Pascual Enrile Acedo | |
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| Born | 1772 Cádiz .svg){kind=small} Spain |
| Died | Madrid, Spain |
| Years of service | 1794 - 1835 |
| Rank | Lieutenant general |
| Commands held | Spanish Navy |
| Battles/wars | Peninsular War |
| Awards | Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand, Order of Charles III, Order of Isabella the Catholic, Royal and Military Order of Saint Hermenegild. |
Pascual Enrile y Acedo (Cádiz, 13 April 1772 – Madrid, 6 January 1839) was a Spanish soldier, naval officer, and colonial governor who participated in the Spanish American wars of independence.
Early years edit
He was born in Cádiz and was the son of Enrile y Guerci, marquis of House Enrile, and María de la Concepción Alcedo y Herrera. His father was later named general director of the Asiento de negros in Havana. When Pascual was 16, he enlisted in the Spanish Navy as a Marine Guard in the department in Ferrol, Galicia. When he finished the stuties of the four degrees he was told to sign on to do his naval practices, taking part in the North African War.
He was promoted to his first rank of commissioned officer, as an ensign, on 2 June 1790. There is no more data about him during this period of time. There is information about his promotions and we know that he was promoted to minor lieutenant by the Royal Order of Spain on 22 November 1974 and to lieutenant on 5 October 1802.
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Holding this rank, he was given the command of brigantine Prueba which joined the ships that were carrying out the meridian measurement works between France and the Balearic Islands. He accomplished his duty successfully in 1803.
Due to Royal Order, on 9 November 1805, he was promoted to navy lieutenant, and that year, he participated in the combat against the Britons in the Mediterranean.
At the time when Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 1808, Pascual was in Barcelona, where he was taken prisoner, but he managed to escape. Afterwards, he enlisted the battalions of the Spanish Navy Marines and fought whenever his military unit participated. Although he was injured the same year it started, he recovered and he kept fighting until the invaders disappeared from his homeland. He was always notable for his military actions and he was also distinguished by both his courage and his organizational skills which he proved more than once.
As Pascual Enrile was Chief of the Navy and second head of the pacifying expedition to field marshal (the same rank as the Chief of the Navy squad), Pablo Morillo provided him a division made by the ship of line San Pedro Alcántara with a capacity of 64 cannons, the frigates Diana and Ifigenia, the corvette Diamond and the schooner Patriotic in order to protect a convoy transporting fifteen thousand men of all military forces that previously met at the Cádiz bay. On 17 February 1815, they weighed anchor from Cádiz, they crossed the Atlantic and they disembarked on 7 April at Port Santo, near Carúpano, in the eastern Venezuela. There, Pablo Morillo hold a meeting with the Brigadier General Francisco Tomás Morales, who commanded about 7,000 royalist soldiers.[1] Pablo Morillo reembarked with between 3,000 and 5,000 men to anchor in Pampatar on 9 April, thus reducing to the last Venezuelan patriotic centre, and although it had a garrison up to 3,000 men, it surrendered with little opposition.[2][3]José Francisco Bermúdez and 300 men, including the majority of the officers, evacuated the island towards Cartagena.[2] On 10 April, the remaining troops disembarked and on 11 April they took up La Asunción. Morillo had mercy with the rebel officers and soldiers who surrendered, despite Morales’ demands of being severe with them. He organized several battalions and garrisons with the soldiers who surrendered and he even had dinner with Juan Bautista Arismendi[2], the governor of the island. Afterwards, he went to Cumaná and he exploited the ship San Pedro Alcántara that sank between the island Coche and Cubagua on 25 April. Then he went to La Guaira, Caracas and Cabello Port before departing to the Viceroyalty of New Granada on 5 July.[4]
In Santa Maria, the fleet was acclaimed by the people and after that, the 22 August, facing the fortified Cartagena of the Indies that never surrenders, Morillo started a long and bloody siege. During this time, one third of its population (6,000 people) died of hunger and calamities. The surrender of the city, on 6 December 1814, was considered a great military feat against the American insurgents and Fernando VII gave Morillo the title of Count of Cartagena and the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic.
Since the occupation of Cartagena had already been consolidated, Morillo’s fleet blocked the ports of La Dorada and Salgar. This allowed him to get into the New Kingdom of Granada until he arrived at Santa Fe in Bogota, where he gave back the power to the viceroy Samano. In Colombia, ‘Reign of Terror’ is the name given to this historical period, which started with the occupation of Cartagena and finished with the sentences of some members that took part in the insurrection in the New Granada.
