06/21/2026
Two very important events related to June 21 happened with regard to relations with Spain which helped the Americans in the Revolutionary War.
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Two very important events related to June 21 happened with regard to relations with Spain. Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga, dying June 21, 1793, was the Spanish governor of Louisiana, who delivered five tons of the King’s gunpowder up the Mississippi under the Spanish Flag to a Virginia delegation for the use at Ft. Pitt.
The other event, was Spain entering the conflict by declaring war on Great Britain on June 21, 1779, basing the decision on the British assaults on Spanish shipping. Spain did not, however, conclude a direct alliance with the 13 colonies, but fought the war officially as an enemy of England, and as an ally of France, and only unofficially as a friend and ally of the 13 colonies.
As the United States approaches its 250th Anniversary, I give you an excerpt from the Bicentennial by the Ambassador of Mexico, which I am sure you will find interesting.
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Hispanic support in the U.S. War or Independence, By Joseph John Jova, Ambassador to Mexico
The independence of the United States was won not only by the efforts and great sacrifices of the American patriots but also by the aid of allies and friends who supported the 13 colonies' struggle for independence.
Every schoolchild is aware of the role of France and of men like Lafayette and Kosciusko, foreign heroes who came to our distant shores to serve the ideal of liberty which our War of Independence represents.
Unfortunately. the contributions of Spain and Hispanic America, the military role of General Bernardo de Galvez, and the diplomatic roles of men like Don Juan Miralles, "the Cuban friend of George Washington," and Spain's Ambassador in Paris, Count Aranda, are almost forgotten in what one Spanish historian described as "Ia leyenda negra del siiencio (the black legend of silence) .... ,.
In many ways, Spanish and Hispamc-American aid were just as important to America's struggle for independence as that of France, although much less conspicuous and flamboyant ....
After the French-Indian Wars, Spain commenced helping the Americans, choosing at first to do so as covertly as possible in order not arouse British anger and reprisals.
Early in 1776, for example. Carlos III authorized financial assistance by way of France" in order to pour oil on the flames of the insurrection." But extraordinary care was taken "to conceal the operation and avoid the appearance of help to the colonies against European domination."
As early as February 1776, the Spanish Minister of the Indies, Jose de Galvez, sent secret agents into the colonies to assess the state of play and evaluate the rebellion's military prospects; his nephew, Bernardo de Galvez, as Military Governor of Spanish Louisiana, was an active advocate for assisting the Americans. From 1777 onward, Spain accredited an "observer," Juan de Miralles, to maintain close and continuous liaison with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia ....
Meanwhile, secret instructions from the Overseas Minister in Madrid went out to Spanish ports in the Caribbean and along the Gulf coast to grant safe-haven to American ships and to ignore British charges of "piracy" against them ....
In June 1776-still before the 13 colonies had formally declared their independence-Spain began to channel major quantities of arms and supplies to the Continental Army ....
Among items obtained for the colonial army through Spain's first credit were 216 bronze cannons. 330 tons of gunpowder, 30,000 rifles, and 30,000 uniforms. In secret, these critical supplies were shipped from French ports and finally reached the colonies via Bermuda. This was only the first of many loans and shipments of supplies ....
Early in 1777, General Charles Lee of the Continental Army wrote to the Spanish governor of Louisiana. Don Bernardo de Galvez, asking for weapons, ammunition, and quinine for his troops. In exchange, General Lee offered the Spanish the key Florida port of Pensacola if it could be seized from the British. Galvez queried Madrid, and its response was enthusiastic: orders went out to Havana to supply the goods requested via New Orleans. Galvez attempted to conceal the shipments from the British but word leaked out, and London protested vigorously. . . .
The Spanish Court felt it unwise to recognize American independence or side, openly with the patriots, as France had done. . . .
Burgoyne's surrender to General Gates at Saratoga in October 1777, changed matters radically. . . .
In April 1779 Spain attempted to act as the mediator between Great Britain and the 13 colonies. . . .
Great Britain refused this mediation, saying it was, in effect, based on recognition of colonial independence ....
Spain . . . entered the conflict by declaring war on Great Britain in June 1779, basing the decision on the British assaults on Spanish shipping. Spain did not, however, conclude a direct alliance with the 13 colonies but fought the war officially as an enemy of England, and as an ally of France, and only unofficially as a friend and ally of the 13 colonies ....
