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The Last Battle of the American Revolution: Yorktown. No, The Bahamas! (The Spanish-American Expedition to Nassau in 1782)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
History generally records Lord Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown in October 1781 as the last battle of the American Revolution. Nevertheless, six months after that epic campaign, warships of the South Carolina Navy commanded by Commodore Alexander Gillon, transported Spanish General Juan Manuel de Cagigal's infantrymen from Havana to Nassau in the Bahamas, where the British capitulated on May 8, 1782. Thus, the Treaty of Versailles signed the following year made this little-known Spanish and American expedition the last battle of the American Revolution.
The Bahamas, or Lucayos, an archipelago off the southeastern coast of the United States, take on increasing historical interest with the approach of the 500th Anniversary of Columbus's first landing in the New World 200 miles southeast of Nassau at Guanahani. The Bahamas, however, played only a minor role in the Spanish colonization of the Americas whereas, Great Britain gave priority to these strategic islands, making an initial settlement on the island of Eleuthera. The British later found a better harbor to the west and named the island New Providence which became their Bahama stronghold. King Charles II granted the Duke of Albemarle the Bahamas in 1670 and appointed John Wentworth as governor. Harrassed by plundering pirates, the British governor constructed a fort on New Providence in 1695 and named it Nassau in honor of King William III. The island's preoccupation changed in 1703 from marauding corsairs to a Spanish and French invasion during the War of the Spanish Succession. Great Britain regained control and maintained it until the outbreak of the American Revolution when John Paul Jones participated in the brief American seizure of Nassau in March 1776 in one of the first offensive operations in the history of the United States Navy.
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1988
References
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8 Gálvez to Juan Manuel de Cagigal, Havana, January 20, 1782, AGI, SD, leg. 2085-bis, and copy in “Consejo, 1785, El Sr. Fiscal Con El Teniente Gral. Dn. Juan Manuel de Cagigal Sobre la Conquista de la Isla de la Providencia” (hereafter cited as “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia”), Archivo His¬tórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter cited as AHN), Consejo de Indias (hereafter cited as CI), leg. 20170, No. 4. Cagigal, the key Spanish official on the Bahamas invasion, born in 1739 in Santiago de Cuba where his father -native of Hoz in province of Santander-Francisco Antonio de Cagigal y de la Vega, served as governor. Cagigal entered the army in Cuba, went to Spain and served as a captain during the Seven Year’s War in the 1762 invasion of Portugal. Four years later he was colonel of the Principe Infantry Regiment in Orán, traveling east in the 1775 Alexander O’Reilly’s attack on Algiers. The following year he served as a brigadier on the amphibious invasion of Santa Catalina on the Brazilian coast and promoted to field marshal, serving at the rank during the 1779-80 siege of Gibraltar.
9 Cagigal to Gálvez, Havana, January 21, 1782, AGI, SD, leg. 2085-bis, and copy in “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
10 Rawson Lowndes to Navarro, Charleston, July 18, 1778, AGI, SD, leg. 1598; and Urriza to José de Gálvez, Havana, October 15, 1778, Ibid.
11 Gillon to Navarro, Havana, November 5, 1778, AGI, SD, leg. 1598; and Navarro to José de Gálvez, Havana, November 24, 1778, AGI, PC, leg. 1301. Latter legajo gives additional documenta¬tion on Gillon in Cuba in 1778.
12 Pedro Martín Cermeño, La Coruña, September 29, 1781, AHN, Estado, leg. 3884, expediente 16; Jay to Conde de Floridablanca, Madrid, October 9, 1781, Ibid.; and Jay to Gillon, Madrid, October 9, 1781, Ibid.
13 “Certificación de las estancias en el hospital militar, de la tripulación de la fragata americana South Carolina, Comandante Gillon en el año 1782,” Miguel José de Vera, Tenerife, February 8, 1783, AHN, Estado, leg. 3885, exp. 5.
