On August 30, 1873, a few days after the bombardment of Almería, an expedition under Antonete Gálvez left Cartagena with the objective of attracting the city of Orihuela, then at the hands of the Government of Spain, to the cantonalists' side.
[1] The cantonalists' expedition left Cartagena at dawn, and arrived in Orihuela at approximately 5, after being joined along the way by artillery and volunteers from Murcia, led by José María Callejas.
[1] The only resistance that the cantonalists found was from the garrison, which was made up of some civil guards and forty policemen, whose captain was Mariano Artés Campillo.
[2] The garrison tried to resist Gálvez in the so-called Paseo de la Glorieta, but in a withdrawal they found themselves surprised by the insurgent forces of Pedro del Real, who had entered the city by fording the Segura river and crossing the Callosa highway.
[2] As in each city, the cantonalists collected several thousand pesetas for military expenses, after which the expedition returned to their respective homes, the prisoners being taken aboard Isabel II and released after a few days.