Only one little division of patriots, one hundred strong, remained unconquered. Aguero, who had made his escape after the defeat at Las Tunas, took command of this company. The city of Nuevitas was entered in triumph, amid shouts of welcome from the people, who in large numbers threw in their fortunes with the revolution. Don Carlos Comus led the Spanish forces against the city, and a desperate battle which raged for over three hours was fought. The ammunition of the patriots was exhausted, and fighting against frightful odds, they were almost exterminated; fewer than the original one hundred remained alive. They fled, and were speedily captured by the pursuing Spaniards.
Complete defeat had now overtaken the revolutionists, who so boldly on July 3 had declared their independence of Spain, and thrown a defiant gauntlet before the Spanish power. By the end of July not a single one of the original army remained at large to tell the story; they had all been killed, captured, or frightened into cowed and silent obedience to Spanish rule. Of those who had fallen into the hands of the Spaniards, every one was tried by military tribunal, and sentence passed upon them. Two courts sat in judgment on the offenders, one at Puerto Principe and the other at Trinidad, at which latter the Captain-General, José de la Concha, presided. Under his dictation sentence of death was pronounced upon José Isidore Armenteros, Fernando Hernandez and Rafael Arcis, all recognized as prime movers in the revolution. Ignacio Belen Perez, Nestor Cadalso, Juan O'Bourke, Abeja Iznaga Miranda and Jose Maria Rodriguez were sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, which was to be suffered abroad, and they were forever banished from Cuba, while the same terms were imposed on Juan Hevia and Avelind Porada, whose sentences, however, were shortened to eight years each, and Pedro José Pomarcz, Foribio Garcia, Cruz Birba and Fernando Medinilla were also banished, and condemned to two years' imprisonment. All sentences went into effect on August 18. It is interesting to note in passing a fact which seems quite in keeping with the Spanish character as demonstrated by the administration of the island; the men who were condemned to death were led out into a field by the name of Del Negro, near the city of Trinidad, and shot in the back.
The court which sat in judgment at Puerto Principe tried the leader of the revolutionists, and brave Joaquin Aguero was condemned to die by the garrote. The same sentence was imposed on José Thomas Betancourt, Fernando de Zayas and Miguel Benavides; while Miguel Castellanos and Adolfo Pierre Aguero were sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, which sentences were all decreed to take effect on August 12.
It was impossible, even with the strict censorship which the Spanish Captain-General maintained over the island, to keep reports of the stirring events which were taking place from leaking forth into the outer world. Of course, Lopez and the junta at New York learned of them through the channels known only to themselves, and the news, spreading to all parts of the United States, caused tremendous excitement. Great interest was manifested, particularly in the southern states, and in New York City, where the members of the Cuban junta had begun to stir up a considerable amount of interest in and sympathy for the Cubans. The New York papers dispatched correspondents to obtain the true story of the rebellion, but the reporters had difficulty in getting into the country, and encountered still greater obstacles in dispatching what news they could gather to their respective sheets. They were hampered in their efforts by Spanish officials and Spanish spies were always at their heels.
While the main uprising had been in the vicinity of Puerto Principe, incipient rebellions and sympathetic insurrections occurred in other parts of the island, which were quickly quelled by overwhelming forces of Spaniards, and the news of which was confined as much as possible to the immediate vicinity of the uprisings. At Trinidad a mob assembled on horseback, crying vengeance on the Spanish oppressors, but they were soon driven from the city and obliged to take to cover on a densely wooded hill, where their movements were so hampered by underbrush that they were perforce compelled to abandon their mounts, and soon surrendered to superior numbers. It was suspected that the inhabitants of Havana, or rather the revolutionary sympathizers in that place, were about to revolt, but the guard was redoubled, the crowd was overawed by numbers of well armed troops, and the movement, if it ever had been contemplated, never materialized. However, many of the wealthy inhabitants, fearing that they might be seized on suspicion of complicity with the revolutionists, hastily fled to their estates in the country.
The New York Herald, which for a long time had been sympathetically inclined toward the revolutionary party in Cuba, on July 16, 1851, printed the following report, which was based on facts gathered by its correspondent:
"I consider that, in a political point of view, this island was never in a more critical state than it is at this present moment. The Creoles of Cuba have at length thrown down the gauntlet of defiance to the authority of Spain."
This statement was followed by a long account of the engagements between the revolutionists and the forces of Spain. On July 22 the same paper, under the guise of reporting conditions, issued what was really a call of "The United States to the rescue," which in part read as follows:
"The revolution of Cuba has changed from chrysalis to full grown fly. The first blood has been spilled. Cuba, some seem to think, has had her Lexington.... The revolution having begun, it cannot go backward and it is more than probable that the days of Spain's rule are at least to be much embarrassed. The government counts 14,000 troops, and no more, in all the island, and may, perhaps, be able to raise as many more from the Spanish population; but their fleet is a good one, comprising some twenty vessels, of which six are steamers. Whether the struggle be a long one or a short one, will depend on the 'aid and comfort' the Cubans receive from the United States, in the shape of guns, pistols, powder, ball and men that can teach them to organize and manoeuvre."