Atlas of Hispanic-American History

declared war in June 1779, Gálvez quick-
ly organized a small force, including
troops from Spain, Mexico, and Cuba. In
a lightning series of attacks that fall, he
captured five British forts, including Fort
Manchac and Baton Rouge (in present-
day Louisiana) and Natchez (in present-
day Mississippi), driving the British out of
the lower Mississippi Valley and thereby
eliminating that region’s ability to support
British forces in the south.
Promoted to general, Gálvez next
attacked British outposts on the Gulf
Coast, capturing Mobile (in present-day
Alabama) in 1780 and Pensacola (in pres-
ent-day Florida) in 1781. He suffered
wounds in the hand and stomach in the
hard-fought two-month struggle for
Pensacola but survived to be named gov-
ernor of West Florida and Louisiana and
win the title of count of Gálvez. He went

on to become governor of Cuba and

viceroy of New Spain before dying in

1786 at age 40. Galveston, Texas, is

named in his honor.

WARFARE ON THE

MISSISSIPPI

Spain did not limit its North American

military attacks to the south. The Spanish

aimed to drive the British out of the east-

ern Mississippi Valley and establish their

own claim to the territory, to prevent the

Americans from laying claim to it after the

war. In November 1780 Captain Balthazar

de Villiers crossed the Mississippi River

from the Spanish colony of Arkansas Post

(in what is now Arkansas) and claimed

possession of the east bank in the name of

INDEPENDENCE IN THE NEW WORLD 67

Spanish Participation in the American Revolution, 1777–1781

During the American Revolution, Spanish troops battled with the British for control of West Florida and the Mississippi River valley.

In 1779, Spanish forces under Bernardo de Gálvez captured the British-occupied settlements of Manchac, Baton Rouge, and

Natchez on the lower Mississippi, and later Mobile and Pensacola on the Gulf Coast, as well as sweeping far to the north to capture

a British trading post named St. Joseph, in what is now Michigan. Critical to maintaining these Spanish offensives was a supply of

beef cattle driven east from Texas.

“To perpetuate in your

posterity the memory of the

heroic action in which, you,

alone, forced your entry into

[Pensacola] Bay, [y]ou may

put as a Seal in your coat

of Arms...the Motto:

‘I ALONE’ ”

–King Carlos III of Spain, in a letter

to Gálvez