The United States had early Spanish Colonial history, yet did you know that actual hispanics served crucial and important roles in our country’s early military history? While I am sure there have been many hispanic figures we do not know about that have played a role in early American military history, I decided to make a post today to honor five figures who served between the Revolutionary War and the Spanish-American War. If you know of any others, please feel free to tell me and I can talk about them in a future post.
Bernardo de Gálvez (1746-1786)
Born in 1746 in the province of Málaga in southern Spain, Bernardo de Gálvez came from a prominent military family. His uncle, José de Gálvez was an important Spanish statesman. With help from his uncle, the young de Gálvez demonstrated great military talent from an early age. He attended the Royal Military Academy in Ávila, and he first participated in warfare during the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War) in Europe (1756-1763). Subsequently, he was involved in battles with the Apache in North America.
During the early years of the American Revolution, he was appointed governor of Spanish Louisiana. When he heard of the American Revolution, de Gálvez sympathized with the cause, and he went out of his way to show support to the colonists seeking liberation from the British. During the Revolution, de Gálvez reportedly sent around $70,000 in medicine, fabric, weapons and cartridge boxes to the revolutionary forces. In 1779 after Spain declared war on the British, de Gálvez, using the element of surprise, had recaptured several British forts located on the Mississippi River and captured several British soldiers thus weakening the grip the British had on North America.
That is when he discovered that the British had aid coming from Pensacola, a Spanish colonial city which was ruled by the British during this time. After getting the British to surrender at Mobile, he made his way to Pensacola. Despite having to deal with a stubborn Admiral sent from Havana (José Calbo de Irazabel), de Gálvez took the lead, and after two months of battle, he reconquered Pensacola for Spain after the British surrendered in 1781. His success aided in the British not only returning West Florida to the Spanish, but also in the British recognizing the United States as a sovereign nation with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Bernardo de Gálvez served as Capitán General of Cuba, and from 1785-1786, he briefly served as the Viceroy of New Spain. de Gálvez passed away in 1786.
While not greatly remembered in the United States, and while not often talked about as an early Hispanic figure in American History, de Gálvez is remembered as a hero to both the United States and to his native Spain. The city of Galveston, Texas is named after him.
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Ambrosio José Gonzáles (1818-1893)
A native of Cuba (then a Spanish colony), Gonzáles was born in 1818 to a prominent local family in the city of Matanzas. From an early age, he began receiving an international education which took him to places such as many parts of Europe, New York City around 1829, and ultimately culminated with him studying law, arts and sciences at the University of Havana. He then returned to Matanzas to become a teacher just like his father. One of the causes Gonzáles was passionate about was the liberation of Cuba from the Spanish, although his view was that Cuba should become a part of the United States. He began hanging around the likes of Narciso Lopez, who shared his views on Cuba separating from Spain. Lopez was known for launching many such “expeditions” to attempt liberation of Cuba from the Spanish.
In one such “expedition” In May 1850, Lopez and Gonzáles embarked to Cardenas, Cuba where they, accompanied by around 610 men, launched an invasion. The Spanish attacked them, and Gonzáles apparently was shot in the right thigh, and wounded in the attack. Gonzáles wanted to continue to make his way towards Oriente province (the easternmost province of Cuba), but that did not happen and Gonzáles had to return to the United States where he settled in South Carolina. There, he lobbied the Democratic Party unsuccessfully to assist him in the cause of liberating Cuba since apparently that party at the time was open to the idea of annexing Cuba to the United States. In South Carolina, he married Harriet Elliot, the daughter of a wealthy local planter, and they formed a family.
When the Civil War broke out in the early 1860s, Gonzáles supported the Confederate States of America, and he joined their military as a soldier. He started off as a lieutenant colonel, and over time he made his way up to the rank of colonel. Reportedly, he never made it to the rank of general because there were apparently issues between him and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. During the war, he led the Confederates to victory in the Battle of Honey Hill, he had served alongside General P. G. T. Beauregard, commanded around 157 artillery guns in battles at Charleston Harbor and James Island, and he was eventually promoted to Chief of Artillery for the departments of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.
