Battle of Mobile (1781)

Battle of Mobile
Part of the Gulf Coast campaign
Detail from a 1776 showing British West Florida
Date January 7, 1781 Location Mobile, then British West Florida, now Alabama Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Spain	Great Britain Waldeck-Pyrmont mercenaries
Commanders and leaders
Ramón del Castro	Johann von Hanxleden †
Strength
200 regulars	100 British regulars 261 militia 420 Indians 60 Waldeckers
Casualties and losses
14 killed 23 wounded	20 killed

Coordinates: 30°39′50.58″N 88°0′7.47″W / 30.6640500°N 88.0020750°W / 30.6640500; -88.0020750

The Battle of Mobile was a British attempt to recapture the town of Mobile, in the British province of West Florida, from the Spanish during the Anglo-Spanish War. The Spanish had previously captured Mobile in March 1780. On January 7, 1781, a British attack against a Spanish outpost on the east side of Mobile Bay was repulsed, and the German leader of the expedition was killed.

After Spain declared war on Great Britain in 1779, Bernardo de Gálvez, the Governor of Spanish Louisiana, immediately began offensive operations to gain control of neighboring British West Florida, which included parts of today's Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. In September 1779 he gained complete control over the lower Mississippi River by capturing Fort Bute and shortly afterwards obtaining the surrender of the remaining enemy forces in the region following the Battle of Baton Rouge. He followed up these successes with the capture of Mobile on March 14, 1780, following a brief siege. (In the spring of 1781, Gálvez would go on to capture Pensacola, British West Florida's administrative capital.)

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