Henry Reeve (soldier)
Henry Reeve was a Brigadier General in Cuba's 'Ejército Libertador' - more commonly known as the 'Ejército Mambí' - during the First Cuban War of Independence . In his youth, he was a drummer boy in the Union Army during the American Civil War.Biography
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States on April 4, 1850, son of Alexander Reeve and Maddie Carroll, and died in Matanzas, Cuba on August 4, 1876. Reeve was 26 years old at the time of his death, and had served in the Cuban Army for 7 years, having participated in over 400 engagements against the Spanish Army.
Henry Reeve was honored by the Cuban government in 1976 on the centenary of his death with a postal stamp.
In response to Hurricane Katrina, Cuba proposed a medical brigade of 1,586 humanitarian doctors to offer assistance to the United States. The offer was declined, and in September 2005 Fidel Castro renamed the brigade as the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disasters and Serious Epidemics in honor of him. In March 2020, 144 health workers from this Henry Reeve brigade were sent by Cuba to assist Jamaica in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, also another group was sent to Italy to fight against coronavirus pandemic.
