Battle of Fort Charlotte

Battle of Fort Charlotte
Part of the Gulf Coast campaign
Detail from a 1776 map showing British West Florida
Date March 2–14, 1780 Location Mobile, then British West Florida, now Alabama Coordinates: 30°41′10.03″N 88°2′29.42″W / 30.6861194°N 88.0415056°W / 30.6861194; -88.0415056 Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Spain	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Bernardo de Gálvez	Elias Durnford  (POW)
Strength
1,300 regulars and militia	304 regulars and militia
Casualties and losses
	3 killed 8 wounded remainder surrendered

The Battle of Fort Charlotte or the Siege of Fort Charlotte was a two-week siege conducted by Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez against the British fortifications guarding the port of Mobile (which was then in the British province of West Florida, and now in Alabama) during the Anglo-Spanish War of 1779-1783. Fort Charlotte was the last remaining British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans in Spanish Louisiana. Its fall drove the British from the western reaches of West Florida and reduced the British military presence in West Florida to its capital, Pensacola.

Gálvez's army sailed from New Orleans aboard a small fleet of transports on January 28, 1780. On February 25, the Spaniards landed near Fort Charlotte. The outnumbered British garrison resisted stubbornly until Spanish bombardment breached the walls. The garrison commander, Captain Elias Durnford, had waited in vain for relief from Pensacola, but was forced to surrender. Their capitulation secured the western shore of Mobile Bay and opened the way for Spanish operations against Pensacola.

When Spain entered the American Revolutionary War in 1779, Bernardo de Gálvez, the energetic governor of Spanish Louisiana, immediately began offensive operations. In September 1779 he gained complete control over the lower Mississippi River by capturing Fort Bute and then shortly thereafter obtaining the surrender of the remaining British forces on the river following the Battle of Baton Rouge. Following these successes, he began planning operations against Mobile and Pensacola, the remaining British presence in the province of West Florida.

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