Portrait of Spanish viceroy of New Spain, Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, 1st Viscount of Galveston and 1st Count of Gálvez, U.S. Honorary Citizen.
Studies of the American Revolution concentrate on events that took place in the thirteen colonies and virtually ignore the war in the far west. As a result, relatively few people know that 240 years ago this month, Louisianans became America’s allies and attacked the British at Baton Rouge.
When the colonials revolted against England in 1775, Spain remained neutral, even though it was sympathetic towards the rebels. The Spanish hoped they would win because an independent America would weaken England, Spain’s longtime enemy. Louisiana Governor Luis de Unzaga, however, was not satisfied with wistful thinking and decided to reach out a helping hand.
Although it was illegal for him to do so, Unzaga began providing military aid to the Americans through Oliver Pollock, an American merchant from Philadelphia who came to Louisiana a few years earlier. Pollock developed a good relationship with Unzaga’s predecessor and settled in New Orleans. When American agents arrived in the city seeking help for their revolution, Pollock convinced Unzaga to sell them gunpowder from the Spanish arsenal.
When American agents arrived in the city seeking help for their revolution, Pollock convinced Unzaga to sell them gunpowder from the Spanish arsenal.
Bernardo de Gálvez became the new governor in 1777 at the age of twenty-eight. He was one of Louisiana’s youngest governors and endeared himself to the people by marrying a Louisiana woman (who happened to be the sister of Unzaga’s wife).
The new governor also worked secretly through Pollock to provide aid to the Americans. Gálvez shipped medicine, clothing, and weapons up the Mississippi River to George Rogers Clark, an American officer fighting the English in the northwest. Gálvez and Pollock sometimes even bought the supplies with their own money.
In 1778, a crisis occurred when the American James Willing launched a raid against English West Florida. Willing and his men came down the Mississippi River and attacked English plantations around Natchez and Baton Rouge. He burned, looted, seized private property, and even captured an English warship before bringing the stolen goods to New Orleans to sell.
He burned, looted, seized private property, and even captured an English warship before bringing the stolen goods to New Orleans to sell.
Willing put Gálvez in a difficult situation. Since Spain was neutral, he was not supposed to aid the Americans in any way, but he personally supported the American cause. Gálvez finally allowed Willing to sell some of his goods, but he also returned some of the property to the rightful owners.
Eventually, Gálvez grew tired of Willing’s disruptive presence and made him leave. The Willing Expedition is just a footnote in the American Revolution, but it probably hurt the Americans in the long run because Willing’s destructive raid drove West Florida settlers into the arms of the English. If Willing had treated them better, they might have supported the patriots.
In 1778 and 1779, respectively, France and Spain decided to join America and declared war on England. It was a turning point in the Revolution and allowed Gálvez to fight the English openly.
Upriver from New Orleans, the English occupied Fort Bute on Bayou Manchac and Fort New Richmond in Baton Rouge. (The fort was located near the modern-day Pentagon Barracks.) Gálvez quickly raised a fifteen hundred-man army composed of Spanish soldiers, Creoles, black militiamen, and Indians, and moved against the enemy forts in August 1779. With little fighting, he captured the twenty English soldiers at Fort Bute and then headed to Baton Rouge.
Baton Rouge was more difficult because Fort New Richmond was protected by five hundred English soldiers and thirteen cannons. Nonetheless, Gálvez bombarded the fort with cannon fire on September 21 and forced the English to surrender Fort New Richmond and another fort at Natchez. At the cost of only one man killed, Gálvez had cleared the English from the lower Mississippi River.
After his victory at Baton Rouge, Gálvez next attacked the English at Mobile and captured it in March 1780. He then moved on to Pensacola with a much larger army that included one unit commanded by Oliver Pollock. After a bloody battle, in which he was wounded twice, Gálvez captured Pensacola in May 1781.
When the Revolutionary War ended two years later, Gálvez was hailed a hero, and George Washington wrote a letter thanking him for his victories on the Gulf Coast. Gálvez then was promoted to a higher office and moved to Mexico, but, unfortunately, died two years later at the age of forty.
Dr. Terry L. Jones is professor emeritus of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe who has received numerous awards for his books and outdoor articles.
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