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Podcast Transcript
When Americans tell the story of the Revolutionary War, the focus usually falls on Washington, Jefferson, and the battles fought in the thirteen colonies.
Yet independence was also won through foreign support. Some of it, in France’s case, was quite overt. Spain also supported the American cause, but its support was more covert.
At the center of it all was a Spanish commander whose campaigns crippled Britain and helped make victory at Yorktown possible. His name is little known today, but his impact was enormous.
Learn more about Bernardo de Gálvez and Spain’s hidden role in the American Revolution on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Even if you are a student of the American Revolution, there is a good chance that you are not familiar with the name Bernardo de Gálvez. However, you should be.
Gálvez played a role just as important as many people we call the founding fathers, but he did so out of the limelight and, as such, hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves.
Bernardo Vicente de Gálvez y Madrid was born on July 23, 1746, outside the city of Malaga, and went on to become a Spanish military leader and government official who served as colonial governor of Spanish Louisiana and Cuba, and later as Viceroy of New Spain.
It should be noted that the Louisiana Territory was under Spanish control from 1762 to 1800, during the American Revolution. The French didn’t get it back until 1800 and then flipped the property just three years later.
Gálvez joined the Spanish military as a teen. He quickly rose through the ranks thanks to the influence of his father, a general stationed in Central America, and his uncle, a royal minister.
A career soldier, he served in the 1762 war against Portugal, fought the Apache in Mexico in 1770, and was wounded in Spain’s failed 1775 invasion of Algiers. In the invasion of Algiers, he aided in the capture of a fortress, which led to his promotion to lieutenant colonel.
For the purposes of this episode, Bernardo de Gálvez entered the story of the American Revolution when he was dispatched to New Orleans as a colonel in June 1776. Less than a year later, he was appointed governor of Louisiana on New Year’s Day 1777 at age 30.
Gálvez was a skilled administrator, and the colony thrived under his rule. His policies helped increase trade and immigration to Louisiana. His marriage to the daughter of a prominent local French Creole family won him the loyalty of the colony’s settlers.
As governor, he enacted an anti-British policy, taking measures against British smuggling and promoting trade with France. He founded Galvez Town in 1779, promoted the colonization of Nueva Iberia, and established free trade with Cuba and Yucatán.
During this entire time, of course, the Continental Army was fighting the British on the East Coast, seemingly far away from New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory.
Gálvez didn’t spend this time as an innocent bystander or observer to the conflict that was happening in the British Colonies.
Gálvez provided significant assistance to the American cause even before Spain officially joined the Revolutionary War. He maintained direct communication with key figures, including Charles Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry.
Furthermore, he personally met with their representatives, Capt. George Gibson and Oliver Pollock. In response to their requests, Gálvez ensured that the Mississippi River remained accessible exclusively to Spanish, French, and American vessels.
He played an important role in blocking British access to their forts and territories to the west of the colonies.
In 1777, Gálvez stepped up his support and began to smuggle supplies to the American Rebels, shipping gunpowder, muskets, uniforms, medicine, and other supplies through the British blockade to Ohio, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia by way of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
His famous reply to American requests for aid captured his careful, duplicitous strategy: “I will extend…whatever assistance I can, but it must appear that I am ignorant of it all.”
That last bit is crucial because in December 1776, King Charles III of Spain decided that covert assistance to the United States would be strategically useful, but Spain did not enter into a formal alliance with the colonies.
Spain was not eager to endorse a colonial rebellion on principle. The Spanish Empire ruled vast territories in the Americas, from Mexico to South America and the Caribbean.
Publicly backing colonists who had revolted against their king could set a dangerous example for Spain’s own subjects. Madrid wanted to weaken Britain, but it did not want to legitimize revolution or republicanism.
Also, Spain was not yet ready for war. After losing territory and prestige to Britain during the Seven Years’ War, Spain needed time to rebuild its navy, strengthen defenses, and coordinate policy with France. Covert aid allowed Spain to hurt Britain indirectly while buying time to prepare militarily.
Finally, Spain’s real objective was geopolitical advantage, not American independence itself. Spanish leaders hoped to recover Gibraltar, Florida, and other territories lost to Britain.
Secretly supplying the Americans with gunpowder, money, weapons, and access through New Orleans and the Mississippi River tied down British forces and drained British resources without forcing Spain into immediate open conflict.
By 1779, however, Spain was finally ready and formally declared war on Britain.
To preempt a suspected British assault on New Orleans, Gálvez mobilized a diverse force composed of Choctaw, enslaved individuals, free Blacks, and local settlers of French and German descent.
This mobilization launched the Mississippi River Campaign of 1779. Despite the grueling heat and swampy terrain, Gálvez conducted a rapid offensive against British strongholds. His forces successfully took Fort Bute at Manchac and overcame the British at Baton Rouge, leading to the negotiated surrender of Natchez.
These strategic triumphs effectively ousted the British from the lower Mississippi and fortified Spanish Louisiana. Furthermore, the campaign severed British connections with loyalists and Native allies while forcing the British to redirect their military focus away from the American Revolution.
Gálvez then turned his attention to the British on the Gulf Coast.
