Pt. Coupee Militia, 1777
Soldiers of the American Revolution from Louisiana
Soldiers under Galvez, Baton Rouge
The following soldiers were part of the Pointe Coupee Militia, documented in Galvez' Army in 1777. It is interesting to note that these soldiers, many of French birth (or the children of French parentage) were serving in a Spanish army, and are elligble for status as American Revolution Veterans. This is because the Spanish assisted the U.S. in military action at Baton Rouge against the British during the Revolution.
Plaque of Galvez in Natchez
In 1779 Spain entered the Revolutionary War (1775-83) on the side of the Americans, or more accurately, it entered the war against the British.
Spanish Governor Bernaldo de Galvez raised a patchwork army of Creoles, Indians, free African Americans and his own Spanish regulars and marched on and seized British-held forts at Baton Rouge then at Natchez. A British counterattack failed, and in May, 1781 he engaged the British at Mobile, and a year after that at Pensacola, in western Florida, the last British military post on the Gulf. In each case, Galvez was able to force the British from their entrenchments.
These victories diluted British strength in the south when Great Britain needed it most---just as it was bringing the campaign into the southern colonies. For his heroics, Galvez was memorialized in Texas, where the city of Galveston honors him with its name.
The war ended in 1783 with British recognition of American independence at the Treaty of Paris. The western border of the United States was set at the Mississippi, but in a separate peace agreement, the British ceded Western Florida (southern Alabama and Mississippi) and returned Eastern Florida to Spain.
These Colonial Militia groups of Louisiana were the forerunner of today's Louisiana National Guard.
The Pt. Coupee Chapter of the Louisiana Society of the D.A.R. honored these soldiers in ceremonies as part of the nation's Bicentennial on May 16, 1976. A plaque
hangs in the lobby of the Pt. Coupée Courthouse which lists these soldiers. Additional information was added by myself in parentheses. The plaque reads:
Militia at the post of Pointe Coupee under the command of Carlos de Grand Pre
captured English posts on Thompson's Creek and the Amite. Later under Bernardo de Galvez captured Fort Manchac and Fort Richmond 1779
OFFICERS
ALLAIN, Jean Francois, Sr, Captain
ALLAIN, Jean Francois, Jr., lieutenant
BORDELON, Antoine, aid major
GALVEZ and OTHER LOUISIANA PATRIOTS, contains brief history of the American Revoltion in Louisina, and lists about 2,000 Spanish Militia from Louisina, whose descendants are elligble to join SAR or DAR. More information can be obtained from:
Sons of the American Revoultion
733 Chippenham Drive
Baton Rouge, LA
70808
Info: 504-769-5463
The troops and men of Galvez' Army from Louisiana
Galvez Army Rolls listed by the various Militia across Louisiana
Links to other sites about Louisiana in the American Revolution
