AMERICA: 250 YEARS IN THE MAKING

General Charles Lee sends two Continental Army officers to request supplies from Louisiana’s Spanish Governor, Luís Unzaga y Amezaga, in New Orleans.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette

The Spanish Crown issues a royal order replacing Unzaga with Colonel Bernardo de Gálvez as governor of Louisiana.

Image credit:  Library of Congress

Galvez officially assumes the governorship of Louisiana

• see https://64parishes.org/entry/bernardo-de-galvez-adaptation for more information.

Image Credit: Louisiana State Museum

American ships retrieve more ammunition and supplies from the Spanish in New Orleans.

Oliver Pollock receives an official appointment from the Continental Congress to be its agent in Louisiana

France and Spain sign the Convention of Aranjuez providing an offensive alliance against Britain

• See https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/treaty-of-aranjuez-1779/ for more information

Spain formally declares war against Great Britain.  Gálvez begins to organize a militia to attack British settlements near the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico

The “Marcha de Gálvez” begins. Gálvez leaves New Orleans with the Regimiento de Luisiana regulars. Militiamen including whites, free blacks, and Native American join along the way, bringing the total to over 1,400 men.

• See https://american-revolution-experience.battlefields.org/people/bernardo-degalvez#galvez-citizen for more information.

Image Credit: United States Senate, U.S. Capitol

Gálvez defeats British forces at Baton Rouge

• see https://64parishes.org/entry/battle-of-baton-rouge-1779 for more information

Image Credit: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division

In an attempt to continue capturing British holdings in their West Florida colony, Gálvez takes Mobile after a month-long siege.

Gálvez Army captures Pensacola from the British, culminating Spain’s conquest of West Florida

• See https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/siege-pensacola for more information

Image info: Sketch by Nicolas Ponce showing the Spanish army during the Siege of Pensacola (1781) under the command of Bernado de Gálvez.
Image Credit: Library of Congress.