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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.