La Gandara attempted to broker a ceasefire with the rebels, but Gaspar Polanco overthrew and assassinated Salcedo, who had made costly military mistakes and intended to recall the unpopular Buenaventura Baez to serve as president once more. After a failed attack on the Spanish at Monte Cristi, Polanco was overthrown by his own brother Juan Antonio Polanco, Pedro Antonio Pimentel, and Benito Moncion, who appointed Benigno Filomeno de Rojas as the new president in January 1865. By then, the American Civil War was almost at an end, frightening Spain.