 In 1873, he was appointed commander of the Army of the North against the Carlists in the Third Carlist War, But in the same year, he was asked by Emilio Castelar to lay siege to Carthagena, where the Cantonal Revolution had broken out.He had the city intensively bombarded and on 12 January 1874 Cartagena was retaken.He then returned to the North and liberated Bilbao, which was under siege by the Carlists.