The Battle of Cartagena de Indias was a massive amphibious military engagement, then called a 'descent', between the forces of Britain under Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon and Spain under Admiral Blas de Lezo. It took place at the city of Cartagena de Indias, population 10,000, in March 1741, in present day Colombia. It was the most significant battle in the War of Jenkins' Ear and one of the largest naval campaigns in British history, though it is now largely forgotten. The war later blended into the greater conflict of the War of the Austrian Succession. The battle ended in a major defeat and heavy losses for the British: 50 ships lost, badly damaged or abandoned for lack of crew and losses of 18,000 soldiers and sailors,^[19] mainly due to disease.^[20][21]

Background

The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict between Great Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to 1748. Under the 1729 Treaty of Seville, the British had agreed not to trade with the Spanish colonies except under extreme conditions restricted to the Annual Ship and the Asiento slave trade.^[22] The commercial class in Britain demanded access to the lucrative Spanish markets of the Caribbean Basin and Spanish colonists desired British-made goods so a burgeoning black market had developed. By the terms of the treaty, the Spanish were permitted to board British vessels in Spanish waters. After one such boarding in 1731, Robert Jenkins, captain of the ship Rebecca, claimed that the Spanish coast guard had severed his ear. Jenkins exhibited his pickled ear to the House of Commons. This only served to heighten the "war fever" now developing against Spain which was also driven by the desire of commercial and military domination of the Atlantic basin. To much cheering, the British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declared war on October 23, 1739.^[23] Vice-Admiral Vernon was an active and ardent supporter^[24] of war against Spain and spoke for offensive action both in Parliament and before the Admiralty.^[25]

Spanish Caribbean

The Spanish Caribbean basin trade had a network of four main ports: Vera Cruz, Cartagena, Porto Bello (now Portobelo) and the main port through which all the trade of those three came, Havana. On November 22, 1739 one of the first actions of the War was the British capture of Portobelo which was part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. The attack was part of an attempt to damage Spain's finances. The poorly defended port was attacked by six ships of the line^[26] under Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon.^[27] The relative ease of this capture, although it was quickly recaptured by the Spanish after Vernon's fleet departed, caused jubilation in Britain and resulted in Vernon being given command of a very large naval contingent consisting of one fourth of the British Royal Navy in ships and sailors of a major land and sea amphibious expedition under the overall command of Lord Cathcart.^[28] The first intended objective of the expedition was to capture Havana, the most important of the Spanish ports because it had facilities where ships could be refit. Unfortunately for British hopes Lord Cathcart died en route and it remained unclear who was then in command overall. Lord Cathcart's untimely demise would result in dissensions in the British command which would prevent the necessary coordination needed for this complex operation.^[29]

The despatch of the large fleet and troop contingent had been demanded by the public, led by the Duke of Newcastle^[30] in Parliament and the decision to mount a large West Indies expedition was reached in December of 1739.^[31] This left both Walpole, who opposed the war categorically,^[32] and Vernon, who favored small squadron actions, dissatisfied with the situation. Vernon, despite his earlier failed small squadron raid on Cartagena, was not convinced that a large-scale attack on a heavily fortified city would be successful as his smaller Portobello assault had been. He feared, particularly, a prolonged siege would lead to heavy attrition from disease.^[33]

Objectives

Britain's objective was to capture and permanently retain^[34] Spain's four ports of the Caribbean basin and thereby acquire Spain's American empire.^[35] However, Britain had no place to build and refit ships in the Caribbean as Spain did with the dockyards^[36] at Havana and without a dockyard no fleet could remain in the area for any length of time without breaking down. Quick capture of Havana and its dry dock was imperative and it was the favored objective of Newcastle and Wager, but England's divided ministry left the course of the campaign up to Vernon and others at a Council of War held in Jamaica. They followed Vernon, who preferred Cartagena as their initial objective as it was a good port and to windward of Britain's existing Caribbean bases and thought Havana too well defended.^[37]

Battle

shows Boca Chica, Cartagena – 2nd from the bottom left.|right|thumb|300px]]

