Qualla: Battle of Palo Hincado

Battle of Palo Hincado: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

General Juan Sanchez Ramirez told his troops that any man who ran would be shot - including himself. It was November 7, 1808, and the reconquistadores were standing in wet grass on the Palo Hincado savanna, half a league west of El Seibo, waiting for the French. Most of them were volunteers, farmers and townsmen who had been drilling for barely a week. Their weapons were a mixed lot: a few hundred rifles shipped from Puerto Rico, a hundred sabers, bayonets enough for some but not all, and knives - the one weapon every man carried and knew how to use. Across the field, Governor General Jean-Louis Ferrand was advancing with 500 of Napoleon's regulars, well armed and tactically superior. Ferrand expected an easy morning. He would not survive the day.

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Battle of Palo Hincado: A Colony Between Empires

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Santo Domingo had been changing hands for centuries, but in 1808 the situation was particularly tangled. France had acquired the Spanish colony through the Treaty of Basel in 1795, and Governor General Ferrand had been administering the eastern half of Hispaniola on Napoleon's be...

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Battle of Palo Hincado: Weapons from the Sea

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Twenty-nine soldiers, Ramirez among them, made the journey to the port at Boca de Yuma at the mouth of the river to receive the aid Governor Montes had sent from Puerto Rico. The brig Frederick and the schooner Render delivered a modest arsenal: a gunboat, four rifles with bayone...

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Battle of Palo Hincado: Mass, March, and a Vision

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On the morning of November 3, Lieutenant Diaz began distributing arms at Boca de Yuma. The troops gathered before the Shrine of Our Lady of Altagracia and heard mass. After the ceremony, word came that Ferrand and the French were closing on El Seibo. Ramirez ordered the march wes...

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Battle of Palo Hincado: Ten Minutes on the Savanna

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Rain fell through the night of November 6 and into the early hours of the seventh, soaking the savanna and the men camped on it. When the sky cleared, Ramirez and Diaz had their soldiers dry their ammunition and fix bayonets. By mid-morning the reconquistadores were in position a...

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Battle of Palo Hincado: The Governor's Last Retreat

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ferrand ordered what was left of his force to retreat toward the city of Santo Domingo. A Spanish squadron under Colonel Pedro Santana - namesake of the man who would later become the first president of the Dominican Republic - gave chase but lost the French at a rain-swollen riv...

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