Full independence from Spain was the goal of a rebellion in 1868 led by planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. De Céspedes, a sugar planter, freed his slaves to fight with him for an independent Cuba. On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory but accepting it in practice and declaring free any slaves whose masters present them for military service. The 1868 rebellion resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the Ten Years' War. A great number of the rebels were volunteers from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the United States, as well as numerous Chinese indentured servants. A battalion of 500 Chinese fought under the command of General Máximo Gómez in the 1874 Battle of Las Guasimas. A monument in Havana honors the Cuban Chinese who fell in the war.