, Prime Minister of Great Britain from the studio of Jean-Baptiste van Loo, 1740.]] The Battle of Cartagena pitted a British invasion force of at least 27,400 military personnel, 12,000^[38] of which were infantry including: two British regular regiments, the 15th Foot and 24th Foot, 6,000 newly raised marines^[39] in 186 ships^[40] including: 29^[41] Ships of the Line;^[42] 22 frigates, 2 hospital ships, various fire ships and bomb ketches armed with a total of some 2,000 cannon; 80 troop transports and 50 merchant ships. Included, but arriving from the North American colonies sailing on another 40 transports were some 3,600 American colonial troops.^[43]

Opposed was a force of 2,700 to 3,000 Spanish regulars^[44] from the regiments Aragon, España and that of Toledo, Lisboa and Navarra just arrived in October 1740, brought by Vice-admiral Torres; a colonial regiment from Cartagena; an unspecified number of sailors; 5 companies of militia and 600 Indian archers, perhaps 4,000^[45] to 6,000 combatants,^[46] fighting from six Ships of the Line and massive fortifications — under the command of the Captain Don Blas de Lezo, Viceroy Sebastián de Eslava, Don Melchor de Navarrete and Don Carlos Des Naux. Blas de Lezo, a Basque,^[47] was an experienced, wily and tenacious Spanish Naval commander, whose previous career was as daring and spectacular as any naval officer of his day. Lezo, who had lost an arm, a leg and an eye in the service of Spain made use of every advantage, strategy and tactic available to him.^[48]

Preliminary maneuvers

from Gentleman's Magazine 1740.]]

The expedition was very slow getting started from England. Initially, contrary winds delayed the sailing until most of the shipboard provisions were consumed and a steep increase of sickness^[49] occurred among the ship crews. Then news of the sailing of the French squadrons and a Spanish squadron caused further delay while the British fleet was reinforced in response. The expedition suffered from manpower shortages in the navy which required drafting two full infantry regiments, the 34th and 36th, to fill crew requirements and Cathcart was ordered by the government to transfer 600 of his marines to provide marines for the men of war.^[50] These delays cost the British three months of valuable campaign time. The 3,600 Americans were transported to Jamaica from New York on 40 transports escorted by some British men of war and arrived much sooner on December 3, 1740 under the command of Colonel Gooch, but found on their arrival that no arrangements had been made by the British government for their provisions.^[50] The lack of provision and climate immediately began to take a toll on the Americans while the fleet from England was suffering from typhus, scurvy and dysentery so that by January 1741 the land forces had already suffered 500 dead, including Lord Cathcart the commander in chief, and 1,500 sick.^[50] Additional delays before and after embarking from Jamaica cost more precious time including a brief skirmish with a French squadron. Both the British and the Spanish were well aware that with onset of the two month rainy season in May the so-called 'sickly season', which would last from May to November,^[51] would also begin.^[52]

The Spanish had received reinforcements but were already suffering severely from diseases as well. Similar to the British, but not as destructive to operations, there was dissension between Lezo and Eslava. In particular, Lezo favored a very strong, all out defense of Boca Chica channel and Eslava's opposition led to an under-manning of some of the forward defenses allowing an easier initial landing for the British.^[53]

Attack on Fort San Luis at Boca Chica

The British expedition arrived off Cartagena on March 4 with no overall commander but with decisions being made by councils of war, with General Wentworth now commanding the land forces and Vernon the sea forces. The navy had lost so many sailors by this time as a result of the epidemics that one third of the land forces were needed to fill out the crews.^[54] Although the city of Cartagena was fronted on one side by the ocean, the shore and surf were so rough as to preclude any attempt to approach it from there. The other access channel, Boca Grande, was too shallow to allow the passage of ocean-going ships. The channel of Boca Chica was the only deep draft passage into the harbor of Cartagena. It ran between two narrow peninsulas and was defended on one side by the fort of San Luis, Boca Chica Castle, with four bastions having some 49 cannons, 3 mortars and a garrison of 300 soldiers. A boom stretched from the island of La Bomba to the southern peninsula on which was Fort San Jose with 13 cannon and 150 soldiers. Also supporting the entrance were the 6 Spanish line ships.^[55]

