Bernardo de Gálvez

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Gálvez and the second or maternal family name is Madrid.
Spanish Governor of Louisiana
In office
1777–1783
MonarchCharles III
Preceded byLuis de Unzaga
Succeeded byEsteban Rodríguez Miró
Personal details
Born
Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid

(1746-07-23)23 July 1746
Captain General
Marshal
Battles/wars

Bernardo Vicente de Gálvez y Madrid, 1st Count of Gálvez (23 July 1746 – 30 November 1786) was a Spanish military leader and government official who served as colonial governor of Spanish Louisiana and Cuba, and later as Viceroy of New Spain.

A

career soldier since the age of 16, Gálvez was a veteran of several wars across Europe, the Americas, and North Africa. While governor of Louisiana, he supported the colonists and their French allies in the American Revolutionary War, helping facilitate vital supply lines and frustrate British operations in the Gulf Coast. Gálvez achieved several victories on the battlefield, most notably conquering West Florida and eliminating the British naval presence in the Gulf.[1] This campaign led to the formal return of all of Florida to Spain in the Treaty of Paris
, which he played a role in drafting.

Gálvez's actions aided the American war effort and made him a hero to both Spain and the newly independent United States. The U.S. Congress endeavored to hang his portrait in the Capitol, finally doing so in 2014.[2] He was granted many titles and honors by the Spanish government, which in 1783 appointed him viceroy of one of its most valuable territories, New Spain, succeeding his father Matías de Gálvez y Gallardo. He served until his death from typhus.

While somewhat forgotten in the United States, Gálvez remains in high esteem among many Americans, particularly in the southern and western states that once formed part of Spain's North American territory.

honorary U.S. citizenship.[3]

Origins and military career

Bernardo de Gálvez was born in

Ávila and at the age of 16 participated in the Spanish invasion of Portugal, which stalled after the Spanish had captured Almeida. Following the conflict he was promoted to infantry lieutenant.[8] He arrived in Mexico, which was then part of New Spain, in 1769.[9][10] As a captain, he fought the Apaches, with his Opata Indian allies.[11][12] He received many wounds, several of them serious.[13] In 1770, he was promoted to commandant of arms of Nueva Vizcaya and Sonora, northern provinces of Mexico.[14]

Portrayed as viceroy of New Spain, c. 1785

In 1772, Gálvez returned to Spain with his uncle,

Ávila and promoted to lieutenant colonel; he was made colonel in 1776.[13]

Spanish governor of Louisiana

On 1 January 1777, Bernardo de Gálvez became the new governor of the formerly French province of Louisiana,[13][18] the vast territory that would later become the object of the Louisiana Purchase. The colony had been ceded by France to Spain in 1762, ostensibly as compensation for the loss of Florida to Britain, after Spain was urged to enter the Seven Years' War on the French side.

In November 1777, Gálvez married Marie Félicité de Saint-Maxent d'Estrehan, the Creole daughter of the French-born

Gilbert Antoine de Saint-Maxent and the Creole Elizabeth La Roche, and young widow of Jean Baptiste Honoré d'Estrehan, the son of a high ranking French colonial official. This marriage to the daughter of a Frenchman[19][20] won Gálvez the favor of the local Creole population.[21][22] They had three children, Miguel, Matilde, and Guadalupe.[23]

As governor, Gálvez enacted an anti-British policy, taking measures against British smuggling and promoting trade with France.[24][25] He damaged British interests in the region and kept it open for supplies to reach George Washington's army during the American Revolutionary War.[26][27][28] He founded Galvez Town in 1779,[27] promoted the colonization of Nueva Iberia, and established free trade with Cuba and Yucatán.[29] Galvez Street in New Orleans is named for him. In 1779, Gálvez was promoted to brigadier.[30]

American Revolutionary War

Main article: Gulf Coast campaign
Painting of Gálvez at the siege of Pensacola 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.[31] 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.[32] On 20 February 1777, the Spanish king's ministers in Madrid secretly instructed Gálvez to sell the Americans desperately needed supplies.[25] The British had blockaded the colonial ports of the Thirteen Colonies, and consequently the route from New Orleans up the Mississippi River was an effective alternative. Gálvez worked with Oliver Pollock, an American patriot, to ship gunpowder, muskets, uniforms, medicine, and other supplies to the American colonial rebels.[33]

Although Spain had not yet joined 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.[33][34][35] In 1779, Spanish forces commanded by Gálvez seized the province of West Florida, later known as the Florida Parishes, from the British.[36] Spain's motive was the chance both to recover territories lost to the British, particularly Florida, and to remove the ongoing British threat.[37][38][39]

Norteamerica, 1792, Jaillot-Elwe, Spanish Florida'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.

