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Capture of the Bahamas Part of the American War of Independence Map of the Bahamas Date May 1782 Location Nassau, Bahamas Result The Bahamas occupied by Spain until 1783 Belligerents Great Britain  Spain Commanders John Maxwell Juan de Cagigal Strength +1400 defenders[1] 59 ships 1500 sailors 1588 regulars 50 light infantry 202 black militia[2] Casualties and losses 1,412 captured 77 merchant ships captured 1 frigate captured 4 brigantines captured 5 schooners captured 2 sloops captured 11 privateer ships captured[3][4] None[5]

West Indies campaign 1st Nassau – St. Lucia – Grenada – Martinique (1779) – Martinique (1780) – Fort Royal – Tobago – St. Kitts – The Saintes – 2nd Nassau – Semana Bay Anglo-Spanish War 1779–1783 Melilla – English Channel – Gibraltar – Lake Pontchartrain - Fort Bute – Baton Rouge – San Fernando – St. Vincent – Fort San Juan – Fort Charlotte – St. Louis – Cape Santa Maria – Mobile – Pensacola – Minorca – Roatán – Nassau – Cape Spartel

The Capture of the Bahamas took place in May 1782 during the American War of Independence when a Spanish force under the command of Juan Manuel de Cagigal arrived on the island of New Providence near Nassau, the capital of The Bahamas. The British commander at Nassau, John Maxwell decided to surrender the island without a fight when confronted by the superior force.

Background

Spain had entered the American War of Independence in 1779 and launched a campaign to drive the British out of the Gulf of Mexico overrunning the British colony of West Florida and seizing its major outposts at Mobile and Pensacola. The Spanish commander Bernado de Gálvez planned an attack against Nassau, the capital of The Bahamas which served as a major British privateering base. Gálvez authorised an expedition against the islands in late 1781, but this was postponed during the Yorktown Campaign which led to the surrender of a British army in October 1781.^[6] In early 1782 the scheme was revived and command of it was given to Juan Cagigal, the Governor of Havana.

Capture

In spite of receiving orders from Gálvez to abandon the expedition scheme so his forces could be used for an invasion of Jamaica, Cagigal pressed ahead with his scheme and sailed from Havana on 18 April 1782.^[7] He had 2,500 troops which had left the garrison of Havana very low, and unable to send troops to support Gálvez's Jamaican expedition. He had managed to secure additional ships and transport from American privateers led by Alexander Guillon.

On 6 May Cagigal's ships came into view of Nassau. He convinced the British commander, Vice Admiral John Maxwell, to surrender without opening a formal siege of the town. Maxwell offered twelve articles of surrender, a list which was midly revised by Cagigal before he accepted the surrender. Spanish forces then occupied the town, taking the 600 strong British garrison as prisoners and capturing several ships including a frigate.^[8]

Loyalist Invasion 1783

Andrew Deveaux sorties from Saint Augustine with 70 followers to be joined at sea two days later by the 26-gun privateer brigantine Perseverance of Thomas Dow and 16-gun, 120-man brigantine Whitby Warrior of Daniel Wheeler.^[9] The expedition anchors off Harbour and Eleuthera on 6 April, recruiting another 170 volunteers for an attempt against the Spanish garrison at New Providence.^[10] Four days later the sloop Flor de Mayo reaches New Providence with a message from the governor of Cuba, Luis de Unzaga, saying that peace preliminaries have been signed back in Europe and that the Bahamas are to be restored to British rule in exchange for East Florida.^[11] Therefore, when Deveaux's flotilla draws near to New Providence on 13 April, Spanish commander Claraco mistakes it for mere smugglers.^[12] His customs patrols are suprised next dawn to find a heavily armed landing party storming ashore to occupy Fort Montagu and three guardboats. Claraco retreats into his citadel and a brief ceasefire is arranged; Deveaux rescinds it next day.^[13] The Spaniards scuttle their remaining warships on 16 April and huddle within their main fort until they decide to give up two days later, being repatriated to Cuba.^[14] The Treaty of Paris had already been signed in which Britain exchanged East Florida for the return of The Bahamas.

Aftermath

An 1803 map showing New Providence and Nassau

Gálvez was angered that Cagigal had not followed his orders to abandon the attack, and was also frustrated because the British naval victory at the Battle of the Saintes had forced him to abandon the planned Franco-Spanish invasion of Jamaica.^[15] Gálvez arranged to have Cagigal arrested for his alleged mistreatment of a British General, John Campbell, following the Siege of Pensacola in 1781. Cagigal was imprisoned in Cadiz and had his military career ruined. One of his associates, Francisco de Miranda, was also charged with a similar offence—which may have motivated his later career as an advocate of independence for Spain's American colonies. Ultimately it was Galvez who was to receive credit for the capture of The Bahamas despite the fact he had tried to cancel the project.^[16]

References

Bibliography

• Marley, David. Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the PresentABC-CLIO (1998). ISBN:0874368375
• Beerman, E. La última batalla de la guerra de la independencia no fue Yorktown. La expedición hispano-norteamericana a las Bahamas 1782", Revista de Historia Naval, nº5 de 1984.
• Chavez, Thomas E. Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift. University of New Mexico Press, 2003.