Assault on Moncada On the morning of July 26, 1953, Castro made his move.

Assault on Moncada On the morning of July 26, 1953, Castro made his move. For a revolution to succeed, he needed weapons, and he selected the isolated Moncada barracks as his target. The compound was attacked at dawn by 138 men. It was hoped that the element of surprise would make up for the rebels’ lack of numbers and arms. The attack was a fiasco almost from the start, and the rebels were routed after a firefight that lasted a few hours. Many were captured. Nineteen federal soldiers were killed; those remaining took out their anger on captured rebels, and most of them were shot. Fidel and Raul Castro escaped but were later captured.

'History Will Absolve Me' The Castros and surviving rebels were put on public trial. Fidel, a trained lawyer, turned the tables on the Batista dictatorship by making the trial about the power grab. Basically, his argument was that as a loyal Cuban, he had taken up arms against the dictatorship because it was his civic duty. He made long speeches and the government belatedly tried to shut him up by claiming he was too ill to attend his own trial. His most famous quote from the trial was, “History will absolve me.” He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but had become a nationally recognized figure and a hero to many poor Cubans.