USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 84
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with provisions, munitions and ten pieces of artillery, to move up the Mississippi, as his little army advanced. August 27 the gov- ernor started out to recruit on the German and Acadian coasts, leaving Lieut .- Col. Don Pedro Piernas in charge at New Orleans. On the same day the little army of invasion marched. In com- mand, under Galvez, was Col. Manuel Gonzales with Don. Estevan Miro next in rank. There were 170 veterans, 330 recruits, 20 cara- binieres, 60 militia, Oliver Pollock and nine other Americans, 80 free blacks and mulattoes; in all 670 men. On the march they were joined by 600 more militia and 160 Indians. This strength was reduced by the fatigue of the march of 115 miles, so that the force was about 1,000 when the flag of Fort Bute was sighted, Sept. 6. At this time, says Gayarre, Galvez first revealed to the troops that they were to invade and conquer, not merely guard the Spanish line. The commander posted his regulars to meet any force that should approach by the lake route from Pensacola, and prepared to attack the fort with his other troops. Lieut. Dickson, in command for the British, had called for help from Pensacola, and on its failure to arrive had left a small garrison at Bute and retired to Baton Rouge, a more defensible position. The Wal- decker grenadiers sent by Campbell to reinforce Dickson were on the way. On the 7th Galvez assaulted the fort. We may be per- mitted to believe that the garrison of twenty privates, "a captain and two lieutenants," were summoned to surrender, though Gay- arré does not mention it. The resistance was nominal, but re- sulted in the death of one private. Six escaped, and the rest became prisoners of war.
On the 8th the Louisiana army marched for Baton Rouge, fif- teen miles distant. Col. Grand Pré, with forces from Point Coupeé, had already taken two British outposts on Thompson's Creek and the Amite, and stationed himself to cut off communi- cation with Natchez. The capture of Baton Rouge was a more difficult proposition than the reduction of Manchac. "The fort was surrounded by a ditch, eighteen feet wide and nine in depth; it had, besides, very high walls, with a parapet protected by chevaux de frise, and a garrison of 400 regulars and 100 militiamen, and was supplied with thirteen pieces of heavy artillery." (Gayarre.) Galvez halted a mile and a half from this work, and took his artil- lery from the boats. Advancing, he sent some militia, Indians and negroes to occupy a wooded place near the fort and by a feigned attack to draw the British fire while, under shelter of the night, the artillery was posted in an advantageous position, screened by a garden. Next day, September 21, the Spanish batteries opened, and the guns of the fort replied. This artillery fight lasted until half past three in the afternoon, when a flag of truce was sent out with an offer to capitulate. Galvez would have nothing but un- conditional surrender of Baton Rouge and Fort Panmure, with the dependent districts, and these terms were agreed upon. After 24 hours the garrison, 375 strong, marched out with honors, and delivered up arms and flags, becoming prisoners of war. Upon
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the settling of the terms of capitulation a captain and 80 men started toward Fort Panmure, 130 miles distant, to take possession of that post, which was garrisoned by 80 grenadiers and their offi- cers, according to the Louisiana account. In these forts at Baton Rouge and Natchez were also a considerable number of militia which had been raised among the settlements, and some free ne- groes. These were not held as prisoners, but sent to their homes, probably under parole. A hint of what the campaign meant in the Natchez district may be found in a report of Galvez that the Indians behaved with unusal humanity, doing no injury whatever to the fugitives they captured, even bringing in, in their arms, the children who took refuge in the woods with their mothers. As Galvez withdrew to New Orleans with his prisoners, he put in command of the conquered region Charles de Grand Pré, with headquarters at Baton Rouge, and subordinate officers and garri -- sons at Manchac and Natchez. The Waldeckers at Fort Panmure seem to have remained there until the middle of October.
Naval operations aided to make the campaign a brilliant suc- cess. A schooner flying the American flag, owned by one Pikle (or Pickler) and fitted out at New Orleans, captured a British privateer, the West Florida, on Lake Pontchartrain. Vincent Rieux, a Creole, in command of a sloop of war, captured on Bayou Manchac a barque from Pensacola, carrying a company of Wal- deckers and military supplies. Several other captures were made by the gunboats.
Altogether, the result was so gratifying, particularly to the Acadians, that Julien Poydras celebrated the glory of the cam- paign in a poem that was printed by government authority. Ad- miral Ulloa, remembered as first Spanish governor at New Orleans, was expected to cooperate in command of a Spanish fleet, but it appears that after sailing from Spain he became engaged in some mathematical investigations and forgot to open his sealed letters of instructions. This possibly accounts for the delay in continuing the conquest.
