May 10, 1781 - Spanish Gov. Bernardo de Gálvez captures Pensacola
|
A lesser-known hero of the American Revolution, Spanish Gov. Bernardo de Gálvez defeated the British in the Siege of Pensacola on May 10, 1781.
As a captain in the Spanish army, Gálvez fought the Apaches for Spain in Mexico in 1762 and was appointed governor of Louisiana in 1777 after the French ceded it to Spain. Britain and Spain were long-time adversaries, and Spain decided to help the colonists primarily to remove British influence in the Americas and recover territories, including Florida, that Spain had lost to Britain. The British were blockading East Coast seaports during its war with the American colonists when Spain's king authorized Gálvez to smuggle arms, medicine and other supplies to the colonists up the Mississippi River. |
Spanish Gen. Bernardo de Gálvez
|
Pensacola map, 1763
|
With Britain and Spain formally at war in 1779, Gálvez intercepted a secret communication outlining British plans to attack the Spanish fort at New Orleans. Rather than wait, Gálvez organized his forces and relieved the threat to New Orleans by defeating the British at Manchac, Baton Rouge and Natchez in 1779, and then at Mobile in 1780. But his largest victory was sealed by the May 10, 1781 British surrender of Pensacola, its capital of West Florida, following Spain's attack by land and sea.
|
The Capture of Pensacola, 1781 engraving.
The captures of Mobile and Pensacola left the British with no bases on the Gulf of Mexico. After the American Revolution, the British ceded East and West Florida to Spain. The territories remained under Spanish control until Spain sold the Floridas to the United States in 1819 for $5 million. With Andrew Jackson as its provisional governor, Pensacola became part of the U.S. in 1821.
Read more at historynet.com: America's Spanish Savior: Bernardo de Gálvez
Read the story in the Palm Beach Post: The Fall of Pensacola
Read the story in the Palm Beach Post: The Fall of Pensacola