Capture of the Bahamas (1783)

Last updated
Capture of the Bahamas (1783)
Part of the American Revolutionary War
NewProvidenceIsland1803.jpg
Map of New Providence and Nassau
Date14–18 April 1783
Location 25°04′N77°20′W / 25.067°N 77.333°W / 25.067; -77.333
Result British/Loyalist victory
Belligerents
Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg  Kingdom of Great Britain Bandera de Espana 1748-1785.svg  Spain
Commanders and leaders
Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg Andrew Deveaux Bandera de Espana 1748-1785.svg Don Antonio Claraco Sauz
Strength
227 regulars, militia & volunteers
7 ships [1]
600 regulars, sailors & marines
7 ships
50 guns
Casualties and losses
none 600 captured (later repatriated)
50 cannons captured
7 ships captured [2]

The Capture of the Bahamas took place in April 1783, late in the American Revolutionary War, when a Loyalist expedition under the command of Andrew Deveaux set out to retake the Bahamas from the Spanish. The expedition was successful and Nassau fell without a shot being fired. It was one of the last actions of the entire war.

Contents

Background

The Bahamas had been taken by Spanish forces in May 1782. However Saint Augustine in East Florida was still in British hands, the Spanish thinking it too well defended to attack. A plan was devised to retake the Bahamas by launching an attack on Nassau. Andrew Deveaux was a Loyalist and veteran of the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War.

Recapture

Major Deveaux departed from Saint Augustine with seventy followers and was joined at sea two days later by the 26-gun privateer brigantine Perseverance of Thomas Dow and the 16-gun, 120-man brigantine Whitby Warrior of Daniel Wheeler. [3] The expedition anchored off Harbour Island and Eleuthera on 6 April, recruiting another 170 volunteers for an attempt against the Spanish garrison at New Providence. [4]

Four days later the sloop Flor de Mayo reached New Providence with a message from the governor of Cuba Luis de Unzaga, saying that peace preliminaries had been signed back in Europe and that the Bahamas were to be restored to British rule in exchange for East Florida. [5]

When Deveaux's flotilla drew near to New Providence on 13 April, the Spanish commander Claraco mistook it for smugglers. His customs patrols were surprised at dawn the following morning to find a heavily armed landing party storming ashore to occupy Fort Montagu and three guard boats. Claraco retreated into his citadel and a brief ceasefire was arranged; Deveaux rescinded it next day. The Spaniards scuttled their remaining warships on 16 April and huddled within the main fort, before deciding to surrender it two days later.

Aftermath

Over 600 Spaniards surrendered, and 50 cannon and seven ships were captured. Some of the ships that had been scuttled were later refloated and the Spaniards were repatriated to Cuba. [6]

By this time, Britain had already given up East Florida in exchange for the Bahamas in the preliminary talks of the Treaty of Paris. As a reward for his efforts in the Bahamas, Deveaux was given a large portion of Cat Island, where he built a mansion at Port Howe, the remains of which can be seen today. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Bahamas</span> Country in North America

The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and 88% of its population. The archipelagic state consists of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and northwest of the island of Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the U.S. state of Florida, and east of the Florida Keys. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force describes The Bahamas' territory as encompassing 470,000 km2 (180,000 sq mi) of ocean space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nassau, Bahamas</span> Capital and largest city of The Bahamas

Nassau is the capital and largest city of The Bahamas. It is located on the island of New Providence, which had a population of 246,329 in 2010, or just over 70% of the entire population of The Bahamas. As of April 2023, the preliminary results of the 2022 census of the Bahamas reported a population of 296,522 for New Providence, 74.26% of the country's population. Nassau is commonly defined as a primate city, dwarfing all other towns in the country. It is the centre of commerce, education, law, administration, and media of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Bahamas</span> Aspect of history

The earliest arrival of people in the islands now known as The Bahamas was in the first millennium AD. The first inhabitants of the islands were the Lucayans, an Arawakan language-speaking Taino people, who arrived between about 500 and 800 AD from other islands of the Caribbean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Florida</span> Colony of Great Britain and a province of Spanish Florida

East Florida was a colony of Great Britain from 1763 to 1783 and a province of the Spanish Empire from 1783 to 1821. Great Britain gained control of the long-established Spanish colony of La Florida in 1763 as part of the treaty ending the French and Indian War. Deciding that the territory was too large to administer as a single unit, Britain divided Florida into two colonies separated by the Apalachicola River: East Florida with its capital in St. Augustine and West Florida with its capital in Pensacola. East Florida was much larger and comprised the bulk of the former Spanish territory of Florida and most of the current state of Florida. It had also been the most populated region of Spanish Florida, but before control was transferred to Britain, most residents – including virtually everyone in St. Augustine – left the territory, with most migrating to Cuba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Providence</span> Caribbean island of the Bahamas

New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It is the location of the national capital city of Nassau, whose boundaries are coincident with the island; it had a population of 246,329 at the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (2016) is 274,400.