In October reinforcements came from Havana, and Galvez was soon notified of his promotion to brigadier-general. Miro and Piernas were also advanced. On February 5, 1780, the general sailed from the Balize with 2,000 men in 11 vessels. 'Again a storm almost wrecked his enterprise. Some of his vessels were stranded and great damage was done to his supplies and ammunition. Campbell, at Pensacola, hearing of this, seems to have hastily con- cluded that Galvez needed no further attention. But the young Spaniard did not give up. The capture of a British victualler ship, carrying goods to Mobile for an Indian congress, brought some comfort to the shattered expedition. A landing was effected on Mobile bay, just below Choctaw point, but in such disorder and after so much delay that Galvez would have given orders to retreat overland to New Orleans, if the English at Pensacola had shown any signs of aggressiveness. Taking heart, on March 1st he boldly advanced on Fort Charlotte, where Durnford was in command of
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about 300 men and some volunteers. In response to an appeal from Durnford, Campbell sent forward the remainder of the Wal- deck regiment March 5, and followed next day with the provin- cials, having in all 522 men. It was a march of 72 miles through the wilderness. Reaching the Tensas on the 10th he set about the building of rafts. Meanwhile the walls of the fort had been breached with artillery, and Durnford surrendered, with the honors of war, March 14. Campbell retreated, and the Spaniards at- tempted to pursue, but were held in check by the Choctaw and Chickasaw warriors, who had come to the assistance of the Eng- lish.
Galvez was now promoted to major-general. Pensacola re- mained to be taken, in order to complete the conquest of West Florida, and for this he made his base of operations mainly at Havana. Campbell had about 800 soldiers, and the steadfast as- sistance of the Creeks, Chocktaws and Chickasaws. In January, 1781, he sent out an expedition westward, which attacked an out- post of Mobile, and was repulsed with the loss of the commander.
The troops from Havana, landed on Santa Rosa island in March, 1781, were supported by all that could be spared from New Orleans and Mobile, under Miro. Still, the campaign might have failed, through the Spanish commodore's caution, if Galvez had not gone on board one of his Louisiana gunboats, under Captain Rousseau, and run the batteries unharmed. After the arrival of another fleet from Havana, and a formidable siege, Campbell surrendered the garrison May 9, 1781. At the same time Governor Chester sur- rendered possession of the province of West Florida, pledging its evacuation by British subjects within 18 months. The garrison was paroled, as against Spain and her allies, and, with the troops from Mobile, and other posts, were carried to Brooklyn and added to the British forces available against the United States, of which Spain was not an ally. Being accused of bad faith Galvez wrote an explanation to Count de Grasse, commanding the French fleet, which was communicated to Gen. Washington, claiming that he was under the necessity of granting terms that Campbell- de- manded.
Further operations in Florida were deferred while Galvez took command of a great military and naval expedition prepared at San Domingo to conquer the island of Jamaica. But about this time the British navy began to get in action; Rodney destroyed the French fleet of De Grasse, and Galvez ended his career of conquest by taking the Bahamas.
The English posts in the interior were possessed by the Span- iards, so far as it could be done without interference with the Americans. Far in the north, a Spanish party marched in the snows of winter across Illinois and captured a little British post at St. Joseph (Michigan), in order to unfurl the banner of Spain throughout the interior of the continent.
West Florida was now under Spanish control, by conquest, but the war continued in other parts of the world, between Spain and
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England, until peace was made at Versailles, September 3, 1783. The purport of this treaty was that Great Britain submitted to the conquest of West Florida, and gave up East Florida also, in ex- change for Galvez' other conquest, the Bahamas. Minorca also remained in the hands of Spain. Her tremendous effort to capture Gibraltar had failed, but she was again in possession of the Amer- ican gulf, and the treaty was so drawn that she was able to make indeterminate pretentions to the Mississippi valley eastward.
Spanish Dominion. After the occupation by Galvez in 1779, the Natchez district was under the administration of a commandant, subject to the governor of Louisiana. The Spanish records at Mo- bile show that affairs at Pass Christian, Cat Island and Biloxi were regulated from Mobile, and the grants of land at Mobile were made by the governors at New Orleans. In the treaties of 1784 Galvez is entitled governor of Louisiana and West Florida. In the Spanish census of 1785 and again in 1788 these districts of Natchez and Mobile are enumerated along with Louisiana, of which they were originally a part, under the French dominion. As for Flor- ida, east of Mobile, it reverted to the old Spanish system of gov- ernors at Pensacola and St. Augustine, with their jurisdiction separated by the Apalachicola river. The Spanish governor at Pensacola was not the successor in scope of territory, of the Eng- lish governor at Pensacola. "West Florida" was a British name and province. But the Spanish continued the use of the name West Florida, because it was their policy, immediately after the treaties of 1782-83, to save whatever rights they might have within the disputed limits of British West Florida.
