A native of Cuba (then a Spanish colony), Gonzáles was born in 1818 to a prominent local family in the city of Matanzas. From an early age, he began receiving an international education which took him to places such as many parts of Europe, New York City around 1829, and ultimately culminated with him studying law, arts and sciences at the University of Havana. He then returned to Matanzas to become a teacher just like his father. One of the causes Gonzáles was passionate about was the liberation of Cuba from the Spanish, although his view was that Cuba should become a part of the United States. He began hanging around the likes of Narciso Lopez, who shared his views on Cuba separating from Spain. Lopez was known for launching many such “expeditions” to attempt liberation of Cuba from the Spanish.
In one such “expedition” In May 1850, Lopez and Gonzáles embarked to Cardenas, Cuba where they, accompanied by around 610 men, launched an invasion. The Spanish attacked them, and Gonzáles apparently was shot in the right thigh, and wounded in the attack. Gonzáles wanted to continue to make his way towards Oriente province (the easternmost province of Cuba), but that did not happen and Gonzáles had to return to the United States where he settled in South Carolina. There, he lobbied the Democratic Party unsuccessfully to assist him in the cause of liberating Cuba since apparently that party at the time was open to the idea of annexing Cuba to the United States. In South Carolina, he married Harriet Elliot, the daughter of a wealthy local planter, and they formed a family.
When the Civil War broke out in the early 1860s, Gonzáles supported the Confederate States of America, and he joined their military as a soldier. He started off as a lieutenant colonel, and over time he made his way up to the rank of Colonel. Reportedly, he never made it to the rank of general because there were apparently issues between him and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. During the war, he led the Confederates to victory in the Battle of Honey Hill, he had served alongside General P. G. T. Beauregard, commanded around 157 artillery guns in battles at Charleston Harbor and James Island, and he was eventually promoted to Chief of Artillery for the departments of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.
Eventually however, the tide of the war had turned against the Confederacy. Towards the end of the war, he surrendered to General William Tecumseh Sherman in North Carolina. In the following years, he found multiple ways to make a living, and pushed himself into the cause of educating his children until his death in 1893. His sons Narciso and Ambrose went on to found The State newspaper in South Carolina which still operates to this day.
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