Fighting the Same Fight: Col. Ambrosio José Gonzales
From Cuban Freedom Fighter to Confederate Colonel
From Cuban Freedom Fighter to Confederate Colonel
(The Abbeville Institute) - When Spanish bullets tore through Ambrosio José Gonzales’s thigh in a Cuban plaza in 1850, he became immortalized as the first Cuban to shed blood fighting for independence from Spain. 14 years later, he would command Confederate guns against Union troops at the Battle of Honey Hill, inflicting one of the most lopsided defeats of the Civil War.
Born in Matanzas, Cuba on October 3, 1818, Gonzales entered a world of educators and intellectuals. His father worked as a schoolmaster who founded the first daily newspaper in Matanzas. When his mother died during his childhood, his father sent him to Europe and New York City to receive an education in 1828. In New York, young Gonzales formed a friendship with lasting consequences. He became close with Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, a Louisiana Creole boy who would later become a general in the Confederate army. This childhood bond would later provide Gonzales with direct access to Confederate military leadership.
After completing his education, Gonzales returned to Cuba and enrolled at the University of Havana, earning degrees in arts and sciences in 1839, followed by a law degree. He claimed fluency in four languages—English, Italian, and Spanish—and possessed expertise in mathematics and geography. Rather than pursue a lucrative legal career, Gonzales became disillusioned with the corruption of Spain’s colonial judicial system and gave up a lucrative career on principle to become…