Conflict in 1782
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- Europe and Atlantic
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The
Capture of the Bahamas
took place in May 1782 during the
American Revolutionary War
when a
Spanish
force under the command of
Juan Manuel Cagigal
arrived on the island of
New Providence
near
Nassau
, the capital of
the Bahamas
. The
British
commander at Nassau, John Maxwell decided to surrender the island without a fight when confronted by the superior force.
Background
[
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]
Spain had entered the
American War of Independence
in 1779 and launched a campaign to drive the British out of the
Gulf of Mexico
, overrunning the British colony of
West Florida
, and seizing its major outposts at
Mobile
and
Pensacola
. The Spanish commander
Bernardo de Galvez
planned an attack against Nassau, the capital of
the Bahamas
which served as a major British
privateering
base. Galvez authorised an expedition against the islands in late 1781, but this was postponed during the
Yorktown Campaign
, which led to the surrender of a
British army
in October 1781.
[6]
In early 1782 the scheme was revived and command of it was given to Juan Cagigal, the
Governor of Havana
.
Capture
[
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]
In spite of receiving orders from Galvez to abandon the expedition scheme so his forces could be used for an invasion of
Jamaica
, Cagigal pressed ahead with his scheme and sailed from
Havana
on 18 April 1782.
[7]
He had 2,500 troops, leaving the garrison of Havana very low, and unable to send troops to support Galvez's Jamaican expedition. He had managed to secure additional ships and transports from the South Carolina Navy led by
Alexander Gillon
.
On 6 May Cagigal's ships came into view of Nassau. He convinced the British commander, Vice Admiral John Maxwell, to surrender without opening a formal
siege
of the town. Maxwell offered twelve articles of surrender, a list which was mildly revised by Cagigal before he accepted the surrender. Spanish forces then occupied the town, taking the 600-strong British garrison as prisoners and capturing several ships, including a
frigate
.
[8]
Aftermath
[
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]
Galvez was angered that Cagigal had not followed his orders to abandon the attack, and was also frustrated because the British naval victory at the
Battle of the Saintes
had forced him to abandon the planned Franco-Spanish invasion of Jamaica.
[9]
Galvez arranged to have Cagigal arrested for his alleged mistreatment of a British general,
John Campbell
, following the
Siege of Pensacola
in 1781. Cagigal was imprisoned in
Cadiz
and his military career was thus ruined. One of his associates,
Francisco de Miranda
, was also charged with a similar offence, which may have motivated his later career as an advocate of
independence
for
Spain's American colonies
. Ultimately it was Galvez who was to receive credit for the capture of the Bahamas despite the fact he had tried to cancel the project.
[10]
An American Loyalist named
Andrew Deveaux
set forth to
recapture Nassau
, which he achieved on 17 April 1783, with only 220 men and 150 muskets to face a force of 600 trained soldiers. By this time, however, the Spanish crown had already recognized British sovereignty over the Bahamas in exchange for
East Florida
under the
Treaty of Paris
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Marley p. 346
- ^
Marley p. 346
- ^
Marley p. 346
- ^
E. Beerman pp. 89?102
- ^
Marley p. 346
- ^
Chavez p. 203
- ^
Chavez p. 207
- ^
Chavez p. 208
- ^
Chavez pp. 208?09
- ^
Chavez p. 209
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Beerman, E.
La ultima batalla de la guerra de la independencia no fue Yorktown. La expedicion hispano-norteamericana a las Bahamas 1782
, Revista de Historia Naval, nº5 de 1984.
(in Spanish)
- Chavez, Thomas E.
Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift
, University of New Mexico Press, 2003.
- Marley, David.
Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present
, ABC-CLIO (1998).
ISBN
0-87436-837-5