Fernando de Leyba
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2018) |
Fernando de Leyba | |
---|---|
3rd Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana | |
In office June 14, 1778 – June 28, 1780 | |
Monarch | Charles III |
Preceded by | Francisco Cruzat |
Succeeded by | Francisco Cruzat |
Personal details | |
Born | Fernando de Leyba y Córdova Vizcaigaña July 24, 1734 Ceuta |
Died | July 28, 1780 St. Louis | (aged 46)
Resting place | St. Louis |
Spouse |
María Concepción de Zasar
(m. 1767) |
Children | 2 |
Military service | |
Branch | Spanish Army |
Years of service | 1752–1780 |
Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
Unit | Fixed Infantry Regiment of Louisiana |
Battles | |
Lieutenant Colonel Fernando de Leyba y Córdova Vizcaigaña (July 24, 1734 – June 28, 1780) was a Spanish Army officer who served as the third lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana from 1778 until his death in 1780. He successfully defended the village of St. Louis during the American Revolutionary War.
Military career
Little is known of Fernando de Leyba's life until his appointment to the lieutenant governor's position on June 14, 1778. Immediately upon his appointment to the post, he was ordered by
After war was declared on
Death and legacy
De Leyba's health was already deteriorating and on June 28, 1780, he died. His after action report on the battle of St. Louis would not reach Galvez unitl after De Leyba's death, yet the governor was sufficiently impressed enough to recommend De Leyba for promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel, posthumously.
Afterwards, many of the villagers from the area around St. Louis began to blame him for their troubles, writing anonymous letters to the government in New Orleans detailing his supposed misbehaviors. Some people began calling him a "Spanish Benedict Arnold". In 1831, one historian Judge, Wilson Primm, wrote a lecture in which he stated that the governor had not only sold the gunpowder stores to the enemy, he had acted in a cowardly manner during the engagement and deliberately impeded the defense of the village. Supported by accounts made by survivors some fifty years after the battle, these accusations were accepted by many historians for much of the nineteenth century, and it is only recently that some have begun to reconsider the role De Leyba played in the defense of the American frontier.
References
- ^ (in Spanish) Fernando de Leyba Vizcaigaña (1734-1780), elpueblodeceuta.es, December 9, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
External links
- Fernando de Leyba at the Historical Marker Database
- Fernando de Leyba on YouTube