| Pedro Cespedes | Manuel Padron |
| Arturo Mola | Alexandro Cruz Estrada |
| Jose Diaz | Felix Fernandez |
| Francisco de Porras | Juan Soto |
| Juan Merrero | Manuel Perez |
| Jose Medeo | Jose Otero |
| Raimundo Pardo | Jose Antonio Ramon |
| Francisco Gonzales | Radom Barrios |
| Jose Palaez | Ignacio Valdes |
| Leonardo Alvarez | Jose Santesteban |
| Julio Arango | Felix Morejon |
| Jose Hernandez | Francisco Pacheco |
| Nicholas Ramirez | Evaristo Sungunegri |
| Ignacio Quentin Baltran | Ramon Gonzalez |
| Perfecto Bello | Antonio Chacon |
| Benito Glodes | Francisco Rivero |
| Louis Sanchez | Sireno Otero |
| Nicholas Reriz | Carlos Pachero |
| Juan Alvarado | Antonio Padilla |
| Jose Boitel | Enrico Canals |
| Ricardo Calvo | Indalecio Trujillo |
| Augustin Varona | Domingo Diaz |
| Silverio Salas | Carlos Gonzalez |
| Domingo Salazar | Oscar Varona |
| Justus Consuegra | Alfredo Lopez |
| Jose Ignacio Lamar | Andres Villa |
| Andres Acosta | Francisco Castillo |
| Benjamin Olazara | Salvador Penedo |
| Enrique Castellanos | Rafael Pacheco |
| Alejandro Calvo | Camito Guerra |
| Jesus de Sol | Camilo Sanz |
| Leon Bernal | Emilio Garcia |
| Rafael Cabrera | Amador Rosello |
| Ignacio W. Tapia | Manuel A. Silverio |
| Santiago Rivera | Antonio Gomez |
| Andres Echeverria | Luiz Martinez |
| Jose Maren | Pedro Sariol |
| Pedro Saez | Miguel Saya |
| Severo Mendive | Patricio Martinez |
| Enrique Ayala | Manuel Saumel |
| Domingo Rodrigue | Luis Rebollo |
| Arturo Rivero | Carlos Manin |
| William S. Valls | Ramon R. D. Armas |
| Manuel Menenses | Joseph A. Smith |
| General Ryan | Philip Abecaler |
| William Curtis | Samuel Hall |
| S. Gray | Sidney Robertson |
| George Winter | William Marshall |
| Evan Pento | George Burke |
| Ricardo Trujillo | Gil Montero |
| Leopoldo Rizo |
These occurrences, when known, aroused tremendous excitement and wrath in the United States, and there was much talk of war. But the government, under the wise counsel of Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, kept its head and resorted to diplomacy before force. The Spanish government, too, kept its head. It realized that its officers in Cuba had acted outrageously, and that their deeds must be disavowed. So it agreed, on December 8, to surrender the Virginius on December 16, to release all surviving passengers and sailors and deliver them safely to an American warship at Santiago, and to punish all Spanish officials who had acted illegally. There remained the supposed outrage to the American flag, which the Virginius was flying when she was fired upon and seized. The Spanish government agreed to make amends by saluting the American flag at Santiago on Christmas Day, provided it could be proved that the Virginius had a right to carry it. But as a matter of fact the vessel had no such right. The Attorney-General of the United States gave, before the day set for the salute, the opinion that the vessel was the property of General Quesada and other Cubans, and therefore had no right to sail under the American flag. The final settlement of the affair occurred in February, 1875, when the Spanish government paid an indemnity of $80,000 to the United States, and a smaller sum to Great Britain, for their citizens who had been slaughtered. The Virginius was lost at sea while being returned to the United States.
Meanwhile the patriots had not ceased fighting, and on November 9 they met the Spaniards in a battle in which a large force was engaged on both sides. They were equally matched, each belligerent having about three thousand men in the field. The Cubans were victorious, and they lost only a hundred men killed and double that number wounded, while the Spanish losses were four times as many killed, and six hundred wounded.