At the beginning, Pablo Morillo implemented a policy of reprieve, which he later suspended after the shock caused by the news of Arismendi’s betrayal, governor of Margarita Island. Morillo had freed him from the death sentence, but at the same time, he revolted Arismendi's leaving. Moreover, he put to the sword the entire Spanish garrison. In retaliation, Morillo started up a military court of justice, named "War" Court (to judge sanguinary acts) and "Purification Court" (to judge common crimes). At the same time, the latter was given the opportunity to defend, as it was the custom in Spain. With the establishment of the "Kidnapping Committee" in New Granada and Venezuela —as done in Spain during the Independence War—, properties and goods were confiscated in order to cover the army’s maintenance expenses in their campaign. Nonetheless, they turned out to be insufficient since Morillo suffered from shortage and opposition.
A Colombian tradition says that the expression ‘Spain does not require wise people’ was used in order to reject an application for the reprieve that Caldas asked for after being sentenced to death by a War Court. Either Morillo or Enrile Acedo were the authors of this sentence, according to tradition, but it is doubted that it was ever pronounced. It is not clear if the refusal to reprieve the condemned Caldas was stated by Pablo Morillo or Enrile Acedo. It is said [who?] that Morillo was for the reprieve and Enrile was against.
After reclaiming New Granada, Morillo had to go back to Venezuela in 1817 because he was worried about the new outbreak of the war, since Bolívar, Piar, Páez, and other Venezuelan chiefs reactivated the movements while Morillo was in New Granada.
In 1819, he was named Chief of the Navy forces in Rio de la Plata. Therefore, he joined all the actions that took place.
Governor of the Philippines edit
In 1826 he was named captain general in the Philippines. In 1827 the authority of this archipelago was divided and he became the navy commandant of all the royal forces. He became fully dedicated to the fight against piracy and he did some improvements for the naval station of Cavite. He managed to put the keel to the frigate Esperanza, which was the size of 50 cannons.
Afterwards, he proceeded to reorganize all branches of the service, dividing the islands and creating a big number of captaincies in the harbour. He was also in charge of distributing the naval jurisdiction in this area and he ordered to analyse the nautical charts of all the harbours to better know all the possible defeats and its dangers.
Shortly after coming back to Spain in 1829, he was promoted as lieutenant general in July 1829 by the Spanish Royal Order.
External links edit
Category: 1772 births Category: 1836 deaths Category: People of the Peninsular War Category: People from Cádiz Category: Captains General of the Philippines Category: Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Category: Grand Crosses of the Royal and Military Order of San Hermenegild
- ^ Bello, Andrés; García del Río, Juan (1823). La Biblioteca americana, o miscelánea de literatura, artes i ciencias (in Spanish). London: Imprenta de G. Marchant. p. 455.
Despues de haber guarnecido a Margarita con 800 hombres, reforzó con 1000 a la Guaira i a Caracas; a Cumaná i Barcelona con 800; destacó 800 a los Llanos; i siguió con el resto de sus fuerzas a Puerto Cabello. Dejó allí 300 hombres, i destacó 3000 para Nueva España. Bien podía hacer todo esto, porque además de las guarniciones encontró en Venezuela un ejército de 7000 hombres al mando de Morales. (...) (in English) He manned Margarita with 800 men, he reinforced the Guaira and Caracas with 1,000 men and the Cumaná and Barcelona with 800 men. He also assigned 800 men to Llanos and he went to Puerto Cabello with the rest of his men. There, he left 300 men and assigned 3,000 to Viceroyalty of New Spain. He could do all this because, besides the garrisons, he found in Venezuela an army of 7,000 men commanded by Morales. (...)
- ^ a b c Hiráldez de Acosta, Manuel (1868). Espartero, su vida escrita por D.M.H. y D.J.T. (in Spanish). Barcelona: Hiraldez y Trujillo Editores. p. 26.
- ^ Bello, Andrés; García del Río, Juan (1823). La Biblioteca americana, o miscelánea de literatura, artes i ciencias (in Spanish). London: Imprenta de G. Marchant. p. 454.
Luego que este aportó a Margarita, la guarnición de la isla al mando de jeneral Bermudez, que no llegaba a 400 hombres, se vió obligada a evacuarla precipitadamente; i toda aquella fue ocupada por los españoles sin efusión de sangre. Al salir de allí la expedición, se voló el navío San Pedro Alcántara con cerca de 1000 hombres; (...) (in English) After he manned Margarita, the garrison of the island commanded by General Bermúdez, which was less than 400 men, was forced to evacuate hastily the island occupied by Spaniards without any bloodshed. After the expedition left, the ship of line San Pedro Alcántara was blown up with nearly 1,000 men; (...)
- ^ Ildefonso, Méndez Salcedo (2002). La Capitanía General de Venezuela, 1777-1821 (in Spanish). Caracas: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. p. 129. ISBN 978-980-244-299-7.