After a couple of weeks of bombardment an initial landing was to be made near the smaller access channel, Boca Chica, by 300 grenadiers. The Spanish defenders of two small, nearby forts, San Iago and San Philip, were driven off by a division of three ships of the fleet under Chaloner Ogle which suffered some 120 casualties with the Shrewsbury alone losing 100 killed and wounded as well as taking serious damage from cannon fire from Fort San Luis.^[56] The grenadiers landed that evening and were followed by on March 22 by the whole of the land forces: the two regular regiments, the six regiments of marines^[57] but of the Americans only 300 were allowed ashore. They were followed in a few days by the artillery. After making camp, a battery was constructed in two weeks and its 18 guns began battering the fort. A squadron of five ships, consisting of the Boyne, Prince Frederick, Hampton Court, Tilbury, and Suffolk also attempted to batter the fort into submission for two days but had the worst of it, making no impression on the fort and having many men killed and three ships heavily damaged and disabled.^[58]

The British artillery on land, after three days of firing night and day, made a breach in the main fort^[59] while part of the fleet assisted and another part of the fleet engaged the Spanish ships two of which, ultimately, Lezos scuttled and set another on fire. The two scuttled Spanish ships partially blocked the channel and another one, the Galicia, was captured by the British before it could sink. An attack was made by land and sea on Fort San Luis on April 5. The infantry advanced on the breach, however the Spanish had already retired to fortifications in the inner harbor. Over the following week, the landing force re-embarked and the harbor then entered. The operation against Boca Chica cost the British army 120 killed and wounded, additionally 250 died from the diseases of yellow fever and malaria and 600 sick were hospitalized.^[60]

Attack on Fort San Lazaro

, portrait by an unknown painter.]] The next council of war decided to attempt to isolate Cartagena from the land side by an assault of Fort San Lazaro, called in some accounts San Felipe de Barajas. With the capture of San Luis and other outlying defensive works, the fleet passed through the Boca Chica channel into the lagoon that made up the harbor of Cartagena. The Spanish withdrew from some more untenable points concentrating their forces at fort San Lazaro and the city itself. Wentworth was goaded by Vernon into an ill-considered, badly planned assault on the fort, an outlying strong-point of Cartagena, which Vernon refused to support with the fleet making specious excuses about the depth of the harbor. The ships cleared the beach with cannon fire and Wentworth landed on April 16 at Texar de Gracias.^[61]

After the British gained the inner harbor and captured some outlying forts de Lezo strengthened the last main bastion of San Luis by digging a trench around it and clearing a field of fire on the approach. It was essential that this fort be held as it commanded the city^[62] and, in British hands, a bombardment would force Cartagena to surrender in a short time. Lezo also defended the trench with some 650 soldiers and garrisoned the fort with another 300 while keeping in hand a reserve of 200 marines and sailors. The British advanced from the beach and had to pass a narrow defile. There they met a Spanish force that briefly contested that passage before giving way.^[63]

The only British engineer with the expedition had been killed at fort San Luis and there was no one capable of constructing a battery to breach the walls. It was then decided to storm the fort outright in a coup de main, walls unbreached during a night attack which would allow the assault of the northern side of the fort facing Cartagena. In the dark the guns of Cartagena would not be able to give supporting fire. The southern side had the lowest most vulnerable walls and the grenadiers would attempt to carry the parapets. But the attack started late and the initial advance on Lazaro was made near dawn at 4 am April 20 by a forlorn hope of 50 picked men followed by 450 grenadiers commanded by Colonel Wynyard. The main body was 1,000 men of the 15th and 24th regiments commanded by Colonel Grant, then a mixed company from the 34th and 36th regiments^[64] and some Americans carrying scaling-ladders for the fort's high walls and the grenadiers' grenade packs. Finally, there was a reserve of 500 marines under Colonel Wolfe.^[65]

The column was led by two Spanish deserters as guides who misled the British on the southern low walled side. Wynyard was led to a steep approach and as the grenadiers scrambled up the slope they were received with a deadly volley of musket fire at thirty yards from the Spanish in the entrenchments. The grenadiers deployed and advanced slowly trading fire. On the north face, Grant fell early and the leaderless troops traded fire with the Spanish. Most of the Americans dropped the ladders they carried and took cover. Those ladders brought forward were too short by ten feet.^[66] After an hour, the sun rose and the guns of Cartagena opened fire on the British and casualties mounted. At eight o'clock a column of Spanish infantry issued from the gates of Cartagena threatening to cut the British off from their ships so Wentworth ordered a retreat. The assault failed with a loss of 600 casualties from a force of approximately 2,000. Sickness and disease increased the casualties of the expedition and during the period surrounding the attack on Fort San Lazaro Wentworth's land forces alone were reduced from 6,500 effectives to 3,200.^[67][68]

