Mambises

[1][2] According to Cuban writer Carlos Márquez Sterling, "mambí" is of Afro-Antillean origin and was applied to revolutionaries from Cuba and Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) in the 19th century.

[7][page needed] The mambí forces were made up of volunteers who mostly had no military training and banded together in loose groups who acted independently to attack the Spanish troops during the Ten Years' War.

It is estimated that 8,000 poorly armed and underfed mambises inflicted close to 20,000 casualties on the well-trained Spanish soldiers during the Ten Years' War.

The leaders, having learnt from previous mistakes, had organized the army into “6 corps with 14 divisions, 34 brigades, 50 regiments of infantry and 34 cavalry.” Even though, once again, they were limited on resources, they possibly inflicted 71,000 casualties[a] out of the 250,000 Spanish troops sent to the island.

Prior to the Ten Years' War, private ownership of weapons was allowed but, considering that at this time many of the black were still slaves, most of the men who became mambises did not have firearms.

[13][page needed] At the start of the Ten Years' War, Máximo Gómez, who had been a cavalry officer in the Spanish Army, taught the men the "machete charge".

[15] Despite this interference, and having only originally started with a small number of weapons, the mambises were able to build up a significant arsenal by conducting raids on the Spanish troops and strongholds.