Fernández Cavada's mother met and married Samuel Dutton and the family resided at 222 Spruce Street, Philadelphia.

During one day of the July battle, he recorded how "The air was soon full of flying shot, shell and canister--and a groan here and there attested their affect.

...the roar of musketry and the crashing, pounding noise of guns and bursting shells was deafening..."[3] After the war, Fernández Cavada was appointed as United States consul at Cienfuegos, Cuba.

Fernández Cavada resigned his position upon the Cuban insurrection against Spanish rule, which became known as Cuba's Ten Years' War (1868–1878).

On December 18, 1871, Fernández Cavada was killed in battle at the coffee estate, La Adelaida, near Santiago de Cuba.