King George III and Lord George Germain.[43] Campbell was instructed that it was the object of greatest importance to organize an attack upon New Orleans.[44] 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,[45] gathering all forces in the province that could be assembled, recruiting as many loyal Indians as the Superintendent could provide,[46] and drawing on His Majesty's Treasury through the Lords Commissioners to pay expenses.[47] 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.[48]

Gálvez carried out a masterful military campaign and defeated the British colonial forces at

Fort Bute, Baton Rouge, and Natchez in 1779.[49][50] 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, he recaptured Mobile from the British at the Battle of Fort Charlotte.[51][52]

Gálvez's most important military victory over the British forces occurred 8 May 1781, when he attacked and took by land and by sea

Gulf coast.[55]

In 1782, forces under Gálvez's overall command

Bahamas. He 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.[56][57]

Gálvez received many honors from Spain for his military victories against the British, including promotion to lieutenant general and field marshal,[58] governor and captain general of Louisiana and Florida (now separated from Cuba), the command of the Spanish expeditionary army in America, and the titles of Viscount of Gálvez-Town and Count of Gálvez.[59]

The American Revolutionary War ended while 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,[60] from whom he received military intelligence concerning the British in West Florida.[61][62] 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.[63][64]

Viceroy of New Spain

Portrait of Gálvez displayed at the United States Capitol, by Mariano Salvador Maella

In 1783, Bernardo de Gálvez was ennobled to the rank of count, promoted to lieutenant-general of the army, and appointed governor and captain-general of Cuba.

Vera Cruz, on 21 May 1785,[68] and made his formal entry into Mexico City
in June.

During his administration two great calamities occurred: the freeze of September 1785, which led to famine in 1786,[69] and a typhus epidemic that killed 300,000 people the same year.[70] During the famine, Gálvez donated 12,000 pesos of his inheritance and 100,000 pesos he raised from other sources to buy maize and beans for the populace.[71] He also implemented policies to increase future agricultural production.

In 1785, Gálvez initiated construction of Chapultepec Castle.[72][73][74] He also ordered the construction of the towers of the cathedral and paving of the streets, as well as the installation of streetlights in Mexico City.[75] He continued work on the highway to Acapulco,[71][76][77] and took measures to reduce the abuse of Indian labor on the project. He dedicated 16% of the income from the lottery and other games of chance to charity.

Gálvez helped advance science in the colony by sponsoring the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain, led by Martín Sessé y Lacasta. This expedition of botanists and naturalists resulted in a comprehensive catalog, a collaborative work published in Spain as the Flora Mexicana, which catalogued the diverse species of plants, birds, and fish found in New Spain.[78]

On one occasion, when the viceroy was riding on horseback to meet with the

Audiencia (according to his own report), he encountered a party of soldiers escorting three criminals to the gallows. He suspended the hanging, and later had the criminals freed.[76][9][79]

After the typhus epidemic of 1786 had abated in early autumn, Bernardo de Gálvez apparently became one of its last victims,[80] and was confined to his bed. On 8 November 1786, he turned over all his governmental duties except the captain generalship to the Audiencia.[81] On 30 November 1786, Galvez died at the age of 40 in Tacubaya (now part of Mexico City). Gálvez was buried next to his father at San Fernando Church in Mexico City.[82][83]

Bernardo de Gálvez left some writings, including Ordenanzas para el Teatro de Comedias de México[84] and Instrución para el Buen Gobierno de las Provincias Internas de la Nueva España (Instructions for Governing the Interior Provinces of New Spain, 1786),[85] the latter of which remained in effect until the colonial period ended.[86] In his "Instructions", Gálvez advocated a policy of selling the Indians rifles and trade goods to make them dependent on the Spanish government,[87] and sanctioned war against the Apache if these inducements failed to pacify them.[88][89]

Legacy

Equestrian statue of Gálvez in Virginia Avenue, Washington D.C.
Statue of Bernardo de Galvez in Spanish Plaza, Mobile, Alabama

Galveston, Texas, Galveston Bay, Galveston County, Galvez, Louisiana, and St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana were, among other places, named after him. The Louisiana parishes of East Feliciana and West Feliciana (originally a single parish) were said to have been named for his wife Marie Felicite de Saint-Maxent d'Estrehan.[90]

Central Business District of the city, has an equestrian statue of Gálvez adjacent to the New Orleans World Trade Center.[91] There is also a Galvez Street in New Orleans.[92] Mobile, Alabama, also has a Spanish Plaza with a statue of Gálvez.[93]

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana (present-day state capital), Galvez Plaza is laid out next to City Hall and used frequently as a site for municipal events.[94] Also, the 13-story Galvez Building is part of the state government's administrative office-building complex in the Capitol Park section of downtown Baton Rouge.

