[1] He fought victoriously under the command of General Juan Luis Franco Bidó, on January 24, 1856, against the troops of the Haitian emperor Faustin Soulouque.
When the annexation to Spain was proclaimed in 1861, Lucas de Peña was already a brigadier general and became part of the Reserves.
The informant of Colonel Norberto Torres had put the Spanish on the trail of the movement that was brewing.
Arrests began, and chief Lucas de Peña precipitated the beginning of the uprising.
And so, when the war reappeared on August 16, 1863, De Peña took his position as a patriotic soldier.