Soldier; author; administrator.

Manuel Sanguily y Garritt was born on the twenty-sixth of March, 1848, in Havana and had the good fortune to enter the Colegio "El Salvador" while the famous educator, Dr. José de la Luz Caballero was at its head. Later he began the study of the law at the University, but the Ten Years' War (1868-78) supervening, he left the academic life for the field. The Peace of Zanjón (1878) found him in New York where he had been sent in 1877 by the Revolutionary Government with the rank of Colonel to act as Secretary to his brother, Major General Julio Sanguily.

When peace was made he went to Spain and in 1879 completed his law studies in the University of Madrid, returning in 1880 to enter the office of Dr. Antonio González de Mendoza in Havana. There he served as clerk, but was not able to practice in his own name because he was unwilling to take the oath (of loyalty) required in the Courts as a prerequisite. Afterwards he got his living for a time by giving lessons in private houses, but turned his attention to literature acting as the sole editor of Dr. Enrique J. Varona's magazine the Revista Cubana, and later of Hoja Literarias which he founded in 1893.

During the War of Independence, 1895-98, Colonel Sanguily emigrated with his family to the United States, returning at its close to act as a member of the Assembly of Santa Cruz which appointed him to the Commission which went, with Major General Calixto Garcia at its head, to Washington to obtain aid for the Cuban forces so that they might have the means of existence when they disbanded. In 1901 he began his career as a public man when he was made a member of the Constitutional Convention for the Province of Havana. Later he held the offices of Director of the Institute of Havana;
Senator for the Province of Matanzas; President of the Senate; Delegate to the Second International Peace Conference at The Hague (1907); Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President Gómez; Inspector General of the Armed Forces of Cuba, and Director of the Military Academy.

Colonel Sanguily is the author of many articles, as also many orations and addresses---for he enjoys a distinguished reputation as an orator---and among his publications are some which gained a wide reading: Los Caribes de la Isla, Havana, 1884; Un insurrecto Cubano en la Corte, Havana, 1888; Céspedes y Marti, New York, 1905; Cuba y la Furia Española, New York; Victoria de las Tunas, New York, 1897; José de la Lutz Caballero.