by: Capt. Héctor L. Díaz, Spanish Louisiana Infantry Regiment
Although supported by historical fact, it is still not widely known that the assistance of Spain and her colonies was an important factor in the triumph of the American Revolution .This being the Fall issue of our newsletter, I would like to present in its spaces a few sample “bullets” on contributions which took place, appropriately, during the late Summer and early Fall throughout the conflict, and let our readers do the judging.
Spain had been assisting the revolutionaries ever since they declared independence in 1776, however, it did not declare war against England until June 21, 1779.
Once Spain entered the war, 42 of its warships joined a French squadron to form the spearhead of a planned invasion of England. The combined fleet numbered 65 warships and it penetrated the English Channel on 14 August1779. The British home defense fleet numbered 35 units and it kept avoiding combat. However, one of its units, the 74 gun “Ardent” did come out on 17 August, in the mistaken belief that it was heading to a rendezvous with its own. Immediately, French frigates “Juno” and “Chantil”, and the Spanish “Princesa” fell upon the unsuspecting “Ardent” and captured it after a 15 minute fight within sight of land. The demoral- izing effect these developments must have had upon the English public cannot be discounted. It was the first time anything like it had ever happened in their waters!
Between August 27 and September 24, 1779; thirty year old Spanish Brigadier Bernardo de Gálvez, Governor of Spanish Louisiana, captured eight British forts, eight naval units, and close to 1,000 men, ending the British presence in the lower Mississippi. With this action, Gálvez preempted a British offensive against New Orleans which intended to capture and close the Missis- sippi, then basically, the only major supply route left for General Washington’s armies. (1)
On 9 August 1780, Spanish Admiral Luís de Córdoba encountered a 52 ship British convoy sailing off the Azores, escorted by a ship-of the line and two frigates. A total of 55 vessels in all. They were transporting thou- sands of men and war materiel to Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, and to Bombay and Madras, India, and St. Helens island.
Córdoba ordered the chase, which resulted in his fleet capturing all of the transports. The escorting ships fled. This was the largest convoy loss England suffered during all of the 18th Century. Córdoba would go on to further fame in July of the following year, when he would capture a 19 ship convoy right in the English Channel!
From July to August 1781, and after a series of meetings in Sainte Domingue with French Admiral de Grasse, Spanish Royal Commissioner Don Francisco de Saavedra y Sagronis gives him his full and complete support. De Grasse was headed to Yorktown, to help in the siege against Lord Cornwallis there. Saavedra assisted him in the following manner. He:
… appropriated 100,000 pesos for the Admiral, from the yearly Mexican monetary allotments of Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo. De Grasse needed the money to resupply and outfit his ships for the upcoming campaign against the British fleet that was expected to come to rescue Cornwallis…
… released the French troops of the Marquis de Saint Simon, men experts in siege warfare then deployed to the Spanish service, so they could bring their skills to Yorktown…
…arranged for Spanish Admiral José de Solano y Bote, then in Cuba, to take over the protection of the French colonies in the Caribbean with his 16 sail-of the-line. This allowed de Grasse to mobilize his whole squadron to confront the British fleet… (2)
…more importantly, when de Grasse requested more funds, this time to help pay for the French and American efforts at Yorktown, he suggested that they go to Havana, Cuba, to seek them. Once disembarked, however, they were informed that the treasury did not have the funds, but that if they so desired, they could make a public subscription to see if they obtained the 500,000 pesos de Grasse calculated he needed.
In six hours, 28 donors provided 4,000,000 reales, an amount equivalent to the 500,000 pesos de Grasse hoped to get. In 1990 dollars this would be $15,000,000, more or less. The reales weighted so much that when deposited at the house occupied by the French commissary-in-chief Claude Blanchard, they completely destroyed the ground floor and ended strewn around in the basement, along with the sole guard protecting them.
Some of those coins are still being found in archeological digs in Yorktown. They are considered by historian Stephen Bonsal (“ When the French Were Here”) as part of the “…bottom dollars upon which the edifice of American independence was erected…”
(1) On 27 August, Brigadier Bernardo de Gálvez, Governor of Spanish Louisiana goes on the offensive against all the British outposts in the lower Mississippi, with an army comprised mostly of militia. The British had been preparing to capture New Orleans and St. Louis, Missouri, which was also Spanish, in order to control the Mississippi River then a major route for the delivery of Spanish supplies to the revolutionaries. Gálvez’s own officers had recommended a defensive posture, instead of going on the offensive with such untried forces. But, by September 27, Gálvez had already captured all of the British forts in the lower Mississippi including Ft, Bute in Manchac; Ft. Baton Rouge; Ft Panmure in Natchez; and other outposts in the Amite River and Thomson Creek. In addition several British ships carrying rein- forcements to said outposts were taken, plus in a boarding action, the frigate “West Florida” which patrolled Lake Pontchartrain and was the most powerful warship then in the area. The final tally was; eight forts; eight ships; close to 1,000 men and officers captured; to Gálvez’s loss of one man dead and one wounded. This ended the British pres- ence in the lower Mississippi, and the threat against New Orleans.
(2) Since the Spanish were not allies but only co-belligerents of the revolutionaries, they \declined a prior request by de Grasse to unite their squadron to his, and sail to battle the British fleet in support of the Yorktown campaign.