The Cuban insurrection against Spanish domination of 1868 had been raging for three years in the eastern countryside of the island, but the situation in the cities was by no means calm. The Spanish Corps of Volunteers, composed of rabid anti-independentists Spaniards had been activated by the Captain General and given the responsibility of keeping order in the cities while the regular Spanish troops were sent to try to squelch the rebellion in the country. The Volunteers gained more and more power as time went by, culminating in their actual forcing of Captain General Dulce from his post in June of 1869. Hard-liners, the Volunteers considered that the only acceptable policy was one of harshness and punishment against the infidel Cuban rebels.
On November 23, 1871, a group of medical students were waiting for the start of their anatomy class in a cemetery located next door to their classroom building. The cemetery guard reported later to the authorities that the students had been rowdy, horseplaying around the graves and picking flowers. The Spanish authorities interpreted this report as a direct dishonor of the memory of the recently deceased editor of a Volunteer newspaper and an affront to the Spanish authorities. Two days later, the Acting Governor of Cuba accompanied by a Captain of the Corps of Volunteers, interrupted an anatomy class of the School of Medicine of the University of Havana and arrested the students. On the 27th, after a second summary Court Martial proceeding, eight of the students are sentenced to death for the crime of dishonoring the grave of Gonzalo Castañón. At 4 PM on that day, the eight students ranging in age from 16 to 21 were made to kneel, face a wall and were shot in the back by a firing squad. They were allowed to write a goodby note to their families just before being assassinated. The notes can be seen by clicking here.