Battle of Fort Charlotte

For two weeks Spanish general Bernardo de Gálvez laid siege to the British defenses protecting Mobile's harbor, an engagement remembered as the Battle of Fort Charlotte or the siege of Fort Charlotte. The town sat within the British province of West Florida at the time, in what is now Alabama, and the clash unfolded amid the broader Anglo-Spanish War of 1779-1783. As the sole remaining British frontier post with the capacity to threaten New Orleans, Louisiana, Fort Charlotte held considerable strategic weight. Once it fell, British forces were pushed entirely out of the western portion of West Florida, leaving Pensacola as the only place where British military strength still held in the province.

Gálvez set his army in motion from New Orleans on January 28, 1780, moving by way of a modest fleet of transport vessels. Nearly a month later, on February 25, his troops came ashore close to Fort Charlotte. Though badly outnumbered, the British garrison put up a determined defense until Spanish artillery finally tore openings in the fort's walls. Captain Elias Durnford, who commanded the garrison, had held out hoping for reinforcements from Pensacola, yet none arrived, and surrender became unavoidable. With their capitulation, the western shoreline of Mobile Bay fell under Spanish control, clearing the path for Gálvez to turn his attention toward Pensacola next.

Background

Spain's decision to join the American Revolutionary War in 1779 gave Bernardo de Gálvez, Louisiana's vigorous governor, an opening to launch attacks without delay. By September of that year he had seized Fort Bute and, soon afterward, secured the capitulation of the remaining British troops along the river when the Battle of Baton Rouge concluded, putting the entire lower Mississippi under his command. With these victories behind him, he turned his attention to Mobile and Pensacola, the last British strongholds left in West Florida.

Spanish forces

In New Orleans, Gálvez pulled together a combined body of Spanish regulars and militia to press the campaign forward. He had already asked Havana for more troops to support strikes against Mobile and Pensacola planned for 1779, but those pleas went nowhere. Still, before leaving New Orleans he sent a lieutenant ahead to Havana to try once more.

Twelve ships bearing 754 men left port on January 11, 1780, and arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi a week later, on the 18th. Two days after that, on January 20, the brig sloop Gálveztown, commanded by Captain William Pickles and carrying a crew of 58, linked up with the group. A storm broke the fleet apart on February 6, scattering the vessels, yet by February 9 every ship had managed to reassemble outside Mobile Bay.

Getting into the bay itself proved far harder than reaching it. Sandbars caught several vessels, and the Volante ran aground so badly that it was lost entirely. Gálvez had its guns pulled from the wreckage and mounted them at Mobile Point to defend the entrance to the bay.

Reinforcements from Havana arrived on February 20, swelling the ranks to roughly 1,200 men. Five days later, on February 25, Spanish troops came ashore along the Dog River, some 10 miles (16 km) from Fort Charlotte. There a deserter told them the fort held a garrison of 300.

British defenses

The stronghold known to the British as Fort Charlotte had originally risen in 1717 under French rule, when it bore the name Fort Condé and Mobile fell within the French province of Louisiana, part of New France. When British forces assumed control after the French and Indian War in 1763, they found the structure crumbling. Repairs followed, yet by 1779, as tensions with Spain grew closer to war, decay had once again taken hold of the works.

Most of the soldiers stationed there belonged to the 60th regiment, joined by Loyalist recruits drawn from Maryland and Pennsylvania along with volunteers from the surrounding area, bringing the total defense to roughly 300 men. From the moment word of Gálvez's victories reached Mobile, Durnford had been overseeing efforts to strengthen the fort's fortifications.

Siege

On the first of March, Gálvez dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Bouligny to carry a letter to Durnford, proposing terms of surrender, which Durnford declined in courteous fashion. The following day, Gálvez set about positioning gun batteries in a ring around the fort. Seeking aid, Durnford sent word to General John Campbell in Pensacola, asking for reinforcements. On the fifth and sixth of March, the bulk of the Pensacola garrison set out on foot toward Mobile, but treacherous river crossings slowed their progress, leaving them unable to reach Fort Charlotte in time to help.

As Spanish forces labored to bring their artillery closer to the fortification, an oddly civil exchange of letters unfolded between the two commanders. Gálvez, for instance, chided Durnford for torching several houses that had sheltered his approaching troops, denying the Spanish that cover. Durnford countered by noting that the fort's opposite side, farther from the town's center, offered attackers a more favorable position. Meanwhile, trenches deepened and cannon fire continued without pause. By March 13, the defenses of Fort Charlotte had been breached, and Durnford surrendered his men the very next day, bringing the siege to its close.

Aftermath

After his triumph at Fort Charlotte, Gálvez held off on marching directly toward Pensacola, even though the British disarray from their failed effort to relieve Mobile presented a tempting opening. He understood, though, that the town was heavily fortified and equipped with formidable artillery, so instead he turned once more to Havana, asking for substantial naval assistance. Word reached him in April that fresh forces, among them ships of the British Royal Navy, had reached Pensacola. Lacking the additional troops he needed, he stationed a garrison at Mobile and departed for Havana to gather the men and supplies required for an assault on Pensacola.

It would not be until 1781 that Gálvez actually carried out his victorious campaign against Pensacola, and that came only after Mobile's defenders repelled a British counterattack in January of that year.

As for Fort Charlotte itself, it was torn down during the 19th century. Its buried foundations came to light again in the late 20th century, leading to the construction of a smaller scale reproduction on the original location. Today the site holds a place on the National Register of Historic Places.