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Spanish Involvement in the American Revolution
Spanish Involvement in the American RevolutionSpain declared war on England 21 June 1779 and continued operations against England until peace was declared 3 September 1783. King Carlos III urged his soldiers and sailors to attack the English wherever they appeared. King Juan Carlos I joined the Society on the basis of the
service of his ancestor on 23 February 2000. History Lessons Learned During the Search for Spanish Soldiers and Sailors(The following is the address given by Dr. Granville Hough at the Galvez Gala on 12 October 2003 in the city of Long Beach, California. He discusses the process of having the Hispanic contributions recognized by the SAR and what those contributions were.) In 1996 I learned that the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution, had turned down a California applicant who had no receipt to prove his soldier ancestor had donated one or two pesos to defray the costs of the war with Britain from 1779 into 1783. This seemed a strange denial as the applicant's ancestor had risked his life as a soldier, so why worry about a donativo? I told my SAR chapter I could develop a rationale for accepting Spanish soldiers as patriots, and it said go ahead. I knew Louisiana soldiers serving under Governor Bernardo de Gálvez had been accepted as Patriots since 1925, and that French soldiers and sailors who served under General Rochambeau and Admiral de Grasse had been accepted since 1903. So I developed the rationale and looked for applicants to test it. We found two descendants of California soldiers, with clear lineages, and got our first California descendants admitted in 1998. I had no intent of publishing anything, but concluded it might be useful publish the rationale, then to list names of California soldiers, visiting sailors, and other men who were of the right age to make the donativo. My daughter joined me in the research, and we did the first book on California, mostly rationale, then the second book giving the names of nearly everyone in California under Spanish jurisdiction during the war period, and most of their descendants until American occupation in 1848, about 5000 persons. It was interesting research, and no one had ever done such a listing of Spanish soldiers and sailors. We then did Arizona and Northern Sonora, then New Mexico. We were able to get our first descendant of a New Mexico soldier accepted in 1999. We moved on to Texas where a couple of people had already been accepted, but there was no complete listing. We did one, including all the territory now under Texas jurisdiction. Up to this time we had worked on more than 20 Presidios, more than 10 flying companies of mounted infantry units, and militia units of the larger towns. When we worked on Louisiana, we encountered our first organized Spanish Regiment, the Regimento de Infanterie de Luisiana. (Here is a representation of the flag of that regiment when Colonel Bernardo de Gálvez personally led it at Manchak, Baton Rouge, Mobile, and Pensacola.) Then we went on through the West Indies in our seventh volume with numerous Spanish and colonial regiments, then finally back to Northern Mexico for our eighth volume on backup regiments and other units for the Presidios. We have four more volumes in progress. Along the way, we were questioned on the work we were doing, mainly based on the way people were taught American History. The question was: "How can we accept descendants of Spanish soldiers? Spain has always been our enemy." And that is exactly the way many influential American historians have depicted it. But that is not the way Spanish soldiers and sailors saw it at the time. They, just like Americans, fought the British where they were or wherever they were sent. They celebrated all victories over the British, no matter who won them. But there is one quote from a highly regarded American historian at the time of WW I which is still quoted: He made a statement that John Adams and John Jay in negotiating for peace with Britain had no reason to consider Spanish interests as Spain had been of no help to the American colonies and had wished them ill. He apparently ignored Spanish aid and the de Grasse/Saavedra Accord which governed French and Spanish operations in the Western Hemisphere from July 1781 until the end of the war. He was not aware that a Chesapeake Bay Campaign (Yorktown) was the first item of that accord and that its success was due to five elements, two of them Spanish: Washington's Army, Rochambeau's French Army, de Grasse's French Fleet, Spanish financing, and Spanish covering for the French fleet in the West Indies. Nor did this eminent American historian make any suggestions as to what SECURED Yorktown, or why the four British staging areas at New York, Charleston, Penobscot Bay, and Detroit were never used by the British to reinvade. Few Americans know that the British were straining mightily in 1782 and 1783 just to hold on in the West Indies. Bernardo de Gálvez was waiting to invade Jamaica during that time with 10,000 troops at Guarico in Haiti. He was joined in Venezuela in Feb 1783 by nearly all of Rochambeau's American Expeditionary Force which had fought at Yorktown, 10,000 French troops. French General d'Estaing was lining up 20,000 more French and Spanish troops at Cadiz in Spain awaiting orders to sail. And Bernardo de Gálvez was already designated as the overall commander of the invading forces. The British had to negotiate or lose everything in the West Indies. That IMMINENT THREAT IN THE WEST INDIES is what SECURED Yorktown