José Antonio Saravia

José Antonio Saravia, José Antonio Sarabia, (Villanueva del Fresno, Spain, 1785 - Resident in Russia since about 1812 - General of the Russian Army 1843 - Kamianets-Podilskyi, now in Ukraine, 2 April 1871), was General Inspector of the Russian Military Academies under the Tsars Nikolai I and Alexander II. He married at Kremenetz, now Kamianets-Podilskyi, Larisa Ivanovna, losing there three children and his wife.

It seems he got another younger brother or half brother named Manuel José Saravia y Perdigos, Manuel José Sarabia y Perdigos, (Oliva de Jerez, Spain, 1790–1852) who fought also in Spain after the age of 18, against Napoleon after 1808, became a lieutenant in a Spanish Naval Expedition in Napoleonic Denmark, the same than his brother, being also integrated as his brother in the Russian Army after Borodino battle as his brother in 1812, became a General of the Russian Army in 1824, aged 34, under Tsar Alexander I, Emperor of Russia from 1801 to 1825, much earlier then that José Antonio, and is reported as dying in 1852, much earlier also than his elder brother/half brother José Antonio.

Curiously enough, Oliva de Jerez, where Manuel José was born and Villanueva del Fresno where José Antonio was born, both in the Province of Badajoz, near Olivenza, are nearby and there is a gap of only 5 years between both persons.

It seems that the second name of José Antonio was also Perdigos, but we know mostly about rumours mentioning him as born of a single mother and being adopted by his grand parents, named Perdigos.

References

José Antonio Saravia a la luz de los documentos (contribución para una futura biografía), Eduardo BARAJAS SALAS, Revista de educación, ISSN 0213-9529, Nº 1, (1982), pages 1–120.