Bernardo de Gálvez, Artist- José Nicolás de la Escalera, 1781, Iberdrola Collection, Courtesy Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
While fireworks exploded across the United States this past July 4th in celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday and signing of the Declaration of Independence, few locals knew that New Orleans, then under Spanish rule, played an unsung role in the American Revolution, thanks to Louisiana’s Spanish colonial Governor Bernardo de Gálvez, seen here in this 1781 portrait, and a resourceful Irishman.
When the revolution broke out in 1775, Galvez saw an opportunity to regain land, including Florida, that Spain had lost to Great Britain in 1763 at the end of the French and Indian War. The British also had gained control of what was once part of French Louisiana from Baton Rouge east to the Perdido River. The Brits designated that territory West Florida and expanded its eastern border to include Pensacola. Gálvez had his sights on that, too.
In steps the Irish-born merchant Oliver Pollock who arrived in New Orleans from Havana in 1768 at the invitation of then Spanish Governor Alejandro O’Reilly, another Irishman in Spanish service. Pollock’s objective was to develop trade between Louisiana and other Spanish colonies. While here, the savvy Irishman also amassed a sizable fortune from his own business dealings in Louisiana and West Indies.
During the early days of the revolution, Pollock secretly supported the American cause by helping Rebels buy arms from Spain. Taking advantage of those connections, Governor Gálvez, who arrived in New Orleans in January 1777, permitted Pollack to act as the Continental Congress’s agent in New Orleans, which enabled him to send even more supplies to Rebel forces, especially to George Washington in Virginia. Unfortunately, Pollock’s devotion to the American cause, including his own money to pay for Rebel supplies, drove him deep into debt.
Meanwhile, Gálvez had complete success against British forces. In July 1779 he learned that war had been declared between Spain and Great Britain. When he got word that British troops were concentrating in West Florida to attack New Orleans, he struck first.
Through quick maneuvers, Gálvez and his small army of Spanish regulars, Mexicans, Native Americans, Canary Islanders, free-people-of-color, Anglo Americans, Acadians, and French Louisianians captured British-held Baton Rouge and Fort Bute south of Baton Rouge on the Mississippi in September 1779. In October, he took Natchez, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama in March 1780; and Pensacola, Florida in May 1781. Spain gained possession of East and West Florida in 1783 with the Peace of Paris that also ended the American Revolution.
For Galvez’s contributions to the American patriots’ cause, Congress made him an honorary American citizen in 2014. As to Pollock, his debts haunted him long after the revolution until Congress finally repaid his claims. In 1783 he returned to Havana as an agent for the United States. While there, he spent 18 months in prison for unpaid bills. Returning to the U.S., Pollock settled for a time in Pennsylvania where he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. Despite ups and downs, Pollock eventually rebuilt his fortune before spending his final days living with his daughter in Pinckneyville, Mississippi, where he died in 1823.
He is reportedly buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of an abandoned Pinckneyville church.