British withdrawal

.]] Don Blas de Lezo's plan had been that, given the overwhelming force against him, he would attempt to conduct a fighting withdrawal and delay the British long enough until the start of the rainy season at the end of April. The tropical downpours would effectively end campaigning for another 2 months. Further, the longer the enemy had to remain mostly crowded on ships at sea and in the open on land the more likely that insufficient supply, discomfort and especially disease would become his allies and the deadly enemies of the British. De Lezo was aided in this by the contempt that Vernon and Wentworth had for each other which prevented any further cooperation after the initial landing.^[69]

Another important factor in the defeat of the British force was the fact that Cartagena's defensive fortifications had been repaired and improved over the past year. Although De Lezo was pressed to the limit, his plan worked and the Spanish prevailed. The rains came and the British had to board their ships, where close quarters made disease even more deadly, and by April 25, Vernon and the council decided to retreat to Jamaica and by mid-May they were gone. By May 7, only 1,700 men of the land forces were fit for service and no more than 1,000 in condition to land against the enemy and within a month of leaving Cartagena another 1,100 died. British strength was reduced to 1,400 and American to 1,300.^[70]

The expedition and fighting had lasted 67 days and ended with the British fleet withdrawing in defeat, with 18,000 dead, or incapacitated , mostly by disease.^[71] In addition a total of 50 ships were lost, badly damaged, disabled or abandoned for lack of crews. There were nineteen ships of the line damaged, four frigates and twenty-seven transports lost.^[72] Of the 3,600 American colonists, who had volunteered, lured by promises of land^[73] and mountains of gold,^[74] most died of yellow fever, dysentery, and outright starvation. Only 300^[75] returned home, including Lawrence Washington, who renamed his Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon after Admiral Vernon.

During the early stage of the battle, when the Spanish forces had retreated from different defense points to regroup in the larger fortress of San Lazaro, feeling victory in his hands Vernon dispatched a messenger, Captain Laws, to England where he informed the King of their victory on May 17. Different commemorative medals were minted in London to celebrate this "victory". In one of these medals Admiral Vernon was shown looking down upon the "defeated" Spanish admiral Don Blas de Lezo who appeared kneeling down, after the news of defeat of the Invincible British Armada reached London all the medals were ordered to be removed from circulation. A contemporary song was composed by a sailor from the Shrewsbury that prematurely celebrated the victory:

VERNON'S GLORY; OR, THE SPANIARDS DEFEAT.
Being an account of the taking of Carthagena by Vice-Admiral Vernon...
"...and the town surrender[ed]
To Admiral Vernon, the scourge of Spain".^[76]

Aftermath

When the embarrassing news of the outcome reached London some weeks later, the British government removed these medals and prohibited the news from being disclosed and published.^[77] Following the news of the disaster Robert Walpole's government soon collapsed and Spain retained control over its very lucrative colonies, and over a strategic port in the Caribbean that helped secure the defense of the Spanish Main.^[78] News of Britain's defeat reached Europe at the end of June, 1741 and had immense repercussions. It caused George II of Great Britain, who had been acting as mediator between Frederick the Great of Prussia and Maria Theresa supporting Austria over Prussian seizure of Silesia in December of 1740, to withdraw its guarantees of armed support for the Pragmatic Sanction. That encouraged France and Spain, the Bourbon allies, revealed to also be allied with Prussia, to move militarily against a now isolated Austria.^[79] A greater and wider war, the War of the Austrian Succession, was now taking shape.