In 1911, the Hotel Galvez was built in Galveston Avenue P, where the hotel is located, is known as Bernardo de Galvez Avenue. The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 4 April 1979.

On December 16, 2014, the United States Congress conferred honorary citizenship on Gálvez, citing him as a "hero of the Revolutionary War who risked his life for the freedom of the United States people and provided supplies, intelligence, and strong military support to the war effort."[95] In 2019, the Spanish Government placed a 32-inch-tall (80 cm) statue of Galvez in front of the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C.[96]

Heraldry

  • Heraldry of Bernardo de Gálvez
  • Coat of Arms as Count of Gálvez (1783–1786)
    Coat of Arms as Count of Gálvez (1783–1786)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid's Very Good Year". Roll Call. 2014-12-29. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  2. ISSN 0190-8286
    . Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  3. ^ a b Bridget Bowman (29 December 2014). "Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid's Very Good Year". Roll Call. The Economist Group. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  4. ^ José Antonio Calderón Quijano (1968). Los Virreyes de nueva España en el reinado de Carlos III.: Martín de Mayorga (1779–1783), por J. J. Real Díaz y A. M. Heredia Herrera. Matías de Gálvez (1783–1784), por M. Rodríguez del Valle y A. Conejo Díez de la Cortina. Bernardo de Gálvez (1785–1786), por Ma. del Carmen Galbis Díez. Alonso Núnez de Haro, 1787, por A. Rubio Gil. Escuela Gráfica Salesiana. p. 327.
  5. ISBN 978-0-300-05917-5
    .
  6. ^ Luis Navarro García (1964). Don José de Gálvez y la Comandancia General de las Provincias Internas del norte de Nueva España. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. p. 143.
  7. ISBN 84-00-06091-1
    .
  8. ISBN 9788450021561
    .
  9. ^ a b John Walton Caughey (1934). Bernardo de Gálvez in Louisiana, 1776–1783. University of California Press. p. 62.
  10. ISBN 978-1-4728-0300-9
    .
  11. JSTOR 40169957
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-300-15117-6
    .
  13. ^
    ISSN 1132-8312
    . Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  14. ISBN 978-0-8061-2317-2
    .
  15. ISBN 978-84-9060-614-8
    .
  16. ISBN 9788450021561
    .
  17. ISBN 978-1-4556-1227-7
    .
  18. ^ Michael Klein. "Louisiana: European Explorations and the Louisiana Purchase – Louisiana under Spanish Rule" (PDF). loc.gov/collections. United States Library of Congress. p. 40. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  19. ^ Madame Calderón de la Barca (Frances Erskine Inglis) (1959). La vida en Mexico durante una residencia de dos afios en ese pais. Porrúa. p. 44.
  20. ISBN 978-1-4556-1234-5
    .
  21. ISBN 9780939566006
    .
  22. ISBN 978-1-101-87524-7
    .
  23. ^ Dictionary of Louisiana Biography (2008). "ST. MAXENT, Marie Félicité (Felicítas)". www.lahistory.org. Louisiana Historical Association. Archived from the original on July 16, 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  24. ISBN 978-1-887366-51-9
    .
  25. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8117-0077-1
    .
  26. ^ "Caughey 1934, p. 250"
  27. ^ a b Louisiana Review. Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane. 1975. p. 68.
  28. ISBN 978-1-4696-1834-0
    .
  29. ISBN 978-607-445-280-8. Estableció el libre tráfico de Nueva Orleáns con Cuba y Yucatán y fomentó la colonización de Nueva Iberia." (English): "He established New Orleans' free trade with Cuba and Yucatán and promoted the colonization of New Iberia
    .
  30. ISBN 978-0-8263-2795-6
    .
  31. ISBN 978-0-19-025776-7
    .
  32. ISBN 978-0-89875-978-5
    .
  33. ^
    ISBN 978-1-101-87525-4
    .
  34. ISBN 978-0-393-24883-8
    .
  35. ISBN 978-0-945274-72-8
    .
  36. ISBN 978-0-8071-2270-9
    .
  37. ^ Helen Hornbeck Tanner (1963). Zéspedes in East Florida, 1784–1790. University of Miami Press. p. 11.
  38. ISBN 978-0-87404-207-8
    .
  39. ISBN 978-0-8386-3389-2
    .
  40. ISBN 978-0-87436-837-6
    .
  41. ^ "Chávez 2002" p. 135
  42. ISBN 978-0-8108-7503-6
    .
  43. ISBN 0-8032-8192-7
    .
  44. ^ George C. Osborn (April 1949). "Major-General John Campbell in British West Florida". Florida Historical Quarterly. XXVII (4): 335. Retrieved 11 June 2017. Again, in November 1780, Germain informed Campbell that it was "the King's Wish" that Governor Dalling, Vice-Admiral Parker and he collaborate in an attack on New Orleans. General Campbell was to do all in his power to render the attack successful.
