Baton Rouge

A short siege on September 21, 1779, settled the outcome of the Battle of Baton Rouge, fought during the Anglo-Spanish War. Fort New Richmond, on the site of what is now Baton Rouge, Louisiana, became the second British post to surrender to Spanish forces as Bernardo de Gálvez advanced through West Florida.

Background

King Charles III put Spain formally into the American Revolutionary War through a war declaration issued on May 8, 1779. A second proclamation on July 8 gave colonial subjects the king's authorization to take up arms against the British. Word of this reached Colonel Bernardo de Gálvez, governor of Spanish Louisiana, on July 21, and he wasted no time drawing up plans for a campaign against West Florida.

Setting out overland on August 27 toward Fort Bute, Gálvez commanded 520 regular troops (roughly two-thirds of them fresh recruits), along with 60 militiamen, 80 free blacks and mulattoes, and a group of ten American volunteers under Oliver Pollock. The column swelled by an additional 600 men, among them Indians and Acadians, as it pushed upriver. Although the expedition reached a maximum strength above 1,400, the grueling march whittled this figure down by several hundred before the fort came into view.

The assault on Fort Bute came at daybreak on September 7. This deteriorating leftover from the French and Indian War held only a modest defending garrison. A short clash claimed the life of one German soldier before the defenders surrendered. Six men avoided capture and fled to Baton Rouge to warn British forces there that the fort had fallen.

Gálvez allowed his men several days of rest, then pushed toward Baton Rouge, a mere 15 miles (24 km) away. Arriving there on September 12, he encountered a heavily fortified settlement held by more than 400 regular troops and 150 militia, all under Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Dickson's command. This garrison combined British regulars from the 16th and 60th Regiments, artillery crews, and several companies of Germans belonging to the 3rd Waldeck Regiment.

Weeks before, Dickson had already concluded that Fort Bute, dating to 1766 and long since fallen into ruin, could not be held, so he concentrated the bulk of his forces at Baton Rouge instead. From July 1779 onward, he oversaw the building of Fort New Richmond, an earthen redoubt ringed with chevaux de frise. A moat 18 feet (5.5 m) across and 9 feet (2.7 m) deep encircled the position, which mounted thirteen cannons for its defense.

Battle

First, Gálvez dispatched a group of soldiers upriver with orders to sever the links between Baton Rouge and other British outposts further along the waterway. Unable to bring his cannon within direct range of the fort itself, he devised a diversion instead, pushing a body of his poorly drilled militia through wooded terrain to the north so they would stir up noise and confusion among the trees. The garrison responded by wheeling around and firing massed volleys into the woods, and although thick cover shielded the Spanish troops, they still took some losses before the assault was finally repelled. Meanwhile, away from this diversion, Gálvez had his men digging siege lines and carving out protected gun emplacements close enough for musket fire to reach the fort. Once his artillery was settled into these positions, he began bombarding the fort on September 21.

The Spanish subsequently intensified matters, turning heavier guns loose on the British works. For hour after hour the defenders withstood punishing mortar fire until Dickson was finally presented with terms calling for complete surrender. Among Gálvez's conditions was the capitulation of the eighty Grenadiers from the 60th Regiment of Foote stationed at Fort Panmure, near what is now Natchez, Mississippi, a stronghold so well defended that seizing it by force would have posed serious difficulty for Gálvez. The following day, Dickson gave up 375 regular soldiers, and Gálvez ordered the accompanying militia stripped of weapons and released to go home. He then dispatched a detachment of fifty men to secure Panmure. With that accomplished, he disbanded his own militia units, stationed a substantial garrison at Baton Rouge, and headed back to New Orleans accompanied by roughly fifty men.