The staggering losses suffered by the British compromised all the subsequent actions by Vernon and Wentworth in the Caribbean and most ended in acrimonious failure^[80] despite reinforcements of 1,000 troops from Jamaica and 3,000 regular infantry from England.^[81] Vernon and Wentworth were both recalled to England in September of 1742, with Chaloner Ogle taking command of a very sickly fleet that had less than half its sailors fit for duty.^[82] By the time the Caribbean campaign ended in May 1742 ninety percent of the army had died from combat and sickness.^[83]

The failure to take Cartagena caused what was left of the naval forces assigned to Vernon to remain in the Caribbean longer. This resulted in the weakened Mediterranean squadron being unable to prevent the Spanish from twice convoying troops totalling 25,000 to Italy in November and December of 1741. It was not until Commodore Richard Lestock, commander of one of Vernon's divisions at Cartagena, returned to Europe with ships from the Caribbean fleet, that Britain reinforced its presence in the Mediterranean.^[84]

References

Bibliography

• Beatson, Robert. Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to 1783, Vol. I; Vol. III, Appendix, London, 1804.
• Browning, Reed. The War of the Austrian Succession St. Martin's Press, New York, (1993): ISBN 0-312-12561-5.
• Douglas Ford, Admiral Vernon and the Navy: A Memoir and Vindication, London, MCMVII.
• Dull, Jonathan R.. The Age of the Ship of the Line: The British and French Navies, 1650–1815, University of Nebraska Press, 2009, ISBN 9780803219304.
• Duncan, Francis. History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, London, 1879, Vol.1.
• Eslava, Sebastián de. Diario de todo lo ocurrido en la expugnacion de los fuertes de Bocachica, y sitio de la ciudad de Cartagena de las Indias Madrid, 1741. [3]
• Fernández Duro, Cesáreo. Armada española desde la unión de los reinos de Castilla y de León, Vol. VI. Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, Madrid, 1902.
• Ford, Douglas. Admiral Vernon and the Navy: A Memoir and Vindication, London, MCMVII.
• Fortescue, J. W. A History of the British Army, MacMillan, London, 1899, Vol. II.
• The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, London, Vol. XI, 1741.
• Hart, Francis Russel. Admirals of the Caribbean, Boston, 1922.
• Hill, J.R., ed.. The Oxford illustrated history of the Royal Navy, Oxford, ISBN 0198605277, 1995.
• Lemaitre, Eduardo (1998). Breve Historia de Cartagena. Medellin: Editorial Colina. 
• Marley, David. Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present, ABC-CLIO (1998). ISBN 0-874-36837-5.
• Rodger, N. A. M.. The Command of the Ocean, ISBN 0393060500 New York, 2005.
• Quintero Saravia, Gonzalo M. (2002) Don Blas de Lezo: defensor de Cartagena de Indias Editorial Planeta Colombiana, Bogotá, Colombia, ISBN 958-42-0326-6, in Spanish.
• Smollet, Tobias, Authentic papers related to the expedition against Carthagena, by Jorge Orlando Melo in Reportaje de la historia de Colombia, Bogotá: Planeta, 1989.
• Smollett, Tobias and Roscoe,Thomas. The miscellaneous works of Tobias Smollett, London, 1844. Contains Smollett's long version of Expedition to Carthagena, pp. 603 – 611.
• Victoria, Pablo (2005) El día que España derrotó a Inglaterra : de cómo Blas de Lezo, tuerto, manco y cojo, venció en Cartagena de Indias a la otra "Armada Invencible" Áltera, Barcelona, Spain, ISBN 84-89779-68-6.

Additional reading

• Smollet, Tobias. The Adventures of Roderick Random. 1748. Historical novel based on Smollett's own experiences at Cartagena.
• Hall, Charles W. Cartagena or the Lost Brigade. 1898. Historical novel of the North American contigent at Cartagena.
• Michener, James A.. Caribbean, a Novel, Random House, 2005, ISBN 0812974921. Historical novel containing the John Pembroke account of Cartagena.

External links

• Don Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta un Ejemplo Del Espíritu Militar Español[4]
• Photos of the Medals showing Vernon and Don Blas. This site shows numerous different medals that were struck. The better executed ones give a clear picture of the fight at Boca Chica channel.
• Vernon biography at the Royal Naval Museum
• Washington Post Article on George Washington – Mention of half-brother Lawrence Washington who participated in the Battle of Cartagena
• Overview of Vernon's Attack on Cartagena
• Biography of Edward Vernon (Spanish)
• Article titled "Spain's Victory in 1741" (Spanish)
• Historical Overview "Britain's Failed Attack on Cartagena in 1741" (Spanish)