Nevertheless, Spain' s declaration of war on England and its de facto alliance with the American colonies and its unofficial acknowledgment of their independence caused jubilation to Benjamin Franklin and his colleagues in Paris, and subsequently to George Washington and the members of the American government.
With all pretenses to neutrality now cast off. Spain embarked on a direct role in the conflict which was to have a major impact on its outcome. Britain would now find its forces spread thinner than ever and obliged to fight a desperate and finally unsuccessful holding action against Spanish-led forces in Florida. These forces were led by the young, restless, military genius-the Spanish Governor of Louisiana....
This young soldier was born in Spain but lived most of his life in the Western Hemisphere. He belonged to a renowned family and his father. Don Matias de Galvez, was the 48th Viceroy of New Spain ....
At the age of 28, young de Galvez was named Military Commander and later Governor of Spanish Louisiana. In New Orleans he married a "North American," the beautiful Felicitas de St. Maxent, daughter of one of that city's most important French families.
Galvez did everything possible to help the efforts of the American patriots in the western sector even before Spain became involved in the war. Once war was declared, in 1779, following the dictum that “the best defense is attack." Galvez began a series of vigorous operations against the English positions along the Mississippi River, capturing Fort Manchaco the town of Baton Rouge, the town of Natchez, and other important positions .... Next, he launched a nearly disastrous but ultimately successful amphibious campaign against the city of Mobile, also using local forces supported by some four hundred soldiers from Spain, Cuba and Mexico.
These operations kept navigation on the Mississippi open, making possible the delivery of supplies to American patriots in the Southwest, harassing colonists who had chosen to collaborate with the British Crown, and protecting the 13 colonies' rear guard in what at that point was a fight to the death.
Soon after, Don Bernardo undertook the most difficult and important of his campaigns. in the siege, assault, and eventual capture of the fortified and heavily garrisoned city of Pensacola .... For this campaign, Don Bernardo's Creole group was reinforced by a Spanish fleet and by troops from Havana, Puerto Rico and Mexico. It is interesting to note that among the troops from Cuba was a battalion of free Negroes.
De Galvez' capture of Pensacola inspired great enthusiasm among Washington's armies and in the Continental Congress. His victories helped to protect the Americans' southern and western borders. They also secured the internal communications network based on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The fall of Pensacola led to the surrender of the entire province of West Florida. Moreover, it eliminated the menace posed by Indians serving the English cause and under the command of British authorities at Pensacola.
Indeed, the Spanish-Creole diversionary efforts along the Gulf Coast and in Western Florida may have been decisive in bringing about the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and helped bring the war to a victorious end ....
Although the contribution of Don
Bernardo de Galvez to our independence is practically forgotten in the United States today, he was a true hero in the Hispanic world, particularly in the New Orleans of his time, and one of the most popular governors of Louisiana. . . .
Galvez’ name endures for another reason. In 1777, when he was Governor of Louisiana, the troops under his command founded a town in what today is Texas. They named it "Galvestown" (the second settlement to bear the name) and we know it now as the very important port city of Galveston ....
Subsequently, Galvez organized the expedition against the Bahamas, culminating in the capture of New Providence. This was extremely important as it safeguarded the navigation along the Bahama Channel and along the east coast of Florida. . . .
Other military actions planned included a possible descent upon St. Augustine, but the armies early in 1783 prevented the forays. As John Walton Caughey writes, "For Galvez and for the Spanish operations in America the climax had come in Pensacola; the rest was merely denouement." As a result of his conquest, however, England ceded East Florida as well as West Florida to Spain .....
Spain's and Hispanic America's assistance to the American armies’ their assistance to American patriots along the Mississippi, the capture of Mobile and subsequently the capture of Pensacola and the Joss to the British of both Western and Eastern Florida are little remembered. But they are important contributions to our own efforts for independence.
In this Bicentennial Year it is particularly important not only to recall Galvez and his time, but also to recognize the contributions on the southern border made by Hispanics, by Creoles-both Latin and Anglo-, and by blacks to our independence and national heritage.
Department of State News Letter, Aug-Sep 1976.
Image: By Spain and for the King, Galvez in America (2016), by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau. Obra titulada Por España y por el rey, Gálvez en America, donde se muestra al militar español Bernardo de Gálvez durante la Batalla de Pensacola. CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain_and_the_American_Revolutionary_War #/media/File:Cuadro_por_espa%C3%B1a_y_por_el_rey,_Galvez_en_America.jpg
© 2020-2026 Clifford Olsen/250Years America’s Founding
