 3, 1896, the Government Council officially granted him the rank of Major General, recognizing his seniority from February 5, 1896. On October 15, 1899, his remains were transferred to Colón cemetery.