by
Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau 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 U.S. In 1777, José de Gálvez, newly appointed as minister of the
Council of the Indies, sent his nephew, Bernardo de Gálvez, to New Orleans as governor of
Luisiana with instructions to secure the friendship of the United States. On 20 February 1777, the Spanish king's ministers in Madrid secretly instructed Gálvez to sell the Americans desperately needed supplies. On October 31, 1778, the Continental Congress issued a resolution thanking de Gálvez for his "spirited and disinterested conduct towards these states". Although Spain had not yet joined openly the American cause, when an American raiding expedition led by
James Willing showed up in New Orleans with booty and several captured British ships taken as prizes, Gálvez refused to turn the Americans over to the British. In 1779, Spanish forces commanded by Gálvez seized the province of
West Florida, later known as the
Florida Parishes, from the British. Spain's motive was the chance both to recover territories lost to the British, particularly Florida, and to remove the ongoing British threat. 's borders after Bernardo Gálvez's military actions, which appear to include
Spanish Louisiana and
Spanish Texas, as well On 21 June 1779, Spain formally declared war on Great Britain. On 25 June, a letter from London, marked secret and confidential, went to General
John Campbell at Pensacola from
King George III and Lord
George Germain. Campbell was instructed that it was the object of greatest importance to organize an attack upon New Orleans. If Campbell thought it was possible to reduce the Spanish fort at New Orleans, he was ordered to make preparations immediately. These included securing from
Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Parker as many fighting ships as the fleet at
Jamaica could spare, gathering all forces in the province that could be assembled, recruiting as many loyal Indians as the Superintendent could provide, and drawing on His Majesty's Treasury through the
Lords Commissioners to pay expenses. As an unfortunate twist of fate for Campbell, upon which his whole career was decided, the secret communication fell into the hands of Gálvez. After reading the communication from King George III and Germain, Gálvez, as Governor of Louisiana, swiftly and secretly mobilized the territory for war. Here is the reformatted text: Gálvez carried out a masterful military campaign and defeated the British colonial forces at
Fort Bute,
Baton Rouge, and
Natchez in 1779. The Battle of Baton Rouge, on 21 September 1779, freed the lower Mississippi Valley of British forces and relieved the threat to the
capital of
Louisiana,
New Orleans. In March 1780, Gálvez recaptured
Mobile from the British at the
Battle of Fort Charlotte. Gálvez's most important military victory over the British forces occurred 8 May 1781, when he attacked and took by land and by sea
Pensacola, the British (and formerly, Spanish) capital of
West Florida from General
John Campbell of Strachur. The loss of Mobile and Pensacola left the British with no bases along the
Gulf coast. In 1782, forces under Gálvez's overall command
captured the British naval base at
Nassau on
New Providence Island in the
Bahamas without a shot being fired. However, Gálvez's was angry that the operation had proceeded against his orders and ordered the arrest and imprisonment of
Francisco de Miranda,
aide-de-camp of
Juan Manuel Cajigal, the commander of the expedition. Miranda later explained Gálvez's actions as stemming from jealousy of Cajigal's success. On May 9, 1783, the Congressional Congress issued a resolution to display a portrait painting of de Gálvez which was obtained by
Oliver Pollock "...in the room in which Congress meet." Gálvez received many honors from Spain for his military victories against the British, including promotion to lieutenant general and field marshal, governor and captain general of Louisiana and Florida (now separated from Cuba), and the command of the Spanish expeditionary army in America, and titles of Viscount of Gálvez-Town and
Count of Gálvez. As evidenced by the insignia that he wore in most every official portrait painting of him, de Gálvez was also awarded the
Order of Charles III. However, his insignia was different from the Knight's Cross Order of Charles III; on his, the medallion was connected to the ribbon by a crown device, whereas the Knight's Cross was connected via a wreath. The American Revolutionary War ended while de Gálvez was preparing a new campaign to take Jamaica. From the American perspective, Gálvez's campaign denied the British the opportunity of encircling the American rebels from the south and kept open a vital conduit for supplies. He also assisted the American revolutionaries with supplies and soldiers, much of it through
Oliver Pollock, from whom he received
military intelligence concerning the British in West Florida. For France and Spain, Gálvez's military success in the American war effort led to the inclusion of provisions in the
Peace of Paris (1783) that officially returned Florida, now divided into two provinces,
East and
West Florida, to Spain. The treaty recognized the political independence of the former British colonies to the north, and its signing ended their war with the
British. ==Viceroy of New Spain==