All of what is now the State of Mississippi was under the ad- ministration of the government of Louisiana, which comprised the governor-general, with civil and military powers; the intendant, who looked after the revenues, navy and commerce; the comp- troller, auditor, etc. "In certain cases there was an appeal from the highest tribunal of the province (Louisiana) to the captain- general of the island of Cuba, from him to the royal audiencia in St. Domingo, and thence to the council of the Indies at Madrid."- (Gayarre.) This was true at Mobile the same as at New Orleans. "The laws of Spain were made by the king with the advice of his councils ; and the laws of Spanish America were made by the king through the Council of the Indies. In fine, Spanish America did not belong to Spain, but was a part of the hereditary domains of the sovereigns of Castile as heirs of Queen Isabella, with which the cortes of Castile had little more to do than with the kingdom of Naples or the Netherlands."-(Bourne, "Spain in America.")
The Council of the Indies was a body of greater powers than the British colonial board of trade and plantations. Its great digest of colonial law, "Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reinos de las In- dias," published long before this time, says Bourne, in spite of shortcomings as to finance and variances with modern ideas, was, 'in its broad humanity and consideration for the general welfare
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of the king's American subjects, far superior to anything that has been shown for the English or French colonies."
The viceroy of Mexico and the captain-general of Cuba were of equal dignity, except in importance of their domains. When Lieu- tenant-General Galvez was transferred from Cuba to Mexico, he was allowed to retain, apparently as a special honor, the adminis- tration of the province of Louisiana and both Floridas in addition to the kingdom of New Spain. The audiencia was the viceroy's or captain-general's council, made up of judges. "The administrative subdivisions of the audiences were the 'gobiernos,' or govern- ments, the 'corregimientos,' and the 'alcaldes mayores.'" The alcalde mayor was a district magistrate, sometimes a local gover- nor. In 1786 the local government was reorganized and the viceroyalties and captaincies-general were subdivided into inten- dencies. The corregidors and alcaldes mayores were then displaced by the subdelegates of the intendants. Spanish town government was by the cabiloo or municipal council, composed of regidores or aldermen, which was an inherited or purchased honor, and a smaller number of alcaldes, or justices, elected to the council by the regidores, also perhaps an alferez real (royal ensign), an algua- cil mayor (sheriff), and a subordinate officer or two. The public service in such offices as sheriff, court clerk, depositary, regidore, treasurer, sealer of weights and measures, notary, etc., was let out to the best bidder, as it is the present custom to let out the work of municipal improvements. (Bourne.)
In the Natchez district, as at Mobile, "the commandant exercised jurisdiction, often a very summary one, over almost every kind of dispute, including contract, attachment and damages. There seemed to be no lawyers in the American sense, but there were clerks and notaries to aid the litigants. In criminal cases the ap- peal [to New Orleans] was only in capital offences, and from the expense, practically did not exist. Punishment was mild, generally a fine or stocks, and serious crimes were rare. The alcalde, like our justice of the peace, heard civil and criminal causes summarily and without written proceedings. His jurisdiction was limited to complaints in which the matter in dispute did not exceed twenty dollars."-(Hamilton.)
Outside of Natchez and Baton Rouge districts the population was mainly French and German. Trade was in the hands of the French merchants, under the royal schedule of January 22, 1782, which allowed the colonists to supply their wants from France and its colonies. French was the language of the province, except among the officials and in the courts. The attempt to establish Spanish schools, even at New Orleans, was a failure. The Natchez district records were written in Spanish, French and English.
Bernardo de Galvez, promoted to lieutenant-general, count, etc., was captain-general of Louisiana, including Natchez and Mobile, until 1785, when he was promoted to captain-general of Cuba, Louisiana and the Floridas. A few months later he succeeded his father as viceroy of Mexico or New Spain, which was the highest
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Spanish dignity in the Americas, except as the viceroyalty of Peru was a more desirable station in the same rank. His successor in Louisiana was Col. Estevan Miro, who was commissioned in 1786 as "governor, civil and military, of Louisiana and West Florida." With promotion to brigadier-general, he acted as governor and intendant both, after the departure of Intendant Martin Navarro. On December 30, 1791, Miro was succeeded by the Baron de Car- ondelet, who was promoted from governor of San Salvador. He was given an intendant in 1794, in the person of Francisco de Ren- don, late secretary of legation to the United States, who was suc- ceeded by Don Juan Bonaventura Morales in 1796. Carondelet was succeeded by Brig .- Gen. Gayoso de Lemos, lately commandant of Natchez, August 1, 1797. He died in 1799, and for a while Col. Francis Bouligny, of the Creole regiment, was military commander . and Jose Maria Vidal was civil governor, Morales being the effec- tive head of the government. The Marquis de Casa Calvo (O'Fer- rall) was governor ad interim, later, until Brig .- Gen. Juan Manuel de Salcedo came in June, 1801, and with him the line ended.
