American Minute with Bill Federer Spain’s contribution to the American Revolution

In 1775, America was desperately in need of money to finance the Revolution.

Spain’s King Carlos III, together with France’s King Louis XVI, set up a front trading business in Paris, “Roderigue Hortalez and Company,” to funnel money and arms to Americans fighting for independence.

King Carlos III of Spain decided to help, but did so covertly, behind the scenes, as he initially did not want to openly oppose Britain …

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Spanish merchant Juan de Miralles worked with Connecticut merchant Silas Deane and Thomas Morris, the half-brother of Robert Morris — Financier of the Revolution.

The company secretly shipped to American troops five million livers worth of muskets, bayonets, cannons, cannonballs, gunpowder, arms, blankets, tents, flour, sugar, medical items, such as quinine to treat disease, and enough clothing and uniforms for 30,000 soldiers.

It even sent limes and guavas to combat scurvy.

In November of 1777, Juan de Miralles was appointed as secret envoy to America’s Continental Congress by José de Gálvez, Inspector General of New Spain and uncle of Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish Governor of New Spain.

Through Miralles, Spain arranged loans of 40,600 pesos to South Carolina and 140,650 pesos to the Continental Congress.

Tragically, Miralles contracted pneumonia while visiting Washington’s headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, April 28, 1780.

George Washington so appreciated Miralles that he led his funeral procession.

Polish-Jewish merchant Haym Solomon also raised significant funds for the American cause.

When the British blockaded the ports of the 13 colonies, the Spanish Governor of New Spain, Bernardo de Gálvez, sealed off the port of New Orleans to British ships but let ships supplying America to go through.

Over $70,000 worth of military supplies, weapons, cartridge boxes, uniforms, and medicine came from the Caribbean through New Orleans, up the Mississippi River to the Ohio River, then to Pittsburgh, from where they were transported overland to Philadelphia to aid the Continental Army troops under the command of General Washington and Brigadier-General George Rogers Clark.

A historical marker, “Blankets & Pesos for Washington’s Army,” reads:

“The United States have already received very considerable aid from the Court of Madrid — three million pesos. Much more however is expected; and in time to come, these services will be repaid with honor, as they are now acknowledged with gratitude.”

An interesting fact is that Bernado de Gálvez’s uncle, José de Gálvez, Inspector General of New Spain, was the one who appointed Franciscan Junipero Serra to lead the twenty-one Catholic missions in California.

Serra baptized over 6,000, a tenth of the native population there.

California placed Junipero Serra statue in the U.S. Capital’s statuary hall.

On June 21, 1779, King Carlos III officially declared war against Great Britain, as did France and The Netherlands, resulting in Britain having to stretch its military even further.

Spanish and French navies laid siege to British-controlled Gibraltar, 1779-1783.

It was the longest siege the British ever endured, and one of the longest in naval history, requiring an enormous amount of British military resources that otherwise would have been sent to stop the American Revolution

King Carlos III commissioned Gálvez to organize forces against the British.

Gálvez assembled 32 ships and recruited soldiers from Spain, Cuba, México, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Canary Islands, free Blacks, Indians, Creoles, and French Catholic Acadians — “Cajuns.”

He negotiated with the Spanish Governor of Texas, Domingo Cabello y Robles, in June of 1779 for hundreds of horses, as well as 10,000 head of cattle to be driven to New Orleans, Louisiana, to feed his troops.

In late August, 1779, Gálvez’s Spanish forces, numbering 1,427, departed from New Orleans to defeat the British at Fort Bute in Bayou Manchac, September 6, 1779.

On September 21, 1779, they captured Fort New Richmond in Baton Rouge, and then captured Fort Panmure in Natchez, October 5, 1779, freeing up the lower Mississippi Valley.

Gálvez captured hundreds of British soldiers, including the British Maryland Loyalist Regiment, Pennsylvania Loyalists, British 60th Foot Regiment, British 16th Foot Regiment, and the German Waldeck Regiment.

Increasing his troop size to 2,000, Gálvez took Biloxi, and laid a month-long land and sea siege of Fort Charlotte in Mobile, capturing it on March 14, 1780.

The Fort Charlotte Museum exhibit states:

“British Colonial period on the Gulf Coast ended in spectacular fashion during the American Revolution …

In March 1780, Don Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, led more than a thousand troops to Mobile and laid siege to Fort Charlotte …

For 14 long days, Spanish guns battered the old fort.

Faced with the complete destruction of his ragtag army of 300 men, including armed slaves and volunteers from the town, Captain Elias Dumford surrendered Fort Charlotte.”

The British recruited Indians to attack Americans in St. Louis.

Gálvez sent reinforcements and a canon to the Spanish fort there, Fort San Carlos, which was under Fernando de Leyba, commander of Upper Louisiana.

When the Indians attacked, May 26, 1780, they panicked, as they had never heard a cannon fired before.

They stopped fighting and the Battle of St. Louis was over.

Another Spanish contribution was the seizure of British supplies.

On the night of August 8, 1780, a convoy of British merchant vessels left the English Channel filled with military supplies, much of which was intended for British troops in America.

In the dark of night, Spanish Admiral Luis de Córdova slipped his flagship between the lead British ship and the rest of the British fleet.

Córdova mimicked the signal shots of the lead ship to fool the British convoy into following him.

When dawn broke, the British convoy was shocked to find they were surrounded.

A British officer wrote:

“At daylight we found ourselves in the center of thirty ships of the line and four frigates. We tried to run but found it impossible.”

It was one of the largest naval captures in history, 55 ships containing over a million British pounds of supplies, including 80,000 muskets, equipment for 40,000 troops, 294 cannons, uniforms and gold bars.