and made it into the victory we celebrate. I will point out two other false beliefs which have harmed our relationships with our neighbors: One is that the War with Mexico began when Mexican troops attacked American troops on Texas soil near the Rio Grande. I defy any historian to show evidence that Texas ever extended south of the Medina River. The Mexican War started when pro-slavery President James K. Polk in May 1848 sent American troops into Mexican territory south of the Medina and Mexicans defended their land. It is clear we started the Mexican War under false pretenses. Another false belief is that the Spanish American War was started when saboteurs blew up the battleship Maine on 17 Feb 1898. I defy any historian to show that there were any saboteurs near the Maine that night, whether Spanish, Cuban, or some other. Most likely, the Maine blew up from instantaneous combustion of overheated coal in confined ship storage. The evidence is insufficient for that or any other conclusion. It seems quite clear to most historians that we entered the Spanish-American War under false pretenses. These three fallacies have biased American history and textbooks for generations. They constantly come up in one form or another, in editorials, from talking heads, and even from reviewers of SAR applications. But the study of service records of Spanish soldiers shows interesting and remote places where they served, each with some relation to the war with Britain. The National Society, Sons of the American Revolution, has recognized the global aspects of the Revolutionary War. In March of this year, the Society removed all geographic restrictions on patriotic service so that male descendants of Spanish soldiers or sailors, in service 1779-1783, can now join our organization, no matter where the ancestor served. We are also beginning to recognize that Spanish soldiers who fought for freedom for the United States did not forget what they helped create. Within a generation, nearly all the countries we know in the Western Hemisphere had become free nations. The little American Revolution of 13 English colonies had become the Great American Revolution of the Western Hemisphere.[top] The Galvez ProjectThe web site for the Galvez Project is:
The following has been excerpted from that web site.
At Pensacola, Galvez commanded a multinational army of over seven thousand soldiers. Most of these men were already serving in the areas known as Nueva España. This included all the land east of the Mississippi, including present day Southwest and southern states, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Hispanola, and other Spanish colonies such as Venezuela. The Spanish forces in the Americas were also joined by soldiers from Spain, other European nations, American colonists, indigenous, and blacks. It was this multi-ethnic force fighting together to achieve the goals of the American Revolution under the leadership of a remarkable general commander. Pensacola was defended by a British and Indian army of twenty-five hundred soldiers and British warships. An American historian called the siege of Pensacola "a decisive factor in the outcome of the Revolution and one of the most brilliantly executed battles of the war." Another historian stated that General Galvez' campaign broke the British will to fight. This battle ended in May 1781, just five months before the final battle of the war at Yorktown.[top] Rosters by PresidioOn the left please find the names of the presidios which were active during the Revolutionary era. Under each presidio you will find the roster of known soldiers. The same format is used for the sailors. One you are at the individual unit use the "Find on this page" feature of your browser to search for specific names.[top] A helpful Web Site for further ResearchBiographical information on these soldiers can be found on the
Arizona State Museum web site
A Chapter member submitted his lineage to the New Mexico Genealogical Society
and they have posted it on their web site
http://www.nmgs.org/artbenav.htm.
References for Spanish Soldiers and Sailors of 1779-1783Descendants of Spanish soldiers who served in CA while Spain was at war with England during the American Revolution have available excellent references for documenting service of their ancestors. We know families of 220 of 500 plus soldiers or sailors who served during those years.
Part of the above was kindly published as an article by the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research in its Somos Primos Vol. 9 #2 (Summer 1998)[top] Spanish Louisiana Flag of 1781Flag drawing by António Martins Michael Bunn, of the Old Capitol Museum of Mississippi History, asked about the flags used by Spanish military forces in America, specifically De Soto ca. 1540 and Gálvez ca. 1780. I received the following information from Spanish vexillologist Eduardo Panizo: An image of this flag exists in the Spanish Archivo General de Indias, in the city of Seville. It is a battalion flag of the Regimiento de Infanteria de Luisiana 1779-1781. This was the flag used by this regiment, commanded by Bernardo de Gálvez, at the battle of Pensacola on May 8th 1781, where the Spanish Army defeated the British one. This white square flag features the traditional red Burgundy cross used by the Spanish army, cornered by four identical coats-of-arms, and over all the latin writing Honor et Fidélitas, meaning Honour and Loyalty. José Carlos Alegría, 6 September 2000 From The Flags of The World web site, with permission http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/es^1701.html#1779 Updated 22 February 2004 |