The names and titles of the principal officials in 1795 were signed as follows to a land grant to the Marquis de Maison Rouge :
Francis Louis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, Knight of Malta, Brigadier-General of the Royal Armies of His Catholic Majesty, Military and Civil Governor of the Provinces of Louisiana and West Florida ; Don Francis Rendon, Intendant of the Army and Deputy Superintendent of the Royal Domains in the said Prov- inces ; and Don Joseph de Orne, Knight of the Royal and Dis- tinguished Order of Charles III, Principal Accountant of the Royal Chests for this Army, exercising the functions of Fiscal of the Royal Domains. It may be added that Carondelet was also a Knight of St. John, and Marshal de Camp of the Royal Armies.
Spain proposed to hold West Florida as it had been conquered by Galvez, the conquest having been recognized by formal cession by Great Britain in the treaty with Spain, 1783, without defining boundaries. True, Great Britain had in 1782, agreed with the United States that to prevent future disputes between Great Britain and the United States, the limits of the United States should be so and so, naming the parallel of 31°, but that could not bind Spain, a power that at that time possessed by conquest, ter- ritory within those limits that Great Britain had administered as West Florida. Spain claimed more than what was usually called West Florida. As Gardoqui, commissioner of the king to nego- tiate this question, informed the American government in 1785: "The King will not permit any nation to navigate between the two banks [of the Mississippi river] belonging to His Majesty, from the extent of his conquests made by his royal arms over the English in East and West Florida, according to the dominion for- merly held by the English, and the jurisdiction exercised by the commandant of Pensacola, on which it depended, as well as the countries east of the Mississippi, of which formal possession was
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taken by Capt. Don Baltazar de Villers, commandant of the post of Arkanzar, for his majesty" [November 22, 1780.].
"His Majesty does not consider the regulation made between the United States and Great Britain respecting the territories con- quered by his arms, but as a conditional agreement, in which they tacitly leave safe the territorial rights which he possessed in those parts. Those territories were in that same state of conquest and in possession neither of England nor of the United States, when they disposed of them. There can be no doubt but that the treaty of 30th of November, 1782, when the war between Spain and Eng- land was in continuance, could not fix the limits of countries which were not in possession. His Majesty therefore, understands these stipulations as conditional and dependent on the situation in which things might be left by a general peace." Suggesting, by way of comfort, that Spain would be a valuable ally in the Amer- ican troubles with the African powers, and holding up the promise of trade in the Spanish dominions, including the Philippines, Gardoqui added that it was "equally just to remind the honorable Congress of the generosity with which His Majesty has delayed requesting, until now, the payment of the principal of the debts contracted by the United States, both in Spain and America, being so delicate as not to apply even for the interest due thereon, not- withstanding the difficulties with which he provides for his own treasury." As may be inferred from the above, Spain claimed not only up to the Yazoo line, but on northward. The Louisiana gov- ernor exercised some jurisdiction in western Tennessee, and estab- lished a post at Chickasaw Bluffs, the site of Memphis.
Spain was not then what it had been lately, or what it was soon to be. Under the administration of the great Florida Blanca the home country was prosperous, with manufactures and trade and a good banking system, the kingdom had been cleared of beggars, and only sixty heretics were burned during the whole period of Blanca's supremacy. England and France, on the other hand, were crippled and enormously in debt. Blanca's policy in making peace (1782-83) was to hold the entire Mississippi valley, and it is not unlikely that he would have favored its retrocession, when Span- ish title was secured, to France. After the check administered to Spain and France by the separate arrangement between the United States and Great Britain, which was, in effect, an Anglo-Saxon alliance to defeat the Latin projects, Spain, in behalf of the Bour- bons, held to what she could, and bided her time, expecting, as did all Europe, the speedy collapse of the American confederation, as it was contrary to all philosophy and history that so large a repub- lic could endure. What the result would have been, barring George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte, is an interesting problem. Probably philosophy and history would have scored an- other "I told you so."