USS <i>Providence</i> (1775) Sloop-of-war of the United States Navy

USS Providence was a sloop-of-war in the Continental Navy, originally chartered by the Rhode Island General Assembly as Katy. The ship took part in a number of campaigns during the first half of the American Revolutionary War before being destroyed by her own crew in 1779 to prevent her falling into the hands of the British after the failed Penobscot Expedition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Out Islands</span> Group of islands in The Bahamas

The Out Islands are the islands that make up the Bahamas with the exception of New Providence Island, where the capital and largest city, Nassau, is located, and Grand Bahama Island, where Freeport is located. The Abaco Islands and Eleuthera islands are among the Out Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raid of Nassau</span> 1776 battle of the American Revolutionary War

The Raid of Nassau was a naval operation and amphibious assault by American forces against the British port of Nassau, Bahamas, during the American Revolutionary War. The raid, designed to resolve the issue of gunpowder shortages, resulted in the seizure of two forts and large quantities of military supplies before the raiders drew back to New England, where they fought an unsuccessful engagement with a British frigate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Augustus Bowles</span> American-born military officer and adventurer (1763–1805)

William Augustus Bowles was an American-born military officer and adventurer. Born in Frederick County, Maryland, Bowles was commissioned into the Maryland Loyalists Battalion at the rank of ensign, seeing action during the American Revolutionary War, including the 1781 siege of Pensacola. He subsequently established an alliance with the Muscogee and founded the State of Muskogee. In 1803, Bowles was betrayed and handed over to the Spanish, who imprisoned him in Morro Castle, where he died two years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of St. Augustine (1740)</span> Battle during the War of Jenkins Ear

The siege of St. Augustine was a military engagement that took place during June–July 1740. It involved a British attack on the city of St. Augustine in Spanish Florida and was a part of the much larger conflict known as the War of Jenkins' Ear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Montagu</span> 18th century fortification located in Nassau, Bahamas

Fort Montagu is a small fort of four cannon on the eastern shore of New Providence Island (Nassau) Bahamas. Peter Henry Bruce oversaw the construction of the fort that began in 1741 to defend the British possession from Spanish invaders.

White Bahamians are Bahamian citizens of European ancestry, most of whom trace their ancestry back to England, Scotland and Ireland. Bahamians of European descent are sometimes called "Conchs", a term that is also applied to people of White Bahamian descent in Florida. White Bahamians were a majority in the 18th century, but now constitute less than 10% of the Bahamian population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raid on Nassau (1720)</span> Spanish raid in the War of the Quadruple Alliance

The Raid on Nassau was a Spanish military expedition that took place in February 1720 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance wherein Spanish forces assaulted the British settlement of Nassau in an attempt to seize the island of New Providence. Although the Spanish managed to raid outlying posts, the assault on Nassau itself was repelled and the invasion was a failure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capture of the Bahamas (1782)</span>

The Capture of the Bahamas took place in May 1782 during the American Revolutionary War when a Spanish force under the command of Juan Manuel 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Deveaux</span>

Andrew Deveaux was an American Loyalist from South Carolina who is most famous for his recapture of the Bahamas in 1783.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raid on Nassau</span>

The Raid on Nassau, on the Bahamian island of New Providence, was a privately raised Franco-Spanish expedition against the English taking place in October 1703, during the War of the Spanish Succession; it was a Franco-Spanish victory, leading to Nassau's brief occupation, then its destruction. The joint Bourbon invasion was led by Blas Moreno Mondragón and Clause Le Chesnaye, with the attack focusing on Nassau, the capital of the English Bahamas, an important base of privateering for English corsairs in the Cuban and Saint Domingue's Caribbean seas. The town of Nassau was quickly taken and sacked, plundered and burnt down. The fort of Nassau was dismantled, and the English governor, with all the English soldiers were carried off prisoners. A year later, Sir Edward Birch, the new English governor, upon landing in Nassau, was so distraught at the ruin he found, that he returned to England after only a few months, without "unfurling his company-issued commission".

The Raid on Charles Town, or Spanish raid on New Providence, was a Spanish naval expedition on 19 January 1684 (O.S.) led by Cuban corsair Juan de Alarcón against the English privateering stronghold of Charles Town, capital of the Bahamas.

Hendrick van Hoven was a Dutch buccaneer and pirate active in the Caribbean. He was known as “the grand pirate of the West Indies.”

Daniel Stillwell was a minor pirate in the Caribbean, best known for his association with Benjamin Hornigold.

Thomas Barrow was a pirate active in the Caribbean. He is best known for proclaiming himself Governor of New Providence.

References

  1. Craton pg. 301
  2. Craton pg. 301
  3. Marley p.346
  4. Marley p.346
  5. Marley p.346
  6. Marley p.346
  7. Craton pg. 302

Bibliography