This Spanish capture deprived British troops of even more supplies they had hoped to use against Americans.

In February 12, 1781, Spanish soldiers from St. Louis traveled north and briefly captured Fort St. Joseph in Michigan.

Gálvez’s actions prevented the British from attacking Washington’s army from the west.

In 1781, with the help of Spanish Captain General Juan Manuel Cajigal and Spanish-Venezuelan Captain Francisco de Miranda, Gálvez led 7,000 Spanish soldiers in two-month land-sea attack against Fort George at the British capital of Pensacola in West Florida, capturing it May 10, 1781.

Ben Franklin and Marquis de Lafayette persuaded French King Louis XVI to send ships to help Americans.

On their way over, they stopped off at Haiti looking for funds for Washington, who was desperate to keep his army together.

French Admiral de Grasse wrote to General Rochambeau, July 28, 1781:

“Saint-Domingue Colony – Haiti – has no money, but I will send a frigate to Havana in quest of it.”

General Lafayette’s frigate L’Aigrette docked at the Port of Havana to obtain water and supplies to bring to Washington’s army in Virginia.

In September of 1781, Cuba’s Governor General Juan Manuel de Cagigal y Monserrat with the help of Spanish Captain Francisco de Miranda, organized a fundraising campaign.

When Cuban mothers – the “Havana’s Ladies,” heard of Washington’s plea for money, they raised an astonishing amount.

Women from Havana to Matanzas to Pinar del Rio donated their gold, silverware, candelabras, and jewelry, equivalent to $28 million dollars to help General Washington win the Battle of Yorktown.

The “Ladies of Havana” sent a note with their gift:

“So the American mothers’ sons are not born as slaves.”

The L’Agraitte arrived in September of 1781 in Virginia with the finances to pay the American army.

When General Washington heard of the Cuban women’s generosity, he reportedly threw his hat in the air.

French General Rochambeau wrote in his “Daily Memoirs” – kept in the Library of Congress:

“The joy was enormous when it was received …

The money from Havana … the contribution of 800,000 silver pounds which helped stop the financial bankruptcy — of the Revolutionary Army — and raised up the moral spirit of the Army that had began to dissolve.”

This money, together with the French fleet blockading British ships, allowed the 17,000 Americans and French to force Cornwallis to surrender, October 19, 1781.

Pulitzer Prize winning Historian Stephen Bonsal, who served in the U.S. embassy in Madrid, wrote in When the French Were Here (Doubleday, Doran & Co.,1945):

“The million that was supplied … by the ladies of Havana may, with truth, be regarded as the ‘bottom dollars’ upon which the edifice of American independence was erected.

The contribution of Cuban women by way of their jewelry, could very well be the foundation on which is founded, the freedom of the United States.”

On May 8, 1782, Gálvez’s Spanish forces captured the British naval base at New Providence, Nassau, Bahamas.

He was preparing to capture Jamaica when the war ended.

In 1783, Bernado de Gálvez helped with the negotiations for the Treaty of Paris which officially ended the Revolutionary War.

Congress recognized him for his assistance in the peace process.

In gratitude for his support, General Washington invited Gálvez to ride with him in a Philadelphia victory parade, July 4, 1783.

Statues of Gálvez are in New Orlean’s Spanish Plaza, and near the U.S. Department of State, Virginia Avenue and 22nd Street N.W., Washington, DC, which was dedicated by King Juan Carlos I, June 3, 1976.

The statue’s inscription reads:

“BERNARDO DE GÁLVEZ … THE GREAT SPANISH SOLDIER WHO CARRIED OUT A COURAGEOUS CAMPAIGN IN LANDS BORDERING THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI.

THIS MASTERPIECE OF MILITARY STRATEGY LIGHTENED THE PRESSURE OF THE ENGLISH IN THE WAR AGAINST THE AMERICAN SETTLERS WHO WERE FIGHTING FOR THEIR INDEPENDENCE.

MAY THE STATUE OF BERNARDO DE GÁLVEZ SERVE AS A REMINDER THAT SPAIN OFFERED THE BLOOD OF HER SOLDIERS FOR THE CAUSE OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.”

In October of 1784, Carlos III made Gálvez the Governor of Cuba, Louisiana and the Floridas, where, as a gesture of goodwill, he released all American sailors imprisoned for smuggling.

Gálvez had corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Charles Henry Lee.

A fifteen cent U.S. Postage stamp honors General Bernado de Gálvez, Battle of Mobile, 1780.

Galveston, Texas, and Gálvez, Louisiana, were named for him.

Congress awarded him honorary U.S. citizenship – one of only seven other people to be thus recognized.

In 1785, Gálvez succeeded his father as Viceroy of New Spain and moved his family to Mexico City, which was suffering disease and famine.

He used his personal fortune to help the suffering people.

He repaired the Castle of Chapultepec and completed the Cathedral of Mexico, the largest Catholic cathedral in the western hemisphere.

He died November 30, 1786.

His body was placed beside the Church of San Fernando and his heart was kept at the Cathedral of Mexico.

Another Spaniard who helped with the American Revolution was Spanish Captain Jorge Farragut.

He served as a lieutenant in the fledging South Carolina Navy and then the Continental Navy.

Farragut fought the British at Savannah in 1779; was captured in the Siege of Charleston, 1780; then fought in the Battles of Cowpens and Wilmington, 1781.

After the war, Jorge Farragut helped found Knoxville, Tennessee.

His son, David Glasgow Farragut, was the first U.S. Navy Admiral.