La Reforma Campaign

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La Reforma Campaign
Part of Cuban War of Independence
The General Staff of the campaign
Date January 27, 1897 – April 1898 Location Pastures of La Reforma, Jatibonico, Santa Clara, Cuba Result Cuban victory
Belligerents
Cuban rebels	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Máximo Gómez Francisco Carrillo José M. R. Rodríguez	Valeriano Weyler
Units involved
4th Army Corps 5th Liberation Corps 6th Liberation Corps
Strength
600 mambises	40,000 infantry
Casualties and losses
Light casualties	25,000 killed

The La Reforma Campaign was a campaign of the Cuban War of Independence which was waged for 16 months with the Cuban forces under the command of Máximo Gómez against the Spanish forces under the command of Valeriano Weyler. Despite the Spanish outnumbering the Cuban forces by 40,000 to 600, Gómez's guerrilla warfare tactics as well as the weather caused over 40 Spanish soldiers to die each day throughout the campaign. His approach was to divide his forces into tiny guerrilla groups and fight alone with his General Staff while continuously moving.

He also didn't let the Spanish columns that persecute him sleep in the open field, nor in the towns that he shot with scattered groups in a ring around them despite the Spanish efforts to find and fail to find him. Gómez's strategy consisting of using environmental conditions such as the excessive heat, the poor roads, the river floodings and the disease, the morale against the inexperienced Spanish soldiers who didn't eat, who didn't sleep and who get sick due to environmental conditions, using information from the Spanish, supported by an effective intelligence service and tracking the objectives of the Spanish forces.