Antonio Caba was a Dominican soldier and military leader. He was a hero in both the wars of Independence and Restoration against Haiti and Spain respectively. He was killed in the Battle of Sabana de San Pedro, in the latter conflict, this making him a martyr.
He was a resident in Taveras, located in Santiago. His wife was Rosa Fernández. He had been a soldier of the Dominican War of Independence.[1]
In September 1863, he formed his own troops with men recruited in the jurisdiction of Jarabacoa, and marched towards La Vega to put himself at the disposal of General Gregorio Luperón, recently appointed chief of Operations for the Southern and Eastern regions. Caba was sent to Monte Plata, a point of bitter fighting between the Spanish forces and Dominican revolutionaries. Courageous to the point of bordering on recklessness; responsible and punctualagainst all commitments, with a heightened sense of honor, he had to be among the who were with Luperón in the Battle of Sabana de San Pedro on January 23, 1864, a difficult task for the Dominicans. In a bold advance, General Luperón was surrounded by the Spanish cavalry commanded at that moment by Juan Suero and Antonio Abad. In a titanic duel with the enemy, General Luperón was wounded by three sword blows; knocked off his mule and about to die from iron and lead. Caba advanced to the aid of his commander and in effort heroically, he offered his life to save that of his boss, who left the siege mounted on his mule that, although unsaddled, could be recovered by its owner. When talking about that episode and the courage demonstrated by AntonioCaba, some historians citea fragment of the submitted part by the Spanish captain Vicente de Ceballos, present in the combat, to Captain General Carlos de Vargas:[2]
He was one of the four generals killed in combat in that war on the side of the patriots. The others were Gregorio de Lora, Santiago Mota and Benito Martínez.