Eventually however, the tide of the war had turned against the Confederacy. Towards the end of the war, he surrendered to General William Tecumseh Sherman in North Carolina. In the following years, he found multiple ways to make a living, and pushed himself into the cause of educating his children until his death in 1893. His sons Narciso and Ambrose went on to found The State newspaper in South Carolina which still operates to this day.
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John Ortega (1840-Unknown)
Remembered as the first Hispanic navy sailor to be awarded the US Medal of Honor, John Ortega was born around 1840 in Spain and immigrated to the United States where records indicate he was a resident of Pennsylvania. Ortega enlisted and joined the US Navy around 1863 where he was then assigned to serve on the USS Saratoga as a Seaman during the Civil War. On January 13, 1864, the USS Saratoga was commanded to head to Charleston, South Carolina to aid in the Union blockade to prevent goods, supplies and weapons from passing to the Confederate States.
Apparently, Ortega was one of the many in the landing parties from the Saratoga that did several raids in Charleston, resulting in the capture of several prisoners and destroying many sources of Confederate ammunition and supplies as well as salt works and bridges. Ortega was awarded the US Medal of Honor for his actions that day, and he was also promoted to master’s mate in 1864. He then deserted the US Navy around June 1865. From that point on, there is no further information about him, where or when he died, and what he did in his final years. I also wasn’t even able to find one photograph of him.
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Augusto Rodríguez (1841-1880)
Born in 1841 in San Juan, Puerto Rico (then a Spanish colony), Rodríguez immigrated to the United States at a young age where he eventually ended up in New Haven, CT. I wasn’t able to find out much information about his early life, but from what I read, he was one of many Puerto Rican immigrants who ended up in New England in the 19th Century.
Around 1862 during the Civil War, after President Abraham Lincoln called on many Americans to volunteer in the Union Army, Rodríguez was one of the many who took the call and enlisted where he was assigned to the 15th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry under the name “Augustus Rodereques”. When the infantry arrived in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Rodríguez was one of the many soldiers in that infantry that fought on the ground, and ultimately experienced a defeat by the Confederates. As the war went on however, he saw combat in Virginia and North Carolina. Eventually, Rodríguez was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant around March 1864. Towards the end of the Civil War in March 1865 in the Battle of Wyse Fork, Augusto and the 15th Connecticut Regiment made their way to the battlefield near Kinston, North Carolina. Unfortunately, they were surrounded by the Confederates and they ended up being captured. Later that month however, General Robert E. Lee had surrendered and the war ended with a Union victory which saw Augusto and his regiment freed from the hands of the Confederates.
In the years after the Civil War, Rodríguez dedicated the remainder of his life to being a fireman in the town of New Haven, Connecticut where he ultimately died in 1880 alongside other firemen with a grave marker that said “Rodirique”. In 2019, his remains were moved to his hometown of San Juan in Puerto Rico.
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Cipriano Andrade (1840-1911)
Born in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico in 1840, Andrade went on to study engineering at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. From 1858 to 1861, he participated in a course at Southwark Foundry which was located in Philadelphia. Andrade joined the US Navy in 1861 as a Third Assistant Engineer where he served on board several ships such as the USS Lancaster, USS Tuscarora, USS Yorktown and USS Columbia. Around 1862 he was promoted to Second Assistant Engineer and saw service on the USS Pontiac gunboat. Eventually he rose to the rank of First Assistant Engineer in 1865 towards the end of the Civil War. In the years following the Civil War, Andrade continued to serve the US Navy where he was able to rise up the ranks.
In 1881 he became Chief Engineer, followed by Chief Engineer with relative rank of Commander in 1894 and Chief Engineer with relative rank of Captain in 1898. That very same year, Cipriano saw active service in Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War. He also served on the US Navy Engineering Examination Board until around April 1899. That same year, he earned the rank of Captain. He was also a member of the Board of Examiners until January 1900 and served on inspection duty for the Bureau of Steam Engineering from September 1899 to July 1901. He was placed on the retired list as a “Chief Engineer” with the rank of Rear Admiral in July 1903. Andrade was married to Annie A. Berry (married 1870) with whom he had a son. He died in 1911 in Connecticut and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery alongside many other heroes of our nation’s past.
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