Capture of the Bahamas (1782)
Capture of the Bahamas | |
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Part of the Bahamas 25°03′35.84″N 77°20′42.06″W / 25.0599556°N 77.3450167°W | |
Result | Spanish victory |
Francisco de Miranda
1,400+[1]
1,500 sailors
1,588 regulars
50 light infantry
202 militia[2]
77 merchant ships captured
1 frigate captured
4 brigantines captured
5 schooners captured
2 sloops captured
11 privateer ships captured[3][4]
The Capture of the Bahamas took place in May 1782 during the
Background
Spain had entered the
Capture
In spite of receiving orders from Gálvez 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 Gálvez'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
Gálvez was angered that Cagigal had not followed his orders to abandon the attack, and was also frustrated because the British naval victory at the
References
Bibliography
- Beerman, E. La última batalla de la guerra de la independencia no fue Yorktown. La expedición 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