Santo Domingo had been changing hands for centuries, but in 1808 the situation was particularly tangled. France had acquired the Spanish colony through the Treaty of Basel in 1795, and Governor General Ferrand had been administering the eastern half of Hispaniola on Napoleon's behalf. But Napoleon's invasion of Spain that same year - deposing King Ferdinand VII and installing his brother Joseph on the throne - ignited resistance across the Spanish-speaking world. In the east of Hispaniola, Ramirez saw his moment. He coordinated with commanders across the colony: Ciriaco Ramirez in the south, Cristobal Huber Franco alongside him, and Captain Diego Polanco commanding the northern Cibao region from Santiago de los Caballeros. They were backed by Spanish colonial Puerto Rico, whose Royal Governor Toribio Montes agreed to send supplies and volunteers. On October 26, Ramirez seized the town of El Seibo without a fight. The reconquest had begun, though it still lacked almost everything an army needs.

Twenty-nine soldiers, Ramirez among them, made the journey to the port at Boca de Yuma at the mouth of the river to receive the aid Governor Montes had sent from Puerto Rico. The brig Frederick and the schooner Render delivered a modest arsenal: a gunboat, four rifles with bayonets, a hundred sabers, and ammunition. Two hundred volunteers arrived as well, mostly Creole emigrants - men with ties to the colony who had been living in Puerto Rico. Among them was Lieutenant Francisco Diaz, the only trained military tactician in the entire reconquista force. Diaz immediately took charge of organizing what he had to work with. He studied the terrain around El Seibo and selected the site at Magarin as the most advantageous ground to receive the French. Meanwhile, Ramirez learned that British warships were patrolling off the coast. He sent a messenger to Captain Charles Dashwood aboard HMS Franchise, who agreed to attack the French garrison at Samana - a strategic port whose capture would prevent French reinforcements from arriving.

On the morning of November 3, Lieutenant Diaz began distributing arms at Boca de Yuma. The troops gathered before the Shrine of Our Lady of Altagracia and heard mass. After the ceremony, word came that Ferrand and the French were closing on El Seibo. Ramirez ordered the march west. Over the following days, Diaz incorporated new volunteers into what he called a makeshift army, drilling them in basic formations and distributing whatever weapons remained. On the night before the battle, Ramirez reportedly experienced a vivid premonition: he envisioned Ferrand's emissary announcing that the French would overwhelm the Spanish on the seventh. Through this vision, Ramirez sent back his reply - his forces were ready to measure their strength. Whether this was a dream, a dramatic embellishment by later chroniclers, or something Ramirez actually reported, it captured the mood of a commander who knew the odds and had decided to fight anyway. The French had tactical rifles and professional training. The reconquistadores had knives, conviction, and a general who had promised to die beside them.

Rain fell through the night of November 6 and into the early hours of the seventh, soaking the savanna and the men camped on it. When the sky cleared, Ramirez and Diaz had their soldiers dry their ammunition and fix bayonets. By mid-morning the reconquistadores were in position at Palo Hincado: Diaz at the top of the rise with nearly 300 riflemen, Ramirez in the center on higher ground directing the formation, Manuel Carvajal on the right flank, Pedro Vasquez on the left. Ramirez gave a speech. He reminded his men that the French governor had brought the cream of his forces, and that defeating them here would break the occupation. Then he repeated his order: any man who retreated would be shot, himself included. The French advanced and opened fire around noon. A line of Gallic cavalry swung left to cut off the Spanish flank. Captain Antonio Sosa's riders charged to meet them and forced the horsemen back. Jose de la Rosa sprang an ambush with thirty riflemen at the French rear. Then Ramirez sent Captain Vicente Mercedes and the right-wing cavalry forward. The charge overwhelmed the French line. Ten minutes of furious close combat left the field covered with the dead. Spanish casualties numbered seven. Both cavalry captains, Sosa and Mercedes, were among them. They are buried in El Seibo.

Ferrand ordered what was left of his force to retreat toward the city of Santo Domingo. A Spanish squadron under Colonel Pedro Santana - namesake of the man who would later become the first president of the Dominican Republic - gave chase but lost the French at a rain-swollen river too dangerous to ford. The survivors stopped to rest at Glen Guaiquia. There, overcome by the destruction of his army and the collapse of French authority on the island, Governor General Ferrand took his own life with a pistol shot to the head. In the aftermath, the Assembly of Bondillo convened under Captain Diego Polanco to name Sanchez Ramirez acting governor and to recognize King Ferdinand VII as sovereign of the reconquered colony. The Battle of Palo Hincado entered Dominican memory as the third great assertion of Dominican will, following the siege of Santo Domingo in 1655 and the Battle of Sabana Real in 1691. A monument stands today on the savanna near El Seibo where the ten-minute fight ended two centuries of contested sovereignty.