The Siege of Pensacola

From 9 March to 10 May 1781, Spanish and French forces besieged and captured Pensacola, the British capital of West Florida

From 9 March to 10 May 1781, the Spanish forces of Bernardo de Gálvez, supported by the French Navy, besieged and captured Pensacola, the British capital of West Florida. This “peripheral” action deprived the British of any base on the Gulf of Mexico.

  • Date: 9 March – 10 May 1781
  • Location: Pensacola, West Florida
  • Commander-in-chief: Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish Governor of Louisiana
  • French forces: 5 ships of the line (chef d’escadre de Monteil), 700 landing troops (chevalier du Botderu)
  • British garrison: 1,200 soldiers (750 fit for combat)
  • Outcome: British capitulation, loss of West Florida

Context

On 12 April 1779, the Treaty of Aranjuez marked Spain’s entry into the American war alongside France. Spain aimed in particular to recover Gibraltar, Minorca and Florida, which had been ceded in 1763 as compensation for the return of Havana. From mid-July, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez (1746–1786), was sent to Florida. Gálvez conducted military operations with great skill, defeating British troops at Manchac (Battle of Fort Bute, 7 September 1779). The Battle of Baton Rouge on 21 September 1779 liberated the lower Mississippi Valley. The capture of Fort Charlotte at Mobile on 9 March 1780 secured control of the western shore of Mobile Bay and paved the way for operations against Pensacola.

The Defences of Pensacola

The town, situated on the north-western shore of the bay of the same name, was defended on the landward side by Fort George, built on a hill overlooking the town and covered by the Queen’s Redoubt established on the heights, while a secondary redoubt guarded the passage between Fort George and the Queen’s Redoubt. On the seaward side, the entrance to the bay was through a narrow passage between the western tip of Santa Rosa Island, where the British had installed an artillery battery, and the mainland. The garrison comprised 1,200 soldiers (of whom 750 were fit for combat) and a naval force reduced to two armed sloops.

The Allied Forces

In June 1780, command of the French naval forces in the West Indies had been entrusted to chef d’escadre de Monteil, who had fifteen vessels at his disposal, including five 74-gun ships and four 64-gun ships. He took part in the expedition with the Palmier, the Destin, the Triton, the Intrépide and the frigates Licorne and Andromaque. A French landing corps of seven hundred men, commanded by the chevalier du Botderu, capitaine de vaisseau, was attached to his force. On the Spanish side, a fleet of more than 30 vessels, placed under Gálvez’s authority in February 1781, sailed from Havana with 1,300 men.

The Siege

On 9 March, Gálvez landed a detachment on Santa Rosa Island and, finding the position abandoned, had a battery installed to repel the British armed sloops. However, fearing grounding on shallow waters and the destruction of their ships by the guns overlooking the bay, the Spanish hesitated to attempt the passage. On 18 March, Gálvez, taking direct command of vessels from New Orleans, entered the bay. This bold manoeuvre prompted the officers to attempt the passage, which they accomplished the following day.

With reinforcements arriving overland from Mobile on 22 March and 1,400 men embarked on 16 vessels from New Orleans on the 23rd, Gálvez laid siege to the town while the French ships, after landing the chevalier du Botderu’s corps, took up position beyond the bar and denied access to the bay. Day after day, the Spanish and French trenches drew closer to the British forts and redoubts, while from 24 April onwards, brigantines and frigates combined their fire with that of the siege guns. On 8 May, the Queen’s Redoubt fell to the besiegers and on the 10th, Pensacola, attacked by sea and land, surrendered, two months after the landing on Santa Rosa Island.

Strategic Consequences

The loss of Mobile and then Pensacola left the British without a base on the Gulf of Mexico, apart from Jamaica, thus depriving them of any supply corridor for their troops operating in the south against the Insurgents, in the colony of Georgia.

It should be noted that the Spanish accepted an alliance with France in order to recover their sugar islands lost to England. Spain never concluded an alliance with the American Insurgents — who were in any case absent from the Pensacola affair — not wishing to endorse a colonial rebellion against a European mother country, which might serve as an example for their own colonial possessions.

Charles-Philippe de Vergennes

References