Capture of Baton Rouge by Galvez, 1779

Capture of Baton Rouge by Galvez, 1779. . This plaque depicts the surrender of the British fort at Baton Rouge, by Lt. Colonel Alexander Dickson to Bernardo de Galvez, Governor of Spanish Louisiana, on September 21, 1779. Also surrendered were all other British posts along the Lower Mississippi., The Spanish forces, consisting of about 750 regulars, carabineers, militiamen and free blacks, left New Orleans on August 27, 1779. After being joined by about 150 Indians and another 600 militiamen from the German and Acadian coasts and other parts of Louisiana, they captured the British Fort Bute, at Bayou Manchac. Accompanying the expedition were nine Americans, "under America's banners," commanded by Oliver Pollock, the New Orleans agent of the Continental Congress., As a result of the surrender, which occurred after an eight-day siege, and a three-hour bombardment by the Spanish forces, military supplies could be sent upriver from New Orleans to the American Army. The British fort at Baton Rouge was manned by 400 regular troops, including members of the German Waldeck Regiment and 100 local planters and blacks., This plaque was made from a 1976 bicentennial lithograph by Sigmund Abeles., Dedicated to the memory of Erich Sternberg Goudchaux's, Inc. September, 1979