Pensacola

Spanning March 9 to May 10, 1781, the siege of Pensacola marked the final stage in Spain's takeover of West Florida amid the Gulf Coast Campaign of the American Revolutionary War. Bernardo de Gálvez directed the operation, leading nearly 8,000 troops who eventually crushed the British defenders stationed there. In recognition of this triumph, Gálvez was elevated to the post of governor over both West Florida and Louisiana.

Aftermath

Under the surrender agreement, Spain gained all of West Florida, the British troops stationed there, vast stores of munitions and provisions, and a single British sloop of war. Gálvez responded by relocating the gun batteries and Fort Barrancas Coloradas closer to where the bay opened onto the sea, and he stationed another battery on Santa Rosa Island to guard against any British effort to seize Pensacola back.

The involvement of Tallapoosa Muscogee Creek fighters during the siege likely traced back to Alexander McGillivray, a Creek trader of mixed ancestry, who may well have given the order himself. He sided with the British cause and carried a colonel's commission from them, yet for years he had resisted American settlers pushing onto Creek lands. Though schooled in South Carolina, McGillivray had grown up among the Creeks and many regarded him as their chief. He kept the British garrison at Pensacola supplied and had assembled the Muskogee Creek forces who fought beside the Choctaws. By 1783 he rose to become principal chief of the Upper Creeks, whose homeland lay along the Tallapoosa River at Little Tallassee, close to what is now Montgomery, Alabama. Because he later backed Spain, the two sides reached the Treaty of Pensacola in 1784, under which Spain pledged to honor Creek territorial boundaries in exchange for the Creeks agreeing to end their raids on neighboring peoples and their interference with trade. McGillivray himself handled the negotiations for this treaty and remained in Pensacola for the remainder of his life.

When Gálvez and his forces reached Havana on May 30, the city greeted them as conquering heroes. King Charles III rewarded him with a promotion to lieutenant general and named him governor over both West Florida and Louisiana. Royal recognition of the victory noted that Gálvez had breached the bay's entrance entirely on his own, earning him the right to inscribe his coat of arms with the phrase Yo Solo, meaning "me alone."

For bringing relief to Gálvez, Bote later received from King Charles the title Marques del Socorro. At the Museo Naval de Madrid hangs a portrait of Solano that depicts Santa Rosa Bay behind him. Meanwhile, a British flag taken during the fighting at Pensacola remains on display at the Museum of the Army in Toledo.