14 Cagigal to José de Gálvez, Havana, March 14, 1782, AGI, SD, leg. 1234.
15 Ibid.; Urriza to Martín Mayorga, Havana, April 20, 1782, AGI, IG, leg. 1579.
16 Urriza to Bernardo de Gálvez, Havana, April 29, 1782, Ibid.
17 Cagigal to Bernardo de Gálvez, Havana, January 21, 1782, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
18 Gálvez to José de Gálvez, Havana, January 23, 1782, AGI, SD, leg. 1234.
19 Courier de L’Europe, Gazette Anglo-Françoise (London), June 7, 1782, Vol. XI, p. 365.
20 Gálvez to Cagigal, Guarico, March 12, 1782, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
21 “Relación de las embarcaciones destinadás a Bahamas,” Urriza a Gálvez, Havana, March 12, 1782, AGI, SD, leg. 2084; “Noticias de los Barcos de la Expedición del Sor. dn. Josef Solano que han arribado,” Urriza to Gálvez, Havana, March 15, 1782, AGI, IG, leg. 1579; and Courier de L’Europe, Gaiette Anglo-Françoise, June 7, 1782, Vol. XI, 365.
22 Vanmarck to Cagigal, Havana, April 5, 1782 and Guarico, May 24, 1782, AGI, IG, leg. 1580.
23 Gillon to Cagigal, Havana, April 8, 1782, Ibid.
24 Gálvez to Cagigal, Guarico, April 11, 1782 and April 14, 1782, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
25 “Estado que manifiesta los oficiales y tropas de que se componen la expedición del mando del Exmo. Sr. D. Juan Manuel de Cagigal, con expresión de los barcos cañoneras, su comandantes, número de cañones, obuses y bombas con sus calibres,” Havana, April 8, 1782, AGI, IG, leg. 1580.
26 Testimony of Cagigal at court-martial in Cadiz, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
27 Cagigal to Gálvez, Havana, April 18, 1782, AGI, SD, leg. 2084.
28 “Expedición del General D. Juan Manuel de Cagigal desde la Havana a las Islas Lucayos [Bahamas] en el Canal de Bahamas: ocupación de la Nueva Providencia y demás de este archipélago por capitulación en 8 de Mayo,” Juan Manuel de Cagigal, aboard South Carolina off Hog Island near Nassau, May 8, 1782, Servicio Histórico Militar, Madrid, Colección de Clonard, leg. 31. Instead of the 57 transports cited in the above document, the following two sources said there were just 48 transports: Cagigal to Gálvez, New Providence, May 20, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia,” and Vice Admiral John Maxwell to General Alexander Leslie, Hog Island, May 6, 1782, Courier de L’Europe, Gazette Anglo-Françoise, July 16, 1782, Vol. XII, 36.
29 Cagigal to Gálvez, New Providence, May 20, 1782, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
30 Ibid.; Cagigal to Maxwell, aboard South Carolina in front of Nassau, May 6, 1782, Ibid.
31 Maxwell to Leslie, Hog Island, May 6, 1782, Courier de L’Europe, Gazette Anglo-Françoise, July 16, 1782, Vol. XII, 36. A Maxwell attachment stated that the British garrison at Nassau had 203 soldiers and 133 militiamen ready to fight, whereas the Americans had the 40-gun frigate South Carolina with 500 men, plus other warships, while the Spaniards had 48 transports with 2,500 soldiers and an equal number of crew for a total of 5,000.
32 Maxwell to Cagigal, Nassau, 7:40 p.m., May 6, 1782, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
33 Maxwell to Cagigal, Nassau, 5:00 a.m., May 7, 1782, Ibid.
34 Cagigal to Maxwell, South Carolina, May 7, 1782, Ibid.
35 “Artículos de capitulación estipulados en Nassau de Nueva Providencia el 8 de Mayo de 1782 entre el Exmo. Sor. Dn. Juan Manuel de Cagigal, Capitán General y Comandante en Jefe de la isla de Cuba, Gobernador de Havana, etc., etc., y el Exmo. Sor. Dn. Juan Maxwell, Esquire, Capitán General y Comandante en Jefe de las Islas Bahamas, Canciller, vice admiral y Primado de dichas islas y Teniente-Colonel del Exército de S.M.B.,” Ibid. Capitulation and correspondence between Cagigal and Maxwell also at AGI, SD, leg. 2085. Capitulation was published in the following: Gaceta de Madrid, No. 74, September 13, 1782, 760–64; Mercurio Histórico y Político (Madrid), September 1782, 104–12; and Courier de L’Europe, Gazette Anglo-Françoise, July 19, 1782, Vol. XII, 44–45.