Stories of Spanish cruelty to prisoners and to peaceful citizens continued to be heard, and the Cubans were not content to allow these to remain unsubstantiated. In 1873, Cuban sympathizers compiled a statement which they called "The Book of Blood." In some manner they gained access to Spanish records, and used not their own personal knowledge but the official reports of the Spaniards themselves as a basis for their accusations. The acts complained of were not confined to one year, but covered the administrations as Captain-General of Lersundi, Dulce, Rodas, Ceballos, Pieltain and Jovellar. There was almost no comment; simply a plain statement of facts. The book commences with the names of three thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven persons, exclusive of men killed in battle, who had been brutally murdered by the Spaniards. The dates and places of execution are given, so that there can be no mistake as to the accuracy of the data. Following this is a list of four thousand six hundred and seventy-two prisoners, captured by the Spaniards, who had simply dropped out of sight, and whose fate had never been determined. Next there is a record of one hundred and ninety-one men who had been garrotted. There are the names of eighty-four men who had been court-martialled in accordance with the decree of February 12, 1869, and under orders from the Captain-General; then the names of five men condemned for life to hard labor in the chain gang of the penal colony of Ceuta; the names of five others who had been given the same sentence for a period of ten years, twenty sentenced for eight years, and one for six years. After this is a list of men condemned to the chain gang, place unknown, five for ten years, two for eight years, seventeen for six years, three for four years, and one hundred and fifty-eight from two to eight years. Then comes a list of two hundred and fifty men from all walks of life, including superintendents of plantations, attorneys at law, brokers, bankers, one architect, clergymen, carpenters, druggists, engineers, farmers, masons, military officers, notaries, Post Office clerks, railroad clerks, one British Consul, three dentists, several police officers, surveyors, pilots, students, shoemakers, silversmiths, physicians, an artist, seventeen property holders, seven teachers, five tobacco manufacturers, a tailor, fifteen sailors, musicians, boatmen, sugar makers, journeymen, and even one schoolboy, who had been transported on May 21, 1869, to the island of Fernando Po, off the coast of Africa. They were reported to have been badly treated; so badly in fact that forty-seven died on the voyage or immediately on landing. Besides this there is a report of forty-four men transported to the penal colonies of Africa.
A defense is made against the charge that the Cubans had during the war been no more merciful than the Spaniards. It was claimed that during the first years of the war, when a number of officers had been captured by the patriots, they were not executed, but were placed under parole not to attempt to escape. They broke their parole, and in return for the merciful conduct of their former captors they became the most violent and brutal of all the Spanish officials in their persecution of the Cubans. On the other hand, when men of Spanish birth approached the patriots expressing sympathy for their cause, and a desire to fight for independence, their services were accepted and in every instance they proved to be spies, who furnished the Spanish leaders with valuable information and delivered their Cuban comrades into the hands of the enemy. It was alleged that up to August, 1869, the Cuban leaders adhered to their policy of fair and decent treatment of their captives, and when they learned of the brutal conduct of the Spaniards, General Quesada addressed a message to General Lesca, and endeavored to effect a mutual agreement on the subject. The reply received declared that the Spaniards saw no reason to depart from their custom in the matter of this and left the Cubans no alternative but to resort to similar measures. General Quesada therefore ordered the execution of sixty-seven persons who had voluntarily taken up arms under the Cuban banner, and who had later been apprehended in a conspiracy to betray the patriots. It is stated that the report of the affairs erroneously added an extra numeral to the figures, which caused the number to be stated as six hundred and seventy.
In proof of the truth of the statements contained in the "Book of Blood," an account from the Spanish journal "Diario de la Marina," under date of March 24, 1870, is cited:
"All the officers, sergeants and corporals who were in the hands of the enemy have been shot. In connection with many Cubans they had planned a counter-revolution, and had concerted the delivery of all rebel chieftains to General Puello. Two days before the one appointed by this gallant general to commence his march, he sent a messenger to Captain Troyano with the news of his advance. The bearer of the news was arrested, however, and searched, the letter was found, and on the following day, the messenger, our officers, and the Cubans compromised in the counter-revolution, were shot, thus sealing with their lives their devotion to their beloved mother country."
This seems to be an ample corroboration of the fact that the men in question were shot as traitors and not as prisoners of war. Another Spanish officer, Don Domingo Graino, a Captain of the Volunteers, under date of September 23, 1869, writes:
"More than three hundred spies and conspirators are shot monthly in this jurisdiction. Myself alone with my band have already disposed of nine."