Battle of San Fernando de Omoa

Battle of San Fernando de Omoa
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Exterior view of the fort at San Fernando de Omoa. Photo taken in 2006
Date October 16 – November 29, 1779 Location San Fernando de Omoa, Captaincy General of Guatemala, present-day Honduras Result British victory but subsequent withdrawal on 29 November, Fortress reoccupied by Spain
Belligerents
Spain	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Matías de Gálvez Simón Desnaux Juan Dastiex	William Dalrymple John Luttrell
Strength
365 regulars and militia	885 regulars, marines, militia, and natives
Casualties and losses
2 wounded, 360 captured, 2 ships captured	6 killed and 14 wounded, with additional casualties to disease

The Battle of San Fernando de Omoa was a short siege and battle between British and Spanish forces fought not long after Spain entered the American Revolutionary War on the American side. On 16 October 1779, following a brief attempt at siege, a force of 150 British soldiers and seamen assaulted and captured the fortifications at San Fernando de Omoa in the Captaincy General of Guatemala (now Honduras) on the Gulf of Honduras.

The British forces managed to overwhelm and capture the Spanish garrison, consisting of 365 men. The British only held the fort until November 1779. They then withdrew the garrison, which tropical diseases had reduced, and which was under threat of a Spanish counter-attack.

When Spain entered the American Revolutionary War in June 1779, both Great Britain and Spain had been planning for the possibility of hostilities for some time. King Carlos III set the defense of the Captaincy General of Guatemala as one of his highest priorities in the Americas, after the conquest of British West Florida. His forces seized the initiative in North America, where they rapidly captured the British outpost at Baton Rouge in September 1779, before the British were able to marshal significant defensive forces in the area. The British sought to gain control over Spanish colonies in Central America, and their first target was San Fernando de Omoa, a fortress that Matías de Gálvez, the Captain General of Guatemala, called "the key and outer wall of the kingdom".

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Wikipedia