36 “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
37 “Estado que Manifiesta las Fuerzas de Tierra, y Mar, Artillería, Municiones de Guerra y con que ha capitulado la Isla de Providencia y sus adyacentes en 8 de Mayo de 1782,” Ibid.
38 Gillon to Cagigal, aboard South Carolina off Nassau, May 8, Ibid.
39 Cagigal to Juan Galiano, Nassau, May 9, 1782, Ibid.
40 Another Spanish view of the Cagigal and Gillon differences is told by the Bahama invasion inten¬dent Juan Galiano in a letter to José de Gálvez of May 23, 1782, AGI, SD, leg. 2084.
41 Extract of the Unites States Congress on behalf of a motion of the delegates of the State of South Carolina, Philadelphia, May 3, 1784, AHN, Estado, leg. 3885, exp. 19.
42 Maxwell to Germain, New Providence, May 14, 1782, Courier de L’Europe, Gazette Anglo-Françoise, July 16, 1782, Vol. XII.
43 Cagigal to Juan Daban, Nassau, May 18, 1782, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
44 Cagigal to Gálvez, New Providence, May 20, 1782, Ibid. The sketch “Croquis de la ville de Nassau, en la isla de Providencia y su puerto, 1782,” AGI, Mapas y Pianos, SD, No. 472.
45 “Relación por Cuerpos…Nueva Providencia,” Quesada to Gálvez, Nassau, May 20, 1782, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
46 Salabarría to Marqués de González de Castejón, Havana, May 29, 1782, Ibid.; Urriza to José de Gálvez, Havana, June 10, 1782, AGI, SD, leg. 2084.
47 Salabarría to Antonio Ramón del Valle, Havana, May 26, 1782, “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
48 Cagigal to Daban, Providence, May 24, 1782, Ibid. ; testimony of Cagigal at court-martial, Cadiz, July 13, 1786, Ibid.
49 Gálvez to José de Gálvez, Havana, June 7, 1783, Ibid.
50 Solano to González de Castejón, aboard San Luis in Havana Bay, July 28, 1782, Ibid. A British account of Cagigal’s withdrawal carne from Charleston which told that 40 Spanish ships departed Nassau since the surrender but only 18 had returned to Havana, and an equal number were either taken by British corsairs or had returned to Nassau; dispatch from Charleston, July 30, 1782, Courier de L’Europe, Gazette Anglo-Françoise, October 29, 1782, Vol. XII, 277. In Cagigal’s court-martial testi¬mony in Cadiz, he stated that the Spaniards had lost just three small transports on the return and this was due to the poor quality of the vessels, not enemy action. Additional archival documentation on Cagigal’s withdrawal at AGI, SD, leg. 2085-bis and AGI, PC, leg. 1330.
51 “Fiscal Con Cagigal Sobre Providencia.”
52 Ibid.
53 Extract of the United States Congress on behalf of a motion of the delegates of the State of South Carolina, Philadelphia, May 3, 1784, AHN, Estado, leg. 3885, exp. 19.
54 Carmichael to Floridablanca, Madrid, October 12, 1784, AHN, Estado, leg. 3885, exp. 5.
55 José de Gálvez to Conde de Gálvez, San Lorenzo del Escorial, October 19, 1784, Ibid.
56 Gálvez to Floridablanca, Cadiz, October 26, 1784, Ibid.
57 Gardoqui to Floridablanca, Cadiz, October 26, 1784, Ibid.
58 Carmichael to Floridablanca, San Lorenzo, November 12, 1784, AHN, Estado, leg. 3885, exp. 16.
59 Washington to Floridablanca, Mount Vernon, December 19, 1785, AHN, Estado, leg. 3885, exp. 26. For an extended account of the biirros sent Washington, see Beerman, , “The Time When Spain Sent a Donkey to Washington,” Guidepost, 23, No. 42 (December 1980), 16–17.Google Scholar