José Toral y Velázquez

José Toral y Velázquez[lower-alpha 1] (August 18, 1832 – July 10, 1904) was a Spanish Army general who was a divisional commander of IV Corps in Cuba during the Spanish–American War. He surrendered the city of Santiago de Cuba on July 17, 1898, after the Siege of Santiago.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Toral and the second or maternal family name is Velázquez.
José Toral y Velázquez
circa 1898
Born(1832-08-18)August 18, 1832
Mazarrón, Spain
DiedJuly 10, 1904(1904-07-10) (aged 71)
Carabanchel, Spain
Allegiance Spain
Service/branchSpanish Army
Years of service1842-1899
RankBrigadier General
Commands heldMadrid garrison
Division, IV Corps
IV Corps (temporary)

Early life and career

Toral was born August 18, 1832,[2] in the southeastern Spanish city of Mazarrón. The region was in the midst of a mining boom, but Toral's family had a long history of military service. He entered the Academia General Militar at the age of 10, and served in the administrative branch of the Spanish Army. He saw active duty from the 1840s to the 1870s, serving domestically as well as in colonial posts during insurrections. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1889. In 1895, he was appointed the commander of the garrison of Madrid, which provided security for government buildings and officials as well as ceremonial troops for various functions.[3]

In late 1895, Toral volunteered for duty in Cuba. He was assigned to the Spanish Army garrison in Guantánamo, where he performed his duties during the Cuban War of Independence. When the Spanish–American War broke out in April 1898, Lieutenant General Arsenio Linares y Pombo requested that Toral become his deputy at the garrison at Santiago de Cuba.[3] Linares established a military commission to establish defenses for the city, and appointed Toral to this body. Afterward, Toral was assigned command one of two divisions that made up IV Corps—the unit commanded by Linares which defended Santiago de Cuba.[4]

Battle and surrender at Santiago de Cuba

On July 1, 1898, Linares was wounded in the Battle of San Juan Hill. Toral was named temporary commander of IV Corps.[4] Toral inherited a poorly executed defense: Of the more than 6,000 troops at his command, Linares had dispatched 500 to hold the heights at El Caney and more than 1,000 to hold the harbor entrance. But just 1,200 of the remaining 4,000 soldiers had been sent to hold San Juan Heights — the defensive key to the city.[5] After the defeat at San Juan, most of the defenders pulled back within the city limits. The United States Navy had cut the telegraph cables to Guantánamo on June 7,[6] so Toral sent a messenger to Brigadier General Félix Pareja Mesa asking for reinforcements. Mesa never received the message.[4]

Early in the morning on July 3, U.S. Major General William Rufus Shafter asked Toral to surrender. Toral refused.[4] Hours later, Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete's Atlantic Squadron attempted to leave Santiago de Cuba's harbor and was destroyed by the U.S. Navy's Flying Squadron and North Atlantic Squadron, commanded by Commodore Winfield Scott Schley.[7] Shafter contacted Toral again late on July 3, and asked for his surrender a second time. Shafter warned him that the city would be bombarded on July 5 without it. Toral continued to negotiate, trying to buy time. On July 8, Toral offered to surrender[4] — but only if he would be permitted to withdraw his men and arms to the town of Holguín. Shafter, his V Corps decimated by disease and suffering from the extreme heat, poor supplies, poor sanitation, and poor housing,[8] wanted to permit the withdrawal. But President William McKinley, consulted on the situation, demanded unconditional surrender.[9]

Shafter warned Toral that bombardment of Santiago de Cuba would happen on July 10 unless he surrendered, and Toral again declined the request. U.S. Navy and U.S. Army troops shelled the city beginning at 4:00 P.M. on July 10 and ceased at 1:00 P.M. on July 11. Toral held his ground and continued to negotiate. Shafter offered to send all Spanish prisoners of war to Spain at American expense and allow Toral to evacuate his men and arms if the Spanish commander surrendered. Meanwhile, General Ramón Blanco y Erenas, commander of all Spanish forces in Cuba, pressured Toral to surrender to spare the city further shelling. The Spanish government in Madrid was also pressing Toral to surrender. Toral declined to do so. But the Americans cut the water supply to the city and conditions for the civilian population deteriorated rapidly.[4]

General Toral unconditionally surrendered his remaining men at Santiago de Cuba, the 12,000 men at Guantánamo, and six other small Spanish Army garrisons throughout Cuba on July 17, 1898. The surrender effectively ended land combat in Cuba for the duration of the war.[10] Concerned with his post-war reputation, Toral successfully demanded that the word "capitulation" rather than "surrender" be used in all documents and that his men be allowed to retain their weapons.[4]

Post-war life

On July 22, the government of Spain requested peace terms from the United States.[11] Spain and the United States signed an armistice, the "Protocol of Peace", on August 12.[12]

Toral departed for Spain on August 15, 1898, under the terms of the Protocol of Peace. The Spanish people, however, blamed him for the collapse of the Spanish military effort in Cuba and his arrival was met with public demonstrations.[4] Some of these were violent. In the city of Vigo, the crowd threw stones at him.[13] Toral was tried before a court-martial for surrendering Santiago de Cuba. He was defended by Julián Suárez Inclán,[9] and acquitted on August 9, 1899.[4]

Public attacks on his character and behavior continued frequently throughout the rest of Toral's life. He became depressed and slowly went insane. A few months before his death,[4] he was placed in a psychiatric hospital in Carabanchel, a suburb of Madrid. He died there on July 10, 1904.[13]

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References
Notes
  1. Many (but not all) English-language sources list Toral's name as "José Toral y Vázquez". But as original Spanish-language documents make clear, his correct name is "José Toral y Velázquez".[1]
Citations
  1. Inclán, Julián Suárez, y González Villar (1899). Defensa del General Toral ante el Consejo Suprema de Guerra y Marina reunido y constituido en sala en justicia. Madrid: Joaquín Baquedano.
  2. "Crónica de la Guerra." Blanco y Negro. 9 Julio 1899, p. 11. Accessed 2013-06-29.
  3. Konstam, Angus. San Juan Hill 1898: America's Emergence As a World Power. Osprey Publishing, 2013, p. 17.
  4. Pierpaoli, Jr., Paul G. "Toral y Vásquez José." In The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History. Spencer Tucker, ed. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2009, p. 644.
  5. Walker, Dale L. The Boys of '98: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. New York: Forge, 1999, p. 230-231.
  6. Hansen, Jonathan M. Guantánamo: An American History. New York: Macmillan, 2011, p. 97.
  7. Tucker, Spencer C. "Santiago de Cuba, Naval Battle of (July 3, 1898)." In U.S. Leadership in Wartime: Clashes, Controversy, and Compromise. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2009, p. 405-406.
  8. Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2002, p. 98.
  9. Keenan, Jerry. Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2001, p. 382-382.
  10. Marley, David. Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2008, p. 603-604.
  11. Fernandez, Ronald. The Disenchanted Island: Puerto Rico and the United States in the Twentieth Century. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996, p. 3.
  12. Tucker, Spencer C. "Expansion at Home and Abroad: Timeline." In Almanac of American Military History. Vol. 2. Spencer C. Tucker, ed. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, 2013, p. 1177.
  13. "General Toral Dead." Sacred Heart Review. 32:3 (July 16, 1904), p. 1. Accessed 2013-06-29.
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