  45. ISBN 9780939566006
    .
  46. ISBN 0-618-15464-7
    .
  47. ^ Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (1906). Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain ... H. M. Stationery Office. p. 162.
  48. ^ "Osborn1949" p. 326
  49. ISBN 978-0-8071-2793-3
    .
  50. ISBN 978-0-7864-3213-4
    .
  51. ISBN 978-1-135-07772-3
    .
  52. ISBN 978-0-8071-1527-5
    .
  53. ^ N. Orwin Rush (1966). Spain's Final Triumph Over Great Britain in the Gulf of Mexico: The Battle of Pensacola March 9 to May 8, 1781. Florida State University. pp. 82–83.
  54. ^ "Ferreiro 2016", p.253–254
  55. ISBN 978-0-8061-4988-2
    .
  56. ^ William Spence Robertson (1909). Francisco de Miranda and the Revolutionizing of Spanish America. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 240–242.
  57. ^ "Chávez 2002" pp. 208–209
  58. ISBN 978-0-19-521930-2
    .
  59. ISBN 978-0-674-06544-4
    .
  60. ^ "Chávez 2002" p. 108
  61. ISBN 978-0-8071-5711-4
    .
  62. ISBN 978-0-393-25387-0
    .
  63. ISBN 978-0-7881-4722-7
    .
  64. ISBN 978-0-8129-8120-9
    .
  65. ISBN 978-1-137-01080-3
    .
  66. OCLC 1029828120.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  67. ISBN 978-0-300-15621-8
    .
  68. ISBN 978-0-226-36300-4
    .
  69. ISBN 978-1-317-62113-3
    .
  70. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.06.018
    . The worst famine of the colonial era in Mexico occurred in 1786, and is referred to as El Ano de Hambre the year of hunger (Florescano and Swan, 1995; Therrell, 2005). Two to three years of drought and an early fall frost in 1785 again appear to have led to crop failure and famine in 1786 (Therrell, 2005; Therrell et al., 2006). An estimated 300,000 people died during El Ano de Hambre due to both famine and an outbreak of epidemic typhus in 1785–1787 (Cooper, 1965; Burns et al., 2014). The MXDA indicates that drought conditions were most serious during the two-year period from 1785 to 1786 when drought extended over most of Mexico, most severely over central and northeastern Mexico
  71. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7614-2938-8
    .
  72. ISBN 978-0-8420-2467-9
    .
  73. ^ "Chávez 2002", p. 12
  74. ISBN 978-607-452-266-2
    .
  75. ISBN 978-0-313-30049-3
    .
  76. ^ a b The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries Concerning the Antiquities, History, and Biography of America. Vol. VIII. C. Benjamin Richardson. 1864. p. 141.
  77. ISBN 978-968-16-4390-4
    .
  78. ISBN 978-0-8166-7092-5
    .
  79. ISBN 9788450021561
    .
  80. ^ Publications of the University of California at Los Angeles in Social Sciences. University of California Press. 1934. p. 256.
  81. ^ Artes de México. Frente Nacional de Artes Plásticas. 1960. p. 90.
  82. ^ "Chávez 2002", p. 219
  83. ^ Revista complutense de historia de América. Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 2006. p. 192.
  84. ^ Francisco Pimentel (1904). Obras completas. Vol. IV. Tipografía económica. p. 351.
  85. ^ New Spain; Bernardo de Gálvez (1951). Instructions for Governing the Interior Provinces of New Spain, 1786. Quivira Society.
  86. ISBN 978-0-300-10501-8
    .
  87. ISBN 978-0-300-19689-4
    .
  88. ISBN 978-0-8061-3084-2
    .
  89. ISBN 978-0-8191-7983-8
    .
  90. ISBN 978-0-674-06544-4
    .
  91. ISBN 978-1-4556-1519-3
    .
  92. ISBN 978-1-62584-509-2
    .
  93. ^ Robert B. Kane (August 2, 2016). "Bernardo de Gálvez". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University. Archived from the original on June 25, 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  94. ISBN 978-0-8071-1715-6
    .
  95. ^ "H.J.Res.105 - Conferring honorary citizenship of the United States on Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Viscount of Galveston and Count of Gálvez". Congress.gov. 2014-12-16. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  96. ^ John Kelly (July 17, 2019), “The Spaniard Who Helped Win the Revolutionary War Has a New Statue in D.C.,” The Washington Post.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bernardo de Gálvez.
American Cyclopædia article about Bernardo de Gálvez
.
Government offices
Preceded by
Viceroy of New Spain

1785–1786 		Succeeded by
Spanish nobility
Preceded by
New creation
 Count of Gálvez
1783–1786 		Succeeded by
Miguel de Gálvez
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