In 1784, on the suggestion of the great Scotch-Tallapoosa states- man, Alexander McGillivray, Governor Miro, going to Mobile, made a treaty with the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Alabamons, and
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smaller tribes, which amounted to taking under Spanish protec- tion and guarantee the territorial claims of the Indian nations. About the same time, Governor O'Neill, of Pensacola, made an identical treaty with the Tallapoosas (Creeks) and Cherokees, through McGillivray. The reason McGillivray gave for suggest- ing the alliance was the probability of the formation of a new and independent American government by the frontier settlers in the Mississippi valley, who would invade the Spanish domain at the earliest opportunity. He represented to Miro that there was danger of an Indian alliance with that movement, and he proposed to throw the Indian strength to Spain in return for commercial advantages and privileges for his people. The result was that the houses of William Panton, at Pensacola, and James Mather, at Mobile, were intrusted with the commercial care of the Indians, - and Spain acquired the right, as she asserted it, to defend the In- dian title to all the country from the Oconee river in Georgia to the Mississippi, and north to the Ohio. On the basis of these treaties the Spanish government explicitly denied the claim of the United States to sovereignty over the Indian nations, and exclu- sive right to acquire land of them. This was convenient to the Creeks, as they had been allies of Great Britain during the Revo- lution. McGillivray was made a Spanish colonel, with a pension of $600 a year. He was also associated with the business of Will- iam Panton, who was possibly at the head of the whole plan. The commercial side of it interested Great Britain as an ally in fact, in this project to annul the treaty of peace. In the Northwest she asserted the same control over the Indians as did Spain in the Southwest, and she maintained military posts within the agreed limits of the United States, as Spain maintained them from Mem- phis down. Navarro, the intendant, wrote to Madrid that with McGillivray on their side, "we may rely on having established, between the Floridas and Georgia, a barrier which it will not be easy to break through."
In 1785 commissioners from Georgia demanded the surrender of all the region claimed by that State, north of latitude 31º, but this was easily evaded by referring them to the negotiations of the governments of Spain and the United States. (See Bourbon County.)
In 1787 some of the Choctaw and Chickasaw chiefs were feasted at New Orleans, and encouraged in allegiance to Spain. The giv- ing of presents to the Indians, so effectively promoted by the diplomacy of McGillivray, continued so that according to an ac- count rendered January 5, 1788, the expense of these donations, practically bribes to hostility against the United States, amounted to about $800,000.
Navarro warned Madrid, in 1787, that the real enemies of the province were not the English, but the Americans, "whom we must oppose by active and sufficient measures." The most active open measures were the exorbitant duties, and petty and vexa- tions restrictions to trade on the river, the seizures, fines, impris-
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onments, extortions, practiced upon the boatmen from the Ohio, who walked or rode horseback home through the Natchez district, swearing vengeance against Spain. This was intended to encour- age the desire in Kentucky for Western Independence, because the congress of the weak Confederation was impotent to relieve the sit- uation. The elusive James Wilkinson became a factor in the game in 1787 and certainly took up such relations that the Spanish government used him as their secret agent, for a valuable consid- eration, which was, in part, a salary, and in part, exclusive free- dom of trade at New Orleans. Miro intrigued for the "delivering up of Kentucky unto His Majesty's hands, which is the main object to which Wilkinson has promised to devote himself entirely," (dispatch to Minister Valdes Jan. 8, 1788) ; but Gardoqui, at the American capital, was using agents to induce the people of Ken- tucky and the Cumberland "to establish themselves in West Florida and the Florida district of Lower Louisiana under the protection of Spain," and he made them liberal grants of land, conceding also considerable privileges and favors. Gardoqui of- fered settlers the admission of slaves, stock and provision for two years, free of duty, and importation of merchandise under a duty of 25 per cent. When Miro was informed of this scheme he com- plained to Madrid that it was counter to his own, and yet he dare not tell Wilkinson or D'Arges, the agent of Gardoqui, of the plan of either. Wilkinson became conscious that Gardoqui, who had agents all over the United States, was watching him, but he imagined D'Arges was an emissary of France, because he drew his salary through the French minister, Marbois. The entangle- ment was complete, and tended to self-defeat. Congressman Brown, of Kentucky, who tried to make himself active as an ally of Wilkinson, blundered, and unbosomed himself to Gardoqui and was rebuffed. On the other hand, when Col. George Morgan, a Gardoqui man, obtained a grant for a province, which should have its capital at New Madrid, Wilkinson busied himself to destroy that project.
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