Hispanics in the War of Independence Home

   Galvez Protects
            Continental Congress  Agent              
           

Bernardo de Galvez

In 1776, Bernardo de Galvez was appointed colonel of the
Spanish regiment in Louisiana. he was thiry years old at the time,
but no stranger to New Spain.

From 1769-1771 de Galvez had fought the Apache in Texas as a young captain and had learned to respect them and to treat the Indians fairly rather than to oppress them. Now he would have an opportunity to apply his theories to tribes along the Mississippi as he struggled to maintain a Spanish presence against competition from Britian. In 1777, de Galvez was appointed govenor of Louisana province.

In 1777, the Continental Congress authorized an agent to travel down the Mississippi to New Orleans with American dispatches for de Galvez to harass British outposts along the Mississippi. The agent, James Willing, captured several ships and raided several plantations and military outposts.

When he arrived in New Orleans with his booty he had so agitated the British that they had placed several ships in a blockade to prevent Willing's escape into the Gulf of Mexico. Despite the British threat, de Galvez protected the American agent and protested vigorously to Britain
about its threatening actions.

By 1778, the war was going badly for the British. General Burgoyne had surrendered his army at Saratoga and General Clinton abondoned Philadelphia. Sensing British weakness, the French declared war against England in February 1778 and urged its ally Spain to do so as well. Spain resisted but eventually recognized the independence of the colonies in February 1779.

Wasting no time de Galvez raised a small militia unit and with his regular Spanish forces moved to clear the British out of the southern Mississippi. He captured all the British forts from Lake Pontchartrain to Baton Rouge.

Govenor de Galvez then raised another force and attacked Mobile, capturing it in march, 1780. Resting in Mobile, de Galvez raised a third force of over 9,000 men, including blacks, Indians, and mestizos, to attack Pensacola. In march 1781, de Galvez captured the British fort on Santa Rosa Island which guarded the entrance to the
city and laid seige to the city.