The Siege of Mobile in 1780 was Bernardo de Gálvez’s campaign to capture the British-held port of Mobile in present-day Alabama.
After storms scattered part of his fleet, Gálvez reorganized his forces, landed troops, and laid siege to Fort Charlotte. Following sustained artillery bombardment, the British surrendered in March 1780.
The victory further weakened British control of the Gulf Coast and isolated Pensacola, 50 miles from Mobile, as Britain’s last major stronghold in West Florida.
The Siege of Pensacola, fought from March to May 1781, was Bernardo de Gálvez’s greatest victory and one of the most important Spanish campaigns of the American Revolution. Pensacola was the capital of British West Florida and the strongest British base on the Gulf Coast.
As long as Britain held it, they threatened Spanish Louisiana, controlled access to the Gulf of Mexico, and could support operations against the American rebels from the south.
Gálvez understood that taking Pensacola would break British power in the region. He assembled a large multinational force from across the Spanish Empire, including troops from Cuba, Louisiana, Mexico, regular Spanish soldiers, militia, free Black troops, and allied Native forces.
The campaign itself began with difficulty. Pensacola Bay was protected by coastal batteries and a dangerous entrance channel. Some Spanish naval officers hesitated to sail in under British fire. Gálvez famously took a smaller vessel and personally led the way into the harbor, shaming the rest of the fleet into following.
Once ashore, the Spanish began a formal siege. British defenses centered on Fort George, supported by outer redoubts and artillery positions. Over several weeks, Spanish engineers dug trenches closer to the defenses while artillery batteries pounded the British lines. The work was slow, dangerous, and conducted under constant enemy fire in rough terrain.
The decisive moment came on May 8, 1781, when a Spanish artillery shell struck the powder magazine of the Queen’s Redoubt, one of the key British outer defenses. The explosion killed many defenders and shattered the British position. Spanish troops quickly seized the ruined redoubt, allowing their guns to fire directly on Fort George.
With his outer defenses lost and the main fort exposed, British General John Campbell realized the situation was hopeless. He surrendered on May 10, 1781.
The fall of Pensacola ended British rule in West Florida and gave Spain control of the Gulf Coast, and it forced Britain to divert men and resources away from the main war in the eastern colonies.
That mattered greatly because later that same year, Britain would be trapped at Yorktown. While Yorktown became the famous final battle in the revolution, Pensacola was the major strategic blow that helped make the British defeat possible.
Bernardo de Gálvez emerged from the siege as one of the most effective Allied commanders of the war.
From the American perspective, Gálvez’s campaign denied the British the opportunity to encircle the American rebels from the south and kept open a vital supply conduit.
The Spanish conquest of Florida also eliminated a threat to the French West Indies, freeing Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse to remain in the Chesapeake Bay and trap Cornwallis at Yorktown.
For France and Spain, Gálvez’s military success in the American war effort led to the inclusion of provisions in the Peace of Paris in 1783 that officially returned Florida, now divided into East and West Florida, to Spain.
In honor of his bravery, Gálvez was made a count and was appointed governor of Cuba and captain general of Louisiana and West Florida.
After the war, Carlos III showered Gálvez with honors. He gave Gálvez permission to use the phrase “Yo Solo” (“I Alone”) on his coat of arms, in “memory of the heroic action in which you alone forced the entrance of the Pencacola Bay.” In 1785, he named Gálvez to succeed his late father as viceroy of New Spain.
Gálvez governed Spain’s American possessions for only a year and a half; he died of yellow fever in Mexico City in November 1786 at age 40.
The City of Galveston, Texas, Galveston Bay, Galvez, Louisiana, and other places were named after him.
Soon after his death, Gálvez’s contributions to American independence were largely forgotten.
However, on December 16, 2014, the United States Congress conferred honorary citizenship on Bernardo de Gálvez, citing him as a “hero of the Revolutionary War who risked his life for the freedom of the United States people and provided supplies, intelligence, and strong military support to the war effort.” He is one of only 8 people ever to be granted honorary US citizenship in American History.
In 2019, the Spanish Government placed a statue of Gálvez in front of the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Now there is one more footnote to this story. This last bit doesn’t lie in the United States; it is in the city of Málaga, Spain.
Málaga is in southern Spain and lies on the Mediterranean coast. It is the 6th largest city in Spain with a population of just under 600,000 people.
The Cathedral of Málaga was constructed between 1528 and 1782. Its ending date falls during the American Revolution.
One of the Cathedral’s best-known oddities is its missing south tower. Legend has it that the money intended to complete it was redirected to support the American War of Independence.
The most popular version of the story says that funds to complete the second tower, 400,000 gold reales, equivalent to roughly $20 million today, were given to Malaga native Bernardo de Gálvez to fight the British.
To this day, the cathedral stands with only one completed tower, a physical reminder of Spain’s sacrifice in support of American independence. This unfinished state has led to the cathedral being called “La Manquita,” meaning in English “The One-Armed Lady.”
So, if you ever happen to be in Malaga, you can visit one of the unintended monuments to the American Revolution.
Bernardo de Gálvez never became a household name in the United States, yet the nation’s story would be very different without him. His victories along the Gulf Coast, his shipments of supplies to the Continental Army, and Spain’s broader war against Britain all helped make American independence possible.
