On Wednesday November 5, 1873, the first news from the US Consul-General in Havana, Henry C. Hall, informed the US State Department that "Virginius" had been captured. There was no knowledge that four mercenaries had already been killed, and Secretary of State Hamilton Fish believed the "Virginius" was just another ship captured aiding the Cuban rebellion. On November 7, Cuba headed the agenda of US President Ulysses S. Grant's Cabinet meeting as news came in of the deaths of Ryan and three other mercenaries. The Cabinet agreed that the executions would be "regarded as an inhuman act not in accordance with the spirit of the civilization of the nineteenth century." On November 8, Fish met with Spanish minister Don José Polo de Barnabé and discussed the legality of the capture of "Virginius".