Manuel Fernández Silvestre (December 16, 1871 – July 22, 1921) was a Spanish general.
Manuel Fernández Silvestre was the son of a lieutenant colonel of artillery, Victor Fernández and Eleuteria Silvestre. In 1889, he enrolled in the Toledo Infantry Academy, where he met with the future high commissioner of Spanish Morocco, Dámaso Berenguer. He served as commander of the Spanish enclaves in Morocco: Ceuta from 1919 to 1920 and of Melilla from 1920 to 1921. Afterward he commanded all Spanish armies in Africa during the opening phase of the Riff War in which his forces suffered a massive and disastrous defeat at Annual. With the battle lost, Silvestre was either killed or committed suicide on July 22, 1921. This is today considered one of the worst defeats ever suffered by the contemporary Spanish army.
Biography
Youth
Silvestre was born in El Caney in Spanish Cuba to the second marriage of his father, artillery lieutenant colonel Victor Fernandez y Pentiaga and his mother Eleuteria Silvestre Quesada. Silvestre joined the Toledo General Military Academy where he met future General and Prime Minister Damaso Berenguer y Fuste who was 2 years younger than Silvestre. Silvestre graduated on March 9, 1893, as a cavalry second lieutenant, aged 21.
Career
Cuba
Silvestre first saw military action in 1890 at the age of 19 in a skirmish as a cadet against the Mambises guerrillas which were seeking independence for Cuba. In February 1895, a full-blown rebellion broke out, known as the Cuban War of Independence. After he concluded the academy, Silvestre returned to Cuba in 1895 to fight against the Mambises until the Spanish lost the 1898 Spanish–American War in which he suffered 16 wounds, including a severe wound that led to an incapacity of the left arm, which, in the future, he disguised very well. During his time in Cuba, the aggressive Silvestre had a marked preference for cavalry charges and fighting hand to hand against the Mambises. He was widely liked and respected by the men under his command. A charismatic, charming man whose nickname was Manolo, Silvestre was a great womanizer who fathered scores of illegitimate children by the various women he seduced. In the words of the American historian David Woolman: "Silvestre was a real-life character as flamboyant as any to be found in the pages of a romantic novel". Silvestre was a very brave but reckless junior officer in Cuba, where he was seriously wounded during a cavalry action. However, as a general, he would be seen as hopelessly inept. His rapid rise in the ranks of the Spanish army was often attributed to the patronage of his best friend, King Alfonso XIII, who used his position as commander-in-chief to promote his favorite officers. After the Spanish–American War, Silvestre served as a military aide to the king, who became his patron. When Alfonso XII ascended to the Spanish throne in 1886, Spain could still be considered a world power, as Spain owned colonies in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The Spanish American War of 1898 was a traumatic event in Alfonso's childhood, which saw Spain defeated by the Americans, followed by the loss of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, and shortly afterward, Spain sold the Carolines and Mariana islands to Germany. As a result, Spain's empire now consisted only of Spanish Guinea, in Central Africa, and some footholds on the Moroccan coast. Alfonso had taken the losses of the Spanish–American War very badly and supported the africanistas, who longed to conquer new imperial colonies in Northern Africa for Spain, to compensate for the lost colonies in the Americas and Asia. As a militarist educated by army officers and an africanista, Alfonso favoured swashbuckling, macho generals whom he saw as potential conquerors of Africa; This is the reason why Silvestre, as such a general, became a royal favourite. Alfonso was fascinated by Silvestre's flamboyant and colorful personality, which made him popular